Why not let @DKPuncherello do what he wants with the mall.
Every mall is empty when I run through them especially any large mall. That would include almost any of the new ones. I ran into the Sunset Forge hoping to find a large number of forged items and wound up just going to my go to person for forged items.
DK Mall when I started managing it was losing shops all the time and that was simply because people were leaving and their Gleamclub had expired. Sadly, that was the case with every mall. I then decided that building a new central hub would be best and that was when I asked for help.
I asked for help with the new hub because I do not have the amount of plots DK has by a long shot and I also did not have the building skills as some of the great builders that play the game.
Little did I know exactly what I was in for when I first started managing the mall. There was quite a bit of griefing going on and a very toxic neighborhood fight going on with an area connected to the mall and a few people there. Part of that issue has been resolved “I hope” and maybe things on Tana can change.
I took it over to preserve it because the mall was and is very iconic. It’s easy to make a mall and pretty easy to make one continue, but if it isn’t on a sovereign (especially the one the size DK Mall is) eventually the mall will become spotty with holes because people come along and just claim areas and do nothing with them.
I walked through the mall the other night after I saw someone complain of holes in the mall. The old area of the mall is full of empty shops and areas where there are no shops, but those areas with no shops have been claimed by someone and they just let it sit there. It is quite sad really. I put glass around all the areas that had holes in the mall to prevent someone from falling.
As to the new area, TMMK did an awesome build I actually love it and our plan for the new area of the mall was working out well. It was growing quite well, but I honestly feel malls are a fading part of the game currently because there are just not enough players supporting it. Walk through ANY mall they are just empty. They may not be totally empty, but to say they are active or full would be wrong. The new Ultima Hub I think looks awesome and everyone said it was so busy and active, I went there, and I didn’t see a single person and that was even with visiting it 3 separate times. Nothing against the Hub or the people that made it or manage it, it’s just the state of the game.
That said, I always considered making a new “central” mall on a sovereign that the community came together to build that everyone just agreed that would be the new “main” mall in Boundless. Given our current lack of players it is either one central community mall, or just a bunch of scattered malls that are empty.
All that said, scanning BUTT for a request basket has always been more profitable than having an actual shop stand in shop where you have to compete with everyone else and their prices.
Back to the OP … reach out to me @DKPuncherello lets talk a bit