From Saturday Trips to a Billion-Dollar Lesson
Every Black family remembers the mall. Saturday afternoons in the food court. Hair salons tucked near anchor stores. Sneaker drops that felt like holidays. The mall wasn’t just retail — it was cultural currency. And yet, while we created the vibe, we rarely controlled the deed. That’s why what just happened in Longview, Texas should stop us in our tracks: while Macy’s and JCPenney are running from malls, Dillard’s just bought one.

Words of Power
“Ownership isn’t nostalgia — it’s leverage. Renters hope. Owners dictate.”

The Context — A Move Against the Grain
Department stores have spent decades shrinking, selling, or straight-up abandoning real estate. But Dillard’s saw something different. For $34 million, they acquired Longview Mall — not just to secure their store, but to keep “bad actors” from letting the property rot. Where most see liabilities, Dillard’s saw leverage. That’s not retail strategy. That’s real estate dominance.

The Ownership Lesson — Renters Lose, Owners Dictate
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: most Black businesses are still tenants. We build traffic, pay rent, and pray the landlord fixes the lights. Meanwhile, Dillard’s is securing the land beneath their feet. That’s the game. Ownership isn’t just security — it’s bargaining power. It’s being able to say: “this space lives or dies on my terms.” Until we pivot from rent checks to title deeds, we’ll always be one notice away from eviction, one “redevelopment plan” away from displacement.

The Power of Property

• Dillard’s owns most of its 272 stores.

• The chain sits on $1 billion in cash reserves.

• Contrast: Many Black-owned firms operate entirely as leaseholders with no equity stake.

The Warning — We’ve Seen This Movie Before
The CFO of Dillard’s admitted the real threat: mall vultures who buy cheap, collect rent, skip bills, and watch the property decay. Sound familiar? That’s been the playbook in Black neighborhoods for generations. Absentee landlords squeeze profit while leaving our blocks to crumble. If we don’t move, history repeats — but this time on commercial ground that could’ve been ours.

The Vision — Black Malls, Black Futures
Here’s where it flips. Imagine if just one mall in Atlanta, Chicago, or Houston were bought by a Black investment group. Picture the inside rebuilt not as ghost-town retail, but as a mixed-use cultural hub:

• A business incubator for first-generation Black entrepreneurs.

• A co-working space for tech founders who can’t afford Midtown rent.

• A cultural hall with a stage for HBCU bands, poets, and jazz nights.

• Health clinics, gyms, even satellite campuses serving the community.

The bones are already there. The question is who has the vision — and the guts — to buy the skeletons before Wall Street strips them for parts.

The Challenge to Us
“If Dillard’s can buy a mall to protect a store, why can’t we buy one to protect a community?”

The Call to Action — Time to Move Like Dillard’s
Let’s be clear: Dillard’s didn’t buy a mall because they love nostalgia. They bought it to protect their cash flow, their customers, and their future. That’s exactly the lens Black capital needs right now. Whether through pooled investment funds, church consortia, HBCU endowments, or emerging Black PE-lite strategies, we have to start moving from consumers to controllers. Because every property sold to neglectful outsiders is another lost fortress of culture and commerce.