Eastfield Mall
 | |
| Location | Springfield, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 1967 |
| Owner | Mountain Development Corp. |
| No. of stores and services | 75 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 3 (2 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 825,000 square feet (76,645.0 m2) |
| No. of floors | 1 (2 in Sears, former Macy's, former JCPenney) |
The Eastfield Mall is a shopping mall in Springfield, Massachusetts, and is owned by Mountain Development Corporation. Built in late 1967 by the Rouse Company, it includes one anchor store: Sears. The former anchors, JCPenney and Macy's, closed in 2011 and 2016, respectively. The mall is managed by Mountain Development.
History
Eastfield Mall opened in 1967 with branches of two local department stores: Forbes & Wallace and Steigers.[1][2] The third anchor store, Sears remains to this day. Forbes closed in 1975 leaving the mall store vacant. It was sold (the anchor stores are wholly owned by their tenant or proxies) and JCPenney moved in. In 1994, Filene's, whose parent company May Department Stores had bought Steigers, moved into their old space.[1] This store became Macy's in 2006 after May was purchased by Federated Department Stores (Macy's parent company at the time).
The addition of a Steve & Barry's clothing store in 2006 put the mall at full occupancy for the first time since 1978. The store displaced nine smaller retail outlets, of which only two relocated within the mall.[3] This store closed in 2008 following the chain's bankruptcy proceedings.[4] In 2009, Hannoush Jewelers opened a showroom in the space vacated by Steve & Barry's.[5] In 2004, the mall implemented a teen escort policy, stating that any customer under the age of 15 must be with an escort after 5:00 PM.[6][7] The J. C. Penney store was later downgraded to an outlet store, and closed in 2012 when J. C. Penney eliminated its outlet store division.[8]
Macy's announced that it would be closing the Eastfield Mall location in April 2016, which left Sears as the only anchor store.
References
- ^ a b "Steiger's may sell stores, reports say Scenario has May Co. buying seven Steiger's may sell stores, reports say". Hartford Courant. 6 January 1994. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- ^ "Albert Steiger To Build Store At Eastfield Mall". Hartfourd Courant. 29 December 1965. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- ^ Blomberg, Marcia (25 April 2006). "Steve & Barry's fills out mall". MassLive.com. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- ^ "Business in brief: 5 of 8 Steve & Barry's stores in Mass. to close". Boston Globe. 3 September 2008. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- ^ Kinney, Jim (10 July 2009). "Hannoush Jewelers to move headquarters to Eastfield Mall in Springfield". Masslive.com. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- ^ "Springfield mall implements its own teen escort policy". The Providence-Journal. 3 August 2005. Retrieved 31 December 2010.
- ^ Miller, Sara B. (11 August 2005). "At shopping malls, teens' hanging out is wearing thin". USA Today. Retrieved 31 December 2010. .
- ^ http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2011/01/jc_penney_will_close_its_sprin.html