Mall St. Matthews, formerly known as The Mall, is a
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 near
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...
at 5000 Shelbyville Road (
US 60
U.S. Route 60 is a major east–west United States highway, traveling from southwestern Arizona to the Atlantic Ocean coast in Virginia.
The highway's eastern terminus is in Virginia Beach, Virginia, where it is known as Pacific Avenue, in the ...
) in the eastern suburb of
St. Matthews.
History
![JCPenney - Mall St Matthews Louisville, KY (26131600443)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/JCPenney_-_Mall_St_Matthews_Louisville%2C_KY_%2826131600443%29.jpg)
Originally named simply "The Mall", the facility was the first enclosed suburban shopping mall in the state of
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
.
It was developed by the Rouse Company and opened on March 21, 1962.
Located next to the
Watterson Expressway, the mall had
A & P
The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company, better known as A&P, was an American chain of grocery stores that operated from 1859 to 2015. From 1915 through 1975, A&P was the largest grocery retailer in the United States (and, until 1965, the la ...
,
Kaufman-Straus
Kaufman-Straus was a local department store that operated in Louisville, Kentucky, from 1879 to 1969. In 1879, local retail clerk Henry Kaufman opened the first store on Jefferson between 7th and 8th. Four years later, Benjamin Straus entered into ...
, and
Rose's as its
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. The
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 ...
anchor store was added in a later mall expansion in the 1960s. The mall's features included a children's play area (including some turtle characters to climb on) near Rose's (which is now a food court), an oversize chess set near Kaufman-Straus, and numerous fountains. The name of the mall was changed to The Mall in St. Matthews as other malls were built, but the mall gradually declined with stores moving to newer malls. In the late 1980s, the mall name was simplified to Mall St. Matthews and remodeled to include a food court in the early 1990s,
The Limited
The Limited was an American clothing retailer that operated retail stores between the early 1960s and the late 2010s. After 2007, it became a brand, originally owned by the private equity firm Sun Capital Partners, now owned by another private equ ...
/
Express
Express or EXPRESS may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* '' Express: Aisle to Glory'', a 1998 comedy short film featuring Kal Penn
* '' The Express: The Ernie Davis Story'', a 2008 film starring Dennis Quaid
Music
* ''Express'' ...
, a wing dedicated to
Limited Brands
Bath & Body Works, Inc. (formerly known as L Brands, Inc., Limited Brands, Inc. and The Limited, Inc.) is an American specialty retail company based in Columbus, Ohio. It owns Bath & Body Works, posted $11.9 billion in revenue in 2021, and was ...
was added, and expanded the former Kaufman-Straus store (which had become both a
Stewart Dry Goods
The Stewart Dry Goods Company — alternately known as Stewart Dry Goods, or Stewart's — was a regional department store chain based in Louisville, Kentucky. At its height, the chain consisted of seven store locations in Kentucky and Indiana. ...
and
L. S. Ayres
L. S. Ayres and Company was a department store based in Indianapolis, Indiana, and founded in 1872 by Lyman S. Ayres. Over the years its Indianapolis flagship store, which opened in 1905 and was later enlarged, became known for its women's fas ...
before closing) to accommodate a
Bacon's
Bacon's was a chain of department stores based in Louisville, Kentucky.
History
Jeremiah Bacon opened a store called Bacon's Dry Goods in 1845 on Market Street near Hancock Street. In 1876 he moved into a structure four times larger than the o ...
department store which relocated from its freestanding location at 3937 Shelbyville Road. As more retail stores wanted to move to the mall after these changes, a new wing was built which resulted in the re-routing of Sherburn Lane to the west of the new wing.
The mall formerly has a
Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre which operated from 1982 until December 1991. The mall expanded again in 1995 with a new wing and the addition of Dillard's, and in 1997
Lord & Taylor
Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...
followed suit. In 1998 the Bacon's chain was merged into Dillard's, and the former Bacon's location became the Dillard's Men's, Children's & Home store. In 2000 Nordstrom tentatively agreed to build a store, but withdrew in 2001 before a final contract was signed with Rouse. Lord & Taylor closed their store in early 2004, a portion being occupied by regional junior department store
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 ...
until early 2007. The mall took out 2 fountains in 2007, one in the food court area and the other in front of
Kay Jewelers
Sterling Jewelers, Inc. is an American specialty jewelry company headquartered in Akron, Ohio. The company was founded in 1910 by Henry Shaw (the father of Jerry Shaw, the chairman emeritus of Sterling today), from LeRoy's Jewelers in Lorain, Oh ...
and
Starbucks
Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain.
As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...
. Floor tiles replaced the fountains along with new tables and seating.
The mall currently has over and includes the anchor stores of JCPenney and separate
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 ...
locations for Women (in the 1995 Dillard's building) and Men's, Children's & Home (in the former Lord & Taylor building). The Dillard's Men's & Home store relocated to the former Lord & Taylor building in late 2007, and Dillard's then turned over the former Bacon's store to the mall owner, potentially for redevelopment.
On February 21, 2012,
Forever 21
Forever 21 is a multinational fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Originally founded as the store Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984,Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved 27 April 2014 ...
moved into the vacated Dillard's/Bacon's store.
The mall is currently owned by
Brookfield Properties
Brookfield Properties is a North American subsidiary of commercial real estate company Brookfield Property Partners, which itself is a subsidiary of alternative asset management company Brookfield Asset Management. It is responsible for the pro ...
, which also owns
Oxmoor Center
Oxmoor Center is a Louisville, Kentucky shopping mall located at 7900 Shelbyville Road in eastern Louisville.
History
The 1970s
Opened on February 8, 1971 on the opposing side of the Watterson Expressway from Mall St. Matthews, the mall ori ...
on the other side of the Watterson Expressway. Its major stores include a
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 ...
store divided into two sub-stores and
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 ...
. A 10-screen
Cinemark
Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (stylized as CineMark from 1998 to 2022 and CINEMARK since 2022) is an American movie theater chain that started operations in 1984 and since then it has operated theaters with hundreds of locations throughout the America ...
multiplex that opened on May 16, 2013 is physically attached to the mall, but is separately owned and has no pedestrian access to the rest of the mall.
On December 26, 2015 a disturbance occurred at the mall involving as many as 2,000 people – mostly teenagers – some of whom were fighting each other and shoving or pushing mall customers, and the mall was closed early in response to the incident. Following the incident, the mall had a temporary policy requiring visitors between ages 10 and 17 to be accompanied by someone at least 21 years old after 4 pm on Fridays and Saturdays.
On August 10, 2017, it was announced that the mall's food court will be getting a major renovation which will include new floor tiles and furniture, removal of the railing and elevated platform seating, new furnishings, upgrades to a nearby restroom, downsizing Forever 21, to 30,000 square feet only on part of the first floor which was announced on June 6, a
Dave & Buster's
Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of October 2022, the company has 151 locations in the United States and two i ...
on the second floor of the Forever 21 building also announced on June 6 which opened in 2018, and an
Ulta Beauty
Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of beauty stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high-end and low-end cosmetics, fragran ...
on the remainder of the first floor of the Forever 21 building. On April 23, 2021, a shoe and clothing store named Zappos Unboxed opened that was the first of its kind and is owned by the online retail company
Zappos
Zappos.com is an American online shoe and clothing retailer based in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The company was founded in 1999 by Nick Swinmurn and launched under the domain name Shoesite.com. In July 2009, Amazon acquired Zappos in an ...
.
The mall may even get a partial upper level with stairs, elevators, and escalators. The renovations will be complete by November 6.
References
External links
Mall St. Matthews Official web site
{{General Growth Properties
Shopping malls in Kentucky
Brookfield Properties
Buildings and structures in Jefferson County, Kentucky
Tourist attractions in Jefferson County, Kentucky
Shopping malls established in 1962
St. Matthews, Kentucky