Behind the scenes: What it takes to keep the Providence Place Mall working 24 hours a day, everyday

PROVIDENCE – Elizabeth Rudd was among the first people to start their work day at Providence Place mall on a recent Wednesday.

Rudd is the event sales manager at Level 99, a game-based entertainment venue on the downtown mall's top level, which, ironically, is only Level 3.

She was at work long before the mall's official opening time of 11 a.m.

“The first people in this building every morning are our venue techs. They turn everything on. They start making sure every challenge room is functioning correctly,” said Rudd. “All the inner workings of Level 99 in the morning is fixing the things that broke from the night before.”

Although Providence Place technically never closes – the building has to remain open 24/7 to allow access to the public parking garage – it does go to sleep every night and wake up the next morning.

Activity goes on throughout the million-plus-square-foot shopping center:

• The maintenance staff drives a Zamboni-like carpet-cleaning machine around the first-floor concourse. (An AI-generated report on BuzzFeed last year claimed that Providence Place, with 240,000 square yards of carpet, is the second-largest carpeted mall in the world. Current mall management has been unable to verify this report.)
• The mall loading docks in the basement level hum to life. Virtually everything – except customers – enters the shopping center through the docks – merchandise, food, store equipment and building supplies. From there, it's transported up into the mall by freight elevators that supply a network of corridors not open to the public that connect to the rear entrances of every store and restaurant. And everything not carried by customers also goes out this way: trash goes into dumpsters in the loading dock.
• Mall general manager John Zilliken takes advantage of mornings to walk through the property, taking note of things that need to be fixed or updated, often emailing himself half a dozen or more reminders. “It’s truly the only quiet time of the day, so you can think about everything,” he said.

A little before 9 a.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 14, workers switch on the more than a dozen escalators that serve the mall's three main shopping levels, plus three parking levels below those.

How many people work at Providence Place mall?

“We’re an important part of the community," said Zilliken. "We provide 2,600 direct jobs in the center. The tax revenue we generate is not insubstantial. We are essentially 16 acres in the middle of downtown Providence in the business district. That can be quite the responsibility sometimes.”

Zilliken, whose title is senior general manager, works for mall owner Brookfield Properties and leads a staff of four, including himself, a senior operations manager, an office manager and a common area coordinator. Many of the people who work "for the mall" are technically employed by contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and HVAC vendors. In all, Zilliken manages some 125 people, including maintenance and housekeeping staff, security and parking workers.

Most mall workers don't work for the mall itself, but for one of the tenant businesses there.

“In a nutshell, we are a landlord and what we do is rent space to people to do their business," he said.

What does the mall do when a store becomes vacant?

“Last few years for Providence Place, we’ve probably had 10% to 15% turnover in tenants," said Zilliken. "Doesn’t mean that we’re vacant. It just means a tenant has closed and we go and backfill it with another tenant.”

In the meantime, the mall puts up a barricade that hides the empty storefront and protects it when it becomes a construction zone for a new tenant.

“If we have it leased already, we will put the tenant’s name and advertising on here," he said. For other spaces, “We got a little creative and, instead of having a blank barricade, we have these cute little sayings about shopping and retail.”

Sayings like “Cinderella is proof that a new pair of shoes can change your life” and “I could give up shopping but I’m not a quitter.”

There are two spaces that have been vacant a very long time. What's up with them?

You probably aren't even aware these exist. One is behind the wall where the concourse leading from the Omni Providence Hotel curves toward the mall entrance, where Bed, Bath & Beyond had a store. The other can be seen from outside the mall on Francis Street if you look through the row of windows above the Cheesecake Factory.

Zilliken said that, as far as he knows – he's only worked at the mall for three years – the spaces have never had stores, restaurants or other types of retailers in them. They both would take some construction work before they could be used, but he and the mall's management team are looking at them as expansion possibilities.

But what about all those other windows?

In addition to those along the space above the Cheesecake Factory, a number of windows face Francis Street on upper levels of the mall, but these are not "dead space." They're part of the network of hallways that give access to the back doors of stores, where merchandise can be brought in and trash can be carried out without going through public areas of the mall.

The best view of Providence you'll probably never see

Expansive views of Providence, including the State House and the downtown skyline, are off-limits to the general public but are visible from the sprawling roof of Providence Place. But this outdoor space is not just for sightseeing and keeping the rain out.

The roof is where some two dozen air-conditioning units, each weighing several tons, do their work keeping the mall cool during the summer.

Is there a 'jail' in Providence Place mall?

"Mall Jail" exists in urban legend. It even has a Reddit thread devoted to it. But is it a reality at Providence Place?

"No," said Zilliken, “it’s not a jail, but there is a room, a holding room where we put people that are not behaving themselves.”

More: Providence Place mall turns 25 this year. Shopper No. 1 still remembers her strategy.

Providence Place keeps security operations hush-hush

Providence Place has a well-marked security office on one of the lower levels at the south end of the mall. When the mall lights are dimmed at night, you can even make out the glow of what are presumably surveillance video monitors inside, but mall management keeps its security operation a fairly closely guarded secret.

Zilliken said security is headed by a 25-year veteran of the Providence Police Department.

“We have a fully-staffed security company that manages the security operations for the center," he said. "The entire center’s covered with CCTV.”

But other than seeing yellow-shirted security officers walking through the mall or patrolling the garage, the public won't be given much information.

Providence Place generates its own electricity

Deep on its lower levels, the mall has its own electric power station: three 2.2-megawatt Waukesha 12-cylinder gas-powered engines, which run at 900 rpm, generating electricity.

While the generators will automatically kick on in the event of a power failure to supply emergency backup, they run far more often than that.

"It's to reduce the load of the mall, so the grid doesn't have to supply the mall as much power," said Angelo Antignano, who works for Waukesha-Pearce Industries, the contractor who operates the generators for the mall.

Part of Providence Place mall used to be a river

When the mall was built, spanning the Woonasquatucket River and Amtrak's Northeast Corridor mainline railroad tracks, the railroad and the river channel had to be adjusted so that everything would fit. That left part of the river channel high and dry and inside the basement of the mall, as Zilliken explained during a tour of the property.

“This is where the river was," he said, in a dirt-floored area containing tanks that process grease that drains from restaurants on the Francis Street side of the mall. "So you’re standing on the river bed.”

The biggest challenge in running a mall: Restrooms

Zilliken said that operating restrooms in a building open to the public, especially in an urban environment, presents a challenge for mall owners, who are faced with the ills of society, including people with mental health issues, those experiencing homelessness and people with addiction problems. People may monopolize restroom stalls or cause damage or sanitary issues.

As a result, malls tend to place their restrooms away from entrances. The same is true for Providence Place, whose facilities nearest to the street require riding at least two escalators plus walking some distance to a location not immediately visible from the top of the escalators.

When Providence Place mall goes to sleep

Again, the mall is technically open around the clock for the benefit of access to the garage, but Providence Place does have official hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. Outside of those hours, most of the stores close, though some restaurants and entertainment venues stay open later, and anchor stores can set their own hours. Restrooms close shortly after the official closing time.

The last customers leave places like Dave & Buster's or Showcase Cinemas at midnight, making their way through the darkened, hushed shopping center and into the city night.

And the mall is at rest again, until the process is repeated the next day.

Providence Place mall by the numbers

Age : 25 years

Visitors, last 12 months : More than 10 million

Peak average visitors : Saturdays, more than 54,000 (nearly 70,000 during holiday season)

Garage traffic, 2023 : 2 million vehicles

Free parking, for less than a two-hour stay : 1,191,423 vehicles

Electricity usage, 2023 : 23,605,686 kilowatt-hours

Toilet paper purchased, yearly : 22,000 rolls

Tax revenue generated : $40 million, including sales, real estate, employee state and federal income, other taxes

Land area : 15.9 acres

Buildings : 2, separated by the Woonasquatucket River and Amtrak Northeast Corridor mainline, connected by four-level "Wintergarden" sky bridge

Highest point : 14 stories

Floors : 12, 9 of which are public

Anchors : 3 (Macy's, Boscov's, Showcase Cinemas)

Public entrances, excluding anchors : 21

Public entrance doors : More than 200

Elevators : 26, including nine for freight

Escalators : 22

Stairwells : 26, including garage

Garage entrances : 2, with seven gates total

Garage exits : 3, with 11 gates total

Floor area, mall building : 1.2 million square feet

Floor area, parking garage : 1.5 million square feet

Floor area, stores, excluding anchors : 686,000 square feet

Floor area, anchors : 479,470 square feet

Floor area, food court : 12,000 square feet

Floor area, public common area : 185,000 square feet

Retail outlets : 158, including 132 stores, 14 standard kiosks and 12 smaller RMU (retail merchandising unit) kiosks

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Behind the scenes: What it takes to keep the Providence Place Mall working 24 hours a day, everyday