Tower Place Mall and the Shoppes at Carew Tower

This is one update I really, REALLY wish wasn’t necessary — but a major, required one.
Since I wrote this review in 2012, this place has taken a turn for the significantly worse. There are no stores left in the central court basically, the only stores now exist in the Arcade area. The food court is now gone save Subway. And the public bathrooms are now no longer public… instead, you MUST make a purchase at Subway. That’s not a good thing — especially when the bathrooms on Fountain Square have to be shut down for maintenance!
So, what only «felt like» a ghost town in February 2012, now IS. Not good.

Not too many shops in here but the observation deck was a real treat and for $ 2/​person it’s priced very friendly. Bring your camera!

Very poor representation of our city. There is nothing in the mall. There used to be a food court but now there are only about two restaurants left.
You can use this crappy mall to reach the TJ Maxx. That is the only redeeming quality.
Someone should buy this and restore it to the former glory. Bring the suburbanites down here for shopping or give an extreme low rate for local businesses and get this place happening in the city center again!

When I was younger, I remember coming to Tower Place Mall and while the place was probably already on the decline, there were at least signs of life here. However, after a recent pit stop on my way to the Carew Tower Observation Deck, I found that anything living in this space, has long since passed away.
As others have stated, there is simply nothing going on here, at all. There are a handful retailers left and a couple of places to eat. Hell, there was even a guy doing coke in the bathroom. It was crazy! Unfortunately, there is absolutely no reason to come here, even if you already are in Carew Tower.
Hopefully something happens with the space in the future, but for now, just keep walking.

If I could give a place 0 stars, it would be Tower Place. It should really just be called The Food Court at Tower Place (and even that is diminishing as Chic-​fil-​a, Auntie Annes and Sbarro have all shut down within the past year). As someone who has grown up in Cincinnati it depresses me how much of a dump this place has become.
With the recent revival of Dowtown and the Central Business District, there is so much untapped potetial in Tower Place. Unfortunately the owners of the «mall» really don’t give a damn about it and that is a shame. No, it will never get the crowds of a Kenwood or Rookwood, but I think with owners who really cared Tower Place could be ripe for a revival. The key would be getting shops and eateries you can’t find at most of the suburban retail outlets.
I am leaving Cincinnati soon, but will still visit. I hope someday during one of my visits, Tower Place can return to some of its past glory, and will no longer be a ghost town that is most famous for being joked about in a Katt Williams special.

In 1991, Tower Place opened as an extension of the classic Carew Tower Arcade. The Carew Tower complex had long hosted two venerable department stores; Mabley & Carew and Pogue’s… by the mid-​1980s the operations had morphed into L.A. Ayres, a branch of the Indianapolis legend. But downtown, once the retail hub of large department stores and many other fine retailers, was on the decline, and the Carew Tower complex, in its 50s, was in decay. In 1988, the Pogue’s/Ayres store closed, and was demolished, along with a nifty yet problematic 20+ story automatic parking structure. This led to the revitalization of the Arcade, and the construction of a new 3-​story mall on the department store site, with several stories of parking atop it.
Tower Place opened as a great success, hosting many well-​known national chain stores, as well as some locally-​owned shops, as well as a skywalk connection to McAlpin’s across 4^th Street. It was a bustling center, especially at lunch time, with the basement food court. Yet, several years later, Tower Place could only delay further inevitable demise of retail downtown. McAlpin’s downtown store closed in the mid-​1990s, before the parent company’s merger with Dillard’s. Thus, by the mid 2000s, Tower Place had lost most of its retail stores, leaving the food court the only area of activity. Nowadays, even the food court is dying — Sbarro and Chick-​fil-​A have pulled out, and after lunch hours, this area is lifeless.
Not the worst place in town, but I see this space being renovated and transformed, with places that orient more towards the street. Downtown malls are a thing of the 90s, and for the most part, got stuck in that decade. Downtown Cincinnati is indeed becoming more alive, but at street level, not with transplanted suburbia.

Egads! This place is dismal! I ventured inside Tower Place Mall since my favorite sushi place, Fusian, is located on the street level of Carew Tower.
Of this 3-​story mall, there are four stores that remain open. Four. The rest have closed up shop as Tower Place has nothing to draw in clientele. Here’s what you’ll find:
— Art gallery
— Formal wear store
— Cincinnati souvenir shop
— Watch kiosk
There’s also a subpar, almost abandoned food court with the standard Chick Fil A, Subway, and random Chinese restaurant. Avoid those. Just go to Fusian on Fourth and Race.
It’s pretty sad to see Tower Place in this vacant state. I remember coming here 15 years ago on a school field trip (and while it was still failing) it had some cool shops like Claire’s, Victoria’s Secret, and some science /​book stores. My parents tell me stories about how Carew Tower used to be the place to shop Downtown back in their heyday. Not the case anymore.
All I can hope for is that my beloved Fusian stays afloat while being a tenant in this building.

I was here for the ALA Fight for Air Climb, and that was the most people I’ve seen in the mall in a long time. There are a few OK restaurants, and a few stores still hanging on, but I don’t think I’d come downtown just to shop at the mall. I guess it’s worth taking the ride up to the top in the elevator (inside the building) and going to the observation deck, but I can’t see doing this more than once or twice.

This place is like a ghost town. Alot of retails closed down and there is not much of a selection.

Oh I realllllllly wish I could give this mall a better review. I really really do. I remember it from back in the early 90’s and it honestly wasn’t even that great back then, but it did have some sort of life in it’s halls. Now years later it’s like the onset of a scary movie. You walk in thinking there will are going to be amazing things awaiting you with it’s grand golden doors and pretty scenery and then you get inside and the doors lock and the lights shut off. you can hear a shuffling of feet, moans and the sound of your eminent death approaching. err. wait. ok, maybe I am exaggerating. but seriously only a little bit.
This place has a beautiful and even grand looking interior so I really thought they would have done something with it by now. This is right near the center of the city and you’d think they would do something with it for our tourism ratings. I’m sorry but a small gift store with post cards and Cincinnati attire just doesn’t cut it. If you’re going to have a mall in the middle of the city, then make it a mall and not some creepy place that makes people want to run out of Cincy. We already get enough bad press as it is. sheesh.
There is still hope for this place, and I think it could be something if it were only given the chance. it doesn’t even need to be an upscale shopping scene, throw an outlet center in there and that’d be good. a grocery store, findlay market’s sister. something. I just hate seeing such an awesome structure go to waste.

The mall is deader than dead, but the gym on the lower level ROCKS. I just wish they didn’t let snot-​nosed kids from the Hilton run rampant in the pool nowadays. :/​Note to all parents: hotel/​gym staff are not your babysitters.

Doctor, we’ve done all that we could, but this mall is dead.
I knew that this mall had been dead for sometime but I decided to walk around and warm myself up from the bitter cold. Inside you are greeted to a double dose of eerie. There was hardly anyone in the mall, it was like the Zombie Apocalypse had happened. Escalators moving up and down without people. An entire food court almost empty. Heck, even the mixer at Auntie Anne’s was operating with no one at the helm. Coupled with this, you are greeted to the hideous décor typical of most retail shopping places built in the 1990s.
There were about 5 stores, in addition to food court options, open. They included a Victoria’s Secret, the Cincinnati Shop (overpriced Cincinnati knick knack crap), and a glut of cell phone stores (where most of the clerks were busy not with customers but talking on phones, I am assuming they were making sure that their product worked). Coupled with this, I was hassled by a mall cop for taking pictures of the sky window.
This zombie mall and all associated with it know how to keep people away. The only thing worth seeing is the beautiful, yet sadly, equally dead galleria in the actual Carew Tower. After my experience here today, I am shocked that they did not film Dawn of the Dead here. So unless you are having cell phone problems or are wanting to film a post apocalyptic thriller, there is no real reason to step into this wasted piece of real estate.

My very first job at 17 was in Tower Place Mall… just after it had opened. I worked in a lovely little gift shop on the skywalk over Race Street… and over the years, working in other places downtown, I’ve visited Tower Place. I’m not much of a «mall» person, really, but for a quick jaunt to the Gap or whatever, it was a great way to use up a lunch hour while working downtown.
My husband, little one and I ventured downtown on Monday to do some holiday stuff (the Duke Energy trains, for one)…and we decided to see what, if anything, was going on at Carew Tower, as they’d always had such lovely holiday decorations. HAD.
The mall itself is, in a word, depressing. Aside from a group of rowdy teenagers, it was an absolute tomb. The TJ Maxx signage makes the place look like a bargain basement. I think Victoria’s Secret is the only store still left from when the mall originally opened, and I can’t imagine it’s that profitable of a location. What must this empty shell of a building convey to visitors in our downtown area? Downtown «seems» alive and interesting if you’re visiting and see people sitting on Fountain Square watching a giant tv, (I suppose), but just wait till you walk through this no man’s land!
On to the Carew Tower gallery and into the Omni. This glorious building, full of marble and art deco opulence – an absolute architectural gem – was desolate. The holiday decorations were miniscule, there was no Santa, and the upper levels were basically reserved for people walking TO or FROM somewhere else.
I realize that change is inevitable, and the last I heard, the owner/​agent of Tower Place Mall was in receivership, but the City of Cincinnati should, instead of worrying about the Gamble House, take over Tower Place and do something with THAT eyesore before they even THINK about The Banks project…

What is with (more than) half empty malls in Cincinnati? I hate to think of visitors to the downtown area going into this mall and seeing all the emptiness. You have to almost seek out the open stores among all the vacant spots. The only ones I saw worthy of going into were the I Love Cincinnati shop (where I was completely ignored) and Victoria’s Secret. I’m not sure if TJMaxx is technically part of the mall, but when I walked in there it was such a cluster you-​know-​what that I immediately walked back out. There’s more food-​related businesses here than retail stores, so if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to downtown restaurants, the food court is good for that. I did at least get good service from the Cajun place. Hopefully things can turn around for this place because I hate to see such a good location and structure go to waste.

There are hardly any shops in this mall and the hours are horrible. I got horrible service from the food court. Checked out the TJ Maxx and didn’t like what’s inside. Went to the Radio Shack and they didn’t have much either.

This mall (and I use that term very loosely) is so ghetto! 75% of the stores have closed shop and I can’t say I blame them. The clientele in this mall includes vagrants and wanna be thugs with their ill fitting pants bout to fall to the ground. I went to the TJ Maxx they have there and the staff there were so rude. I purchased a suitcase because my other one tore when I got here. so I put the suitcase up on the sales counter. Since the suitcase was so bulky, I directed the pregnant salesperson to the pricetag so she can scan it. Instead of a thank you, I get ‘Mam, I know! — I see it”. OOKK. Then a coworker of hers asks her if she wanted to sit in a chair while she rang us up… she says very loudly ‘do I look handicapped?’. Um, politically incorrect lady — and no, you don’t look handicapped. Because that would be an insult to all legitimately handicapped people. Cincinnati sucks. But to it’s credit, the carew tower does have a nice art deco feel to it. Too bad they can’t improve it with better stores.

The set up is cool: a mall inside Cincinnati’s tallest building that spans three stories. Unfortunately there isn’t much there that delivers beyond the concept. There are a few cool stores but the selection is really meager. It kind of feels like downtown Cincinnati encapsulated into a single building.
What is there is okay, as has been mentioned Brentano’s is a decent book store but there isn’t much selection. Other stores seem out of place and not very fitting for a downtown setting. You can get to the Tower Place Mall through skywalk and that’s always nice.
In the end I would just head to the observation deck and skip the mall.

This review is covering the Tower Place Mall and the Shoppes at Carew Tower because, frankly, I had trouble telling if I was still in the Tower Place Mall or if I was just in the Carew Tower stores when I was out and about the other day. The Tower Place Mall, itself, is a three-​level shopping mall with some decent stores, but the overall shopping center is much better when you add the Carew Tower shops to the equation. Between the two there are more than 60 stores and restaurants, plus there is a skywalk system that can take you to the Fountain Square-​area Saks Fifth Avenue, Macy’s Tiffany & Company, Brooks Brothers, and the nice Palomino restaurant.
The Tower Mall went up about 17 years ago and its main goal was to provide great downtown shopping by attracting more Cincinnatians and visitors to the new and somewhat upscale shopping complex. The Tower Place Mall is a nice place and with the adjoining Shoppes at Carew Tower it offers some great shopping in a great city. Unfortunately, it still hasn’t caught on and the City of Cincinnati is still struggling with trying to attract people (especially Cincinnati residents) downtown. As a result, the Tower Place Mall has struggled and several businesses have closed in recent years.
The Tower Mall and Carew Tower offer many great shops including the well-​known Victoria’s Secret, Foot Locker, Brentano’s (Border’s), FYE, and even T.J. Maxx, while they – the Shoppes at Carew Tower especially – offer a variety of local flavor such as Hunt Club Clothiers, I Love Cincinnati Shoppe, Appointments, the 10 Minute Back Rub Store, the Gym at Carew Tower, and two jewelers, among other stores. Morton’s The Steakhouse, Churchill’s Tea Room and Gift Shop, Margaritas, and the Havana Martini Club are restaurants also part of the complex.
On the whole, the downtown shopping complex is a great place to shop, but sadly its location has hurt it from ever breaking out and hitting it big among Cincinnatians. There are plenty of nice and unique stores downtown in the Tower Place/​Carew Tower shopping complex, but with high gas prices the not so busy downtown and its stores may continue to stuffer (although the Regional Tourism Network is trying to use this to attract the locals downtown since travel costs are so high right now).

Tower Place Mall is a decent mall located in Downtown Cincinnati. It is located conveniently along the Cincinnati Skywalk, making it easy to get to from many of the city’s hotels. There are no department stores inside, as Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s are both across the street and independent. You can use the Skywalk to get to Saks, not so sure about Macy’s. The selection of stores is limited, but there are a few good ones. Brentano’s is a subsidiary of Borders and has a good, but limited selection of books. There is also a couple of stores catering to Cincinnati sports fans, of which, I’m not one, being a Cleveland sports fan. There is a food court there as well as some sit down restaurants. Overall, Tower Place Mall is a decent three story mall in Downtown Cincinnati.