The Port Charlotte Town Center is a mall in

Port Charlotte, Florida Port Charlotte is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Charlotte County, Florida, United States. The population was 54,392 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Punta Gorda, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Port ...

. The mall serves Port Charlotte and the neighboring communities of North Port, Englewood, and Punta Gorda. The anchor stores are Recreational Warehouse,

Regal Cinemas 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 ...

, Bealls, Dillard's, 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 ...

. There are 2 vacant anchor stores that were once

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 ...

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 ...

. All anchors have one floor.

History

The mall began in 1987, with the purchase of 132 acres of land from the

General Development Corporation General Development Corporation, also known as GDC, was a land development company in Florida. General Development Corporation would be created in 1958 after a merger between Florida Canada Corporation and the Mackle Bros. Origins and history ...

by developer Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation. Phase 1 was announced to include 600,000 sq ft of mall space with 3 department store anchors, one announced to be J. C. Penney, and 195,000 sq ft of outparcels. Phase 2 would include 2 more department store anchors and an additional 435,000 sq ft in "peripheral businesses". In September 1987, Maas Brothers and Belk-Lindsey were announced as 2 additional anchors, along with an unnamed fourth anchor. Groundbreaking ceremonies were held on December 8, with plans dropping "Phase 2" and instead planning to open the 1,000,000 sq ft, 6-anchor mall in one phase, projected to be finished by Fall 1989. At this time,

had been confirmed as the fourth anchor. Mall anchors J. C. Penney, Sears, and Belk-Lindsey opened before the mall on July 29, 1989. The J. C. Penney opening was attended by

Miss Universe Miss Universe is an annual international beauty pageant that is run by a United States and Thailand based Miss Universe Organization.Natalie Tadena (July 2, 2015"Donald Trump's Miss USA Pageant Lands on Reelz Cable Channel". ''The Wall Stre ...

Angela Visser Angela Visser (born 18 October 1966) is a Dutch actress, model and beauty queen who was crowned Miss Universe 1989. She was the first Dutch woman to win the title of the Miss Universe in 1989. Visser, who had previously worked as a model and bea ...

. A "Gala Preview" of the mall was held August 1, 1989 in a party headlined by Jack Jones. The mall opened, on schedule, on August 2, 1989 to a crowd of over 25,000. The Maas Brothers store, which was planned to open in 1990, was put on hold in early January 1990, before parent company

Allied Stores Allied Stores was a department store chain in the United States. It was founded in the 1930s as part of a general consolidation in the retail sector by B. E. Puckett. See also Associated Dry Goods. It was the successor to Hahn's Department Stor ...

filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Dillard's and

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

were announced as additional anchors in September 1991, by which the Maas Brothers anchor was considered "abandoned". The Belk-Lindsey store at the mall was sold to

Burdines Burdines (} ) was an American chain of department stores operating in the state of Florida, headquartered in Miami. The original store opened in Bartow, Florida in 1896 as a carriage-trade shop. Over its nearly 110-year history, Burdines grew ...

in February 1994, and renovated that summer. Regal Cinemas was built at the mall in 1999. Montgomery Ward closed at the mall in 2001 following their bankruptcy; Bealls opened in the space the following year. Burdines became Burdines-Macy's in 2003, before converting to Macy's in 2005. On December 28, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 80 stores nationwide. The store closed in March 2019. The 2020 show, PBS Kids Talk About was filmed in a portion of the former Sears. On January 6, 2021, it was announced that

would be closing in March 2021 as part of a plan to close 46 stores nationwide. The mall was owned by

Washington Prime Group Washington Prime Group Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. The company is organized in Indiana with its headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. From January 2015 to September 2016, the company had the name WP ...

but was auctioned due to the Washington Prime's bankruptcy, and Washington Prime's creditors were the winning bidder. As of July 2022, the mall continues operations as normal following the bankruptcy auction. On September 28, 2022, The Bealls was damaged by Hurricane Ian along with DSW.

References

{{reflist Shopping malls in Florida Shopping malls established in 1989 Buildings and structures in Charlotte County, Florida Tourist attractions in Charlotte County, Florida 1989 establishments in Florida