Eastland Mall (Columbus, Ohio)

Eastland Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Columbus, Ohio. The mall opened in 1968. There are 4 vacant anchor stores that were once Lazarus, JCPenney, Sears, and Macy's. The mall is managed by Ownership, which is “Eastland Mall Holdings, LLC”. Despite having no anchor stores, the mall's interior is still thriving with many smaller businesses and its food court, unusual for a store lacking anchors and thus having enough tenants to keep it from being a dead mall.

Eastland Mall
LocationColumbus, Ohio
Coordinates39°55′06″N 82°53′03″W
Address2740 Eastland Mall Suite B
Opening date1968
DeveloperRichard E. Jacobs
No. of stores and services55
No. of anchor tenants4 (0 open, 4 vacant)[1]
Total retail floor area999,458 square feet (92,852.7 m2)[1]
No. of floors1 (2 in anchors)
Public transit access 5, 23, 24
Websiteeastlandmall614.com

History

The mall was built in 1968 by Richard E. Jacobs group, who also developed Columbus's Northland and Westland Malls.[2] It was the first enclosed shopping mall in Columbus.[1] As with the other two "directional" Jacobs malls in Columbus, Eastland's original anchors included J. C. Penney, Sears, and Lazarus.[3]

Although Eastland itself is a single-story mall, all three of its original anchor stores were constructed with two stories of retail space. The Sears store closed off its upper level at some point during the 1980s.

The mall remained under Jacobs' ownership until Glimcher Realty Trust bought it in December 2003. The property became Glimcher's second mall in Columbus, following Polaris Fashion Place. Among Glimcher's first moves with the property was to add a fourth anchor, Kaufmann's. This Kaufmann's was the first in a "lifestyle" prototype featuring a smaller floor plan with wider aisles.[4] The same year, the Lazarus store became Lazarus-Macy's.[5] Macy's moved from the former Lazarus to the former Kaufmann's in 2006 when the Macy's chain purchased Kaufmann's then-parent company.[6] Three years later, Glimcher proposed to demolish the former Lazarus-Macy's building for a new J. C. Penney, while dividing Penney's existing store among new tenants.[7] However, as of 2013 the former Lazarus-Macy's building remains both standing and vacant. J. C. Penney announced the closure of its existing store in early 2015.[8]

With the closure and subsequent demolition of Northland in 2002, Eastland is the oldest operating shopping mall in Central Ohio.

Glimcher defaulted on the mall's mortgage loan in 2012 and turned the property over via a deed in lieu of foreclosure to the lender, a CMBS trust that was serviced by LNR Property, in August 2014.[9][10]

In March 2015, the mall was reportedly sold for $9.25 million.[11]

On January 4, 2017, Macy's announced that its Eastland Mall store will close.[12] The store closed in March 2017, leaving Sears as Eastland's only remaining anchor.

On June 6, 2017, Sears announced that its Eastland Mall store would close by early September,[13] leaving the mall entirely without anchor stores.

References
  1. "Mall profile" (PDF). Glimcher Realty Trust. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  2. Showalter, Kathy (3 March 2003). "New owners poised to revive Westland". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  3. Shopping Centers and Malls. Retail Reporting Corporation. 1 September 1992. p. 102.
  4. Goins, Tony (16 December 2003). "Glimcher to buy Eastland Mall, add new-style Kaufmann's". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  5. Goins, Tony (22 May 2003). "Lazarus to add Macy's name". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  6. "Federated selling overlapping stores in three states". Columbus Business First. 2 May 2006. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  7. Pramik, Mike (27 July 2007). "Eastland building anew for anchor". The Columbus Dispatch. Archived from the original on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
  8. http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/news/business/jc-penney-closing-two-area-stores/njhq8/
  9. "Glimcher Giving Up on Eastland Mall; Plans Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure". Commercial Real Estate Direct. 2014-07-28.
  10. Wartenberg, Steve (2014-08-06). "Glimcher walks away from Eastland; mortgage servicer takes over mall". Archived from the original on 2015-04-20.
  11. "Eastland Mall Seen Selling for $9.25 million; CMBS Loan to be Hit Hard". Commercial Real Estate Direct. 2015-03-27.
  12. http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories/business/2017/01/04/macys-to-close-eastland-mall-one-store-at-tuttle.html
  13. http://www.dispatch.com/news/20170607/sears-to-close-stores-at-eastland-westland
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