Great Northern Mall, is a single-level enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

North Olmsted, Ohio North Olmsted is a city in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, United States. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 32,442. North Olmsted is a west side suburb of Cleveland, Ohio, and is the 8th most populated city within Cuyahoga County. History ...

, a suburb of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. Its

anchor stores In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. W ...

are Dick's,

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

, J. C. Penney, and

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 ...

History

Originally, a small outdoor shopping center was opened by Saul Biskind in 1958 on what was a field of strawberries. The plaza contained a

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 ...

(west end),

F. W. Woolworth Company The F. W. Woolworth Company (often referred to as Woolworth's or simply Woolworth) was a retail company and one of the pioneers of the five-and-dime store. It was among the most successful American and international five-and-dime businesses, se ...

(center west), and a Pick-N-Pay grocery store (east end), along with a small-scale J. C. Penney and other stores. A freestanding May Company Cleveland store was built to the east of the original plaza in 1965. The enclosed mall was opened in 1976 and attached to the east end of the existing May Company building. It featured new, larger J. C. Penney and Sears stores. In 1980, Hexalon Real Estate—an affiliate of what is now

Unibail-Rodamco Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE (previously Unibail-Rodamco SE) is a French commercial real estate company headquartered in Paris, France. Its history originates with the formation of two separate shopping centre operators, Unibail (founded in Fran ...

—became an investor in the mall. The 1980s saw the opening of the Plaza South attached to the original strip (now renamed the Plaza) and the 1987 addition of the award-winning South Court to the mall. Additionally, 2 mid-level hotels and several office facilities, such as Corporate Center and Technology Park, were built proximal to the retail facilities. These served to feed customers into the Mall and Plazas, as did the strategic location near Lorain Road, Brookpark Road, Great Northern Boulevard, and Interstate 480. In 1991, Hexalon bought out the remaining Biskind stake in the mall and undertook a significant upgrade and remodel in 1992. It hired The Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation as its management company until 2000, when Rodamco's Urban Shopping Centers assumed management. The Biskind family, which had retained the Plazas, eventually sold them to

DDR Corp. SITE Centers Corp. (formerly DDR Corp. and Developers Diversified Realty, Inc.) is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. Founded in 1965 by Bert Wolstein, the company is headquartered in Beachwood, Ohio ...

in 1997. May Company Cleveland was renamed

Kaufmann's Kaufmann's was a department store that originated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Summary The store was owned in the early 20th century by Edgar J. Kaufmann, patron of the famous Fallingwater house. In the post-war years, the store became a regi ...

in 1993, and became

in 2006.

The Westfield Group Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; ...

acquired the shopping center in early 2002, and renamed it "Westfield Shoppingtown Great Northern."

was added on March 19, 2003, expanding the South Court into a full-fledged new wing. Westfield dropped "Shoppingtown" from the mall's name in June 2005, around the time that a newly built

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores an ...

(originally planned to be

Galyan's Galyan's Trading Company was an American sporting goods chain. It was founded in Plainfield, Indiana. The store began in 1946 as a grocery store, founded by Albert and Naomi Galyan. By the 1960s, the Galyans began selling sporting goods instead. ...

) opened. The original food court, which had been located between Sears and J. C. Penney, was moved adjacent to Dick's in 2011. In March 2013, construction began at site of the original food court for a 10-screen

Regal Entertainment Group 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 ...

movie theater, three new restaurants, and extra renovations; this addition was completed by December of that year. The mall was sold to Starwood Retail Partners, a subsidiary of

Starwood Capital Group Starwood Capital Group is an investment firm headquartered in Miami Beach, Florida. It is managed by Barry Sternlicht. It was co-founded by Sternlicht and Robert Faith in 1991. In 1993, Faith left Starwood to found Greystar Real Estate Partners ...

, in the midst of construction. On July 1, 2020, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 28 stores nationwide. The store closed August 21, 2020. This was the last Sears store in Ohio, besides a Sears Hometown Store in Norwalk, which is closing in 2023 as part of a plan to close all Sears Hometown stores. The mall became managed by Pacific Retail Capital Partners in 2020. On December 10, 2022, Regal Cinemas announced plans to close along with 23 theaters in the United States. The theater closed down on January 26, 2023.

References

External links

Official Great Northern Mall website
{{Shopping malls in Ohio Shopping malls in Cuyahoga County, Ohio Shopping malls established in 1976 1976 establishments in Ohio Pacific Retail Capital Partners