WestGate Mall is a shopping mall in

Spartanburg, South Carolina Spartanburg is a city in and the county seat, seat of Spartanburg County, South Carolina, United States. The city of Spartanburg has a municipal population of 38,732 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the 11th-largest c ...

, off

Interstate 26 Interstate 26 (I-26) is a main route of the Interstate Highway System in the Southeastern United States. Nominally east–west, as indicated by its even number, I-26 runs from the junction of U.S. Route 11W (US 11W) and US 23 in ...

and US Highway 29 on West Blackstock Road in the city's primary shopping market. The regional mall has of retail space and four

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 ...

Belk Belk, Inc. is an American department store chain founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, North Carolina, with nearly 300 locations in 16 states. Belk stores and Belk.com offer apparel, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings, ...

Costco Costco Wholesale Corporation (doing business as Costco Wholesale and also known simply as Costco) is an American multinational corporation which operates a chain of membership-only big-box retail stores (warehouse club). As of 2022, Costco i ...

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 ...

, 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 ...

History

Westgate Mall was built by

Arlen Realty and Development Corporation Arlen Realty & Development Corporation, also known as Arlen, was a real estate investment trust founded in 1959 by Arthur G. Cohen and Arthur N. Levien. In the early 1970s, it was one of the largest publicly traded real estate investment trusts. ...

, and opened on October 28, 1975. At the time, it was the largest mall in

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

. Its original

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 ...

were Belk-Hudson,

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 Meyers-Arnold.

was added in 1978. It was sold to

JMB Realty JMB Realty was a real estate investment company based in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes ...

in the late 1970s, then to Bramalea Centers in 1988. Meyers-Arnold was bought out by

Uptons Uptons was a department store based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The chain operated primarily in the Southeastern United States, with locations in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The cha ...

in 1987, thus canceling the latter chain's plans to build a store at nearby Hillcrest Mall. After Bramalea filed for bankruptcy in 1992, the mall was purchased by

CBL & Associates Properties CBL Properties (previously CBL & Associates, Inc., then CBL & Associates Properties, Inc.) is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers, primarily in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States. The company is or ...

, a successor of Arlen Realty. CBL expanded the mall, adding a new wing that featured

and J. B. White, as well as a

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

and

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

owned by

Regal Entertainment Group 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 ...

. Storefronts within the mall were also upgraded, and the Belk store was expanded by 30,000 square feet. These expansions made the mall the first in the Carolinas to feature six anchors. J. B. White's store became

Proffitt's Proffitt's was a department store chain based in Alcoa, Tennessee. On March 8, 2006, the Proffitt's and McRae's stores were converted into Belk stores. Belk acquired the two chains in July 2005 from Saks, Inc. History Beginnings Jeweler Dav ...

in 1998.

, which purchased the Meyers-Arnold chain in 1987, closed in 1999. As it was less than half the size of the other department stores, the mall's then-manager considered converting the building to either a "junior" department store or several stores.

Bed Bath & Beyond Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. is an American chain of domestic merchandise retail stores. The chain operates many stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Bed Bath & Beyond was founded in 1971. It is counted among the Fortune 5 ...

opened in half of the former Uptons building in December 2000, with

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 ...

filling the other half in mid-2001. Following the purchase of Proffitt's by Belk in 2005, the fate of the Proffitt's store was originally uncertain due to Belk already having a store in the mall. The Proffitt's store was then closed and demolished for a

, which opened in 2007. On May 31, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 72 stores nationwide. The store closed on September 2, 2018. Dick’s Sporting Goods became a clearance center in 2019 and closed in 2021. Bed Bath and Beyond announced its closure in January 2023.

References

External links

WestGate Mall Official Website

WestGate Mall CBL Properties Official leasing website
{{Shopping Malls in South Carolina , state=collapsed Buildings and structures in Spartanburg, South Carolina Shopping malls in South Carolina CBL Properties Shopping malls established in 1975 1975 establishments in South Carolina