Stonebridge Shopping Center, formerly Cloverleaf Mall, is a shopping mall located in

Chesterfield County, Virginia Chesterfield County is located just south of Richmond in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north and the Appomattox River to the south. Its county seat is Chesterfield Court H ...

on U.S. Route 60 just west of State Route 150. The mall opened in 1972 and featured two anchor stores, J. C. Penney, and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

. A third anchor,

Thalhimers Thalhimers was a department store in the Southern United States. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the venerable chain at its peak operated dozens of stores in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and one store in Memphis, Tennessee. Thalhimer's ...

, opened a year later. However, the surrounding neighborhoods began to undergo a socioeconomic crisis and developments were occurring away from the mall. This led to a decline, especially in the 1990s and 2000s when businesses left for nearby Chesterfield Towne Center. The mall was eventually closed in 2008 and was ultimately demolished in 2011 to make way for a mixed-use development featuring a Kroger Marketplace.

History

The mall opened in 1972 and featured two anchors: J. C. Penney and

was added a year later as a third anchor. There was also a two-screen movie theater. Cloverleaf was very successful through the 1970s and 1980s. Major renovations were done to the mall in the 1980s. Thalhimers added a second floor to the anchor and the two-screen theater was moved to a standalone building behind the mall. The space vacated by the original theater was replaced by a food court.

Decline

Even though the mall was thriving through 1970s - 1980s, it saw a decline in the 1990s, when customers began staying away from the mall as they started to fear some of the youth there. Kids were seen with "baggy pants, and chains hanging off their belts." In 1996, two clerks from a dollar store inside the mall were found stabbed to death. As of 2019, the murders still remain unsolved. Not only that, but nearby Chesterfield Towne Center just underwent a major renovation, and development was expanding west, away from Cloverleaf. These factors caused people to stray away from Cloverleaf Mall, and instead go shopping at Chesterfield Towne Center, which was a safer, newer, and bigger mall just five miles west of Cloverleaf. In 2000, JCPenney closed their Cloverleaf store and moved to Chesterfield Towne Center, followed in 2003 by Sears and

Hecht's Hecht's, also known as Hecht Brothers, Hecht Bros. and the Hecht Company, was a large chain of department stores that operated mainly in the mid-Atlantic and southern region of the United States. The firm originated in Baltimore, Maryland. By 20 ...

, which replaced Thalhimers. The movie theater, owned by

Regal Cinemas Regal Cinemas (also Regal Entertainment Group) is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,200 screens i ...

at the time, was also closed down in 2001.

Redevelopment

In 2005, a local church wanted to buy the mall to turn it into a multi-purpose facility, with one of the former anchors becoming a sanctuary with about 5,000 seats. However, Chesterfield County didn't approve the church's plans, and purchased the mall instead. Cloverleaf Mall permanently closed in 2008. The mall, along with all outparcels (except for a Firestone auto care center and a now closed Bank of America branch) were demolished in 2011 to make way for Stonebridge, a mixed-use development featuring the first Virginian Kroger Marketplace along with many other commercial tenants, and apartments.

References

{{Coord, 37, 29, 58, N, 77, 31, 38, W, region:US-VA, display=title Buildings and structures completed in 1972 Shopping malls in Virginia Chesterfield County, Virginia