Main Street Oak Ridge, formerly known as ''Oak Ridge City Center'' and ''Oak Ridge Mall'', is a

mixed-use development Mixed-use is a kind of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning type that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions are to some ...

in Oak Ridge,

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 formerly constructed as a large indoor shopping mall.

History

The site currently occupied by Oak Ridge City Center was selected by the

U.S. Atomic Energy Commission The United States Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) was an agency of the United States government established after World War II by U.S. Congress to foster and control the peacetime development of atomic science and technology. President ...

to establish a permanent shopping center in the years following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1951 the AEC selected a company headed by

Guilford Glazer Guilford Glazer (July 17, 1921 – December 23, 2014) was an American real estate developer and philanthropist. Early life Glazer was born to a Jewish immigrant family Korean War , date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...

delayed construction, but the Downtown Shopping Center opened in 1955. This shopping area was considered a replacement for the former "townsite" area around Jackson Square. In the late 1980s

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 ...

purchased the property and converted it to an indoor mall by enclosing the walkways around the stores and significantly expanding the floor area. RealtyLink, a South Carolina-based development company, purchased the former Oak Ridge Mall site on June 30, 2016, for $6.3 million. The new owner is TN Oak Ridge Rutgers LLC, a company established by RealtyLink for the development project. Plans by the developer call for replacing the former mall with ''Main Street Oak Ridge''. This will be a 58-acre, $75 million mixed-use development property. Demolition of the former Oak Ridge Mall began on the morning of Tuesday, July 26, 2016. With the exception of anchor stores Belk and JCPenney, the former mall has been demolished, as of November 23, 2016.

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 ...

opened in 2017 on the new property, which was renamed Main Street Oak Ridge.

References

{{coord missing, Tennessee Shopping malls in Tennessee Shopping malls established in 1955 Oak Ridge, Tennessee Buildings and structures in Anderson County, Tennessee 1955 establishments in Tennessee