Hickory Ridge Mall is a community

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 ...

located in

Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. It was severely damaged by a

tornado A tornado is a violently rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the Earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. It is often referred to as a twister, whirlwind or cyclone, altho ...

on February 5, 2008. The mall was renovated and reopened in 2010.

Key features

The mall featured more than 100 stores at its peak. With of

gross leasable area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

it is considered a community "Towne Center" mall.

Anchors

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 ...

: Opened in 1981, Closed in late 2013- early 2014

Goldsmiths A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold. In German, the Goldsmith family name is written Goldschmidt. Goldsmith may also refer to: Places * Goldsmith, Indiana, United States * Goldsmith, New York, United States, a ha ...

: Opened in 1981, reopened as

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 ...

in 2006, Closed in 2008 due to Macy's choosing not to fix the damage left behind by the tornado. Dillards: Opened in 1986, closed in 2006.

History

It was opened in 1981 with

Goldsmith's Goldsmith's was a department store founded in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1870 by German immigrant brothers Jacob and Isaac Goldsmith. It grew into a chain largely located in the Memphis metropolitan area, until 2005, when the nameplate was eliminated ...

(later

) and

as the

anchor store 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. Wit ...

s. In 1986 it was expanded with

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 ...

MM Cohn The M.M. Cohn Company, more popularly known simply as MM Cohn, was a regional specialty department store chain in Arkansas, based in Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock. Independently operated from its opening until 1989, the chain was purchased by ...

and

Dawahares Dawahares (pronounced DAW-hairs) was an American retail clothing store chain. It was founded by S.F. Dawahare in 1907 in Neon, Kentucky, and remained within the family for four generations. In 1979, the company expanded into the Cincinnati, Ohio ...

also operated as junior anchors. In 1997 the mall was renovated to help the mall compete with the

Wolfchase Galleria Wolfchase Galleria is a regional shopping mall in northeast Memphis, Tennessee, United States. The mall is managed by Simon Property Group. It is located across the street from the Bartlett city limits at the intersection of Germantown Parkway a ...

mall opening that year. By the early 2000s, the mall had begun to lose tenants due to shifting demographics and a number of vacant

big-box store A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The t ...

s in the area. The Dillard's store closed in early 2006.

Tornado

On February 5, 2008, the Hickory Ridge Mall was hit by a

. The Sears store, the Macy's store, and the mall's main entrance were heavily damaged, but despite an initial statement from management that the mall would remain closed "indefinitely" for cleanup, temporary repairs made at record speed allowed Sears to reopen on Sunday, February 10, 2008. Significant repairs and restorations will still be required, however. Several people were injured. A spokesperson for the state's Emergency Management Agency said that one person was killed; however, it was never confirmed, although three people were killed at a warehouse near the mall. Debris from the mall, in the form of insulating foam, was scattered all over the

area, following the storm path northeastward at least to the Wolfchase area. World Overcomers Ministries eventually purchased the mall from its former owners, signaling their intent to reopen Hickory Ridge. Renovation on the mall began in 2008, and the mall reopened on April 3, 2010, with a community celebration. Under the new ownership, the former Macy's was replaced with an

America's Incredible Pizza Company America's Incredible Pizza Company (AIPC) is an American restaurant chain based in Springfield, Missouri. The restaurants are pizza buffets and entertainment centers. The first restaurant opened in Springfield in 2002. The company has 1,200 emp ...

, which closed in 2012. The closure of Sears, the last remaining anchor store, was announced in September 2013.

References

External links

www.hickoryridge.com
(2019 archive) {{Memphis shopping centers Buildings and structures in Memphis, Tennessee Shopping malls in Tennessee Shopping malls established in 1981