The Eastfield Mall is a shopping mall in Springfield, Massachusetts, which is owned by Mountain Development Corporation, and was built in late 1967 by the Rouse Company. The three anchors,

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, 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 ...

closed in 2011, 2016, and 2018, respectively. The movie theater, Cinemark closed in 2020. The mall is managed by Mountain Development.

History

Eastfield Mall opened in 1967 with three anchors, two of which were local department stores: Forbes & Wallace and Steiger's. The third anchor store,

, also opened with the mall. Forbes & Wallace closed in 1975 leaving the space vacant, it was eventually sold to

, which moved into the former space. In 1994,

Filene's Filene's (formally William Filene & Sons Co.) was an American department store chain; it was founded by William Filene in 1881. The success of the original full-line store in Boston, Massachusetts, was supplemented by the foundation of its off-p ...

, whose parent company

May Department Stores The May Department Stores Company was an American department store holding company, formerly headquartered in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. It was founded in Leadville, Colorado, by David May in 1877, moving to St. Louis in 1905. After many c ...

had bought Steiger's moved into their old space. This store became

in 2006 after

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

was purchased by

Federated Department Stores Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito ...

(Macy's parent company at the time). The 16 screen movie theater was added in 2000 and was initially a Showcase Cinemas. The theater later became owned by Cinemark. 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. This store closed in 2008 following the chain's bankruptcy proceedings. In 2009, Hannoush Jewelers opened a showroom in the space vacated by Steve & Barry's. 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. The JCPenney store was later downgraded to an

outlet store An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowi ...

, and closed in 2011 when JCPenney eliminated its outlet store division. On January 6, 2016, Macy's announced that it would be closing the Eastfield Mall location as part of a plan to close 36 stores nationwide. The store closed in April 2016. On May 31, 2018, Sears announced that its store would also be closing on September 2, 2018 as part of a plan to close 78 stores nationwide which left the mall with no store anchors. In late June 2020, Cinemark closed permanently.

References

External links

Official websiteParent Company
{{Shopping malls in Massachusetts Shopping malls in Massachusetts Economy of Springfield, Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Springfield, Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Springfield, Massachusetts Shopping malls established in 1967