Nittany Mall is an enclosed regional

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 ...

State College, Pennsylvania State College is a home rule municipality in Centre County in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is a college town, dominated economically, culturally and demographically by the presence of the University Park campus of the Pennsylvania Sta ...

. It is located at the intersections of Route 150 and Route 26, one mile off the I-99 corridor. It is uniquely situated within four miles of the

Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University (Penn State or PSU) is a Public university, public Commonwealth System of Higher Education, state-related Land-grant university, land-grant research university with campuses and facilities throughout Pennsylvan ...

, allowing the mall to attract both area residents as well as college students. Current

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

Dunham's Sports Dunham's Sports is an American sporting goods retail chain owned by Dunham's Athleisure Corporation, with stores located in the Midwestern to Southeastern United States. The chain specializes in athletic equipment, clothing, firearms, and other ...

Gabe's Gabriel Brothers, Inc., (doing business as Gabe's) is an American department store retail chain headquartered in Morgantown, West Virginia, United States. The company was incorporated in 1961 as Gabriel Brothers and renamed Gabe's in 2005. Gabe's ...

and

Rural King Rural King Supply is a farm supply store based in Mattoon, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1960, it now has 135 stores in the U.S. states of Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee, Ohio, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Pennsylva ...

History

The Nittany Mall was developed by

Crown American Crown American is a privately held American company that manages and develops commercial real estate. The corporate headquarters is in downtown Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a building designed by architect Michael Graves. History The company wa ...

and officially opened in January 1968. The mall originally had just two anchors,

Grants Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom *Castle Grant United States * Grant, Alabama *Grant, Inyo County, C ...

and

Penn Traffic The Penn Traffic Company was founded in 1854 in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, as a food service company for stagecoaches. It eventually became a general-merchandise department store but by the early 1960s had also returned to the food business through ...

, and approximately 30 smaller stores. Its first expansion in 1970 included the addition of 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 ...

store, which was relocated from downtown State College, and over a dozen other smaller stores. The new Sears included 45 merchandise departments and a 10-bay automotive center. After the closing of the Grants chain in 1976, Gee Bee took over the space. Penn Traffic, one of the mall's original anchors, was sold to developer and

Hess's Hess's was a department store chain based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company started in 1897 with one store, originally known as Hess Brothers, and grew to nearly 80 stores by its peak in the late 1980s. The chain's stores were closed or sold ...

department store chain owner Crown American in 1982 who rebranded the stores as Hess's. The expansion and renovation of the Nittany Mall in 1989-1990 included the addition of a fourth anchor,

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 ...

. Also at this time, the Sears store was expanded and relocated to a new east section of the mall while the Sears automotive center was moved to a separate location in the mall and eventually moved again to a new standalone building on the property. In 1992, Gee Bee was converted to

Value City Value City was an American discount department store chain with 113 locations. It was founded in 1917 by Ephraim Schottenstein, a travelling salesman in central Ohio. The store was an off-price retailer that sold clothing, jewelry, and home good ...

after that company acquired the Gee Bee stores chain. Hess's continued to operate at the mall until 1994 when it was sold to

Bon-Ton Stores Bon-Ton Holdings Inc. is an American online retailer and former department store chain founded in 1898. After rapid expansion in the 1990s and early 2000s, the original company had financial troubles, ultimately filing for bankruptcy in 2018 ...

. Value City operated until 1997 when it was closed and razed to make room for a new

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 ...

department store.

The May Department Stores Company 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 ch ...

, which owned Kaufmann's, was sold to

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 ...

in 2005. Federated proceeded to convert various May properties to

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 ...

, including the Nittany Mall store, in 2006. The JCPenney store remained at the mall until 2015 when JCPenney announced plans to close 39 of its stores in the United States that year. The JCPenney store was replaced by a

, one of the nation's largest

sporting goods Sports equipment, sporting equipment, also called sporting goods, are the tools, materials, apparel, and gear used to compete in a sport and varies depending on the sport. The equipment ranges from balls, nets, and protective gear like helmets. ...

chains, in 2016. In November 2017, Sears announced it would be closing 63 more of its stores including the Nittany Mall location. The Sears store closed in January 2018 but the automotive center remained open for three more years. In April 2018, it was announced that the entire Bon-Ton stores chain would be closing as the company failed to find a suitable buyer. The Sears and Bon-Ton closures left the mall with just two anchors (Dunham's Sports and Macy's) for the first time since 1970. On January 6, 2020, it was announced that the Macy's store would be closing in March 2020. In March 2021,

department store opened in the former Sears space. A few months later in June 2021,

department store opened in the former Bon-Ton location. Construction of a Bally's mini-casino, which had been expected to open at the former Macy's site in 2022, has been delayed due to ongoing petition hearings.

Gallery

File:Nittany Mall 1.jpg, Interior File:Nittany Mall 2.jpg, Mall south entrance File:Nittany Mall 4.jpg, Former Macy's

References

External links

Official website
{{Namdar Realty Group, state=autocollapse Shopping malls in Pennsylvania Buildings and structures in Centre County, Pennsylvania Tourist attractions in Centre County, Pennsylvania Shopping malls established in 1968 Namdar Realty Group

History

Gallery

See also

References

External links