Oakwood Mall is an enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

Eau Claire, Wisconsin Eau Claire ( ; lit. "clear water") is a city in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin, Eau Claire and Chippewa County, Wisconsin, Chippewa counties in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. It is the county seat, seat of Eau Claire County. It is the List of citie ...

. The anchor stores are HOM Furniture,

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., formerly Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, is an American retail company. It owns a chain of arts and crafts stores with a volume of over $5 billion in 2018. The chain has 1,001 stores in 48 U.S. states. The Green family fo ...

Scheels Scheels () is an American privately held, employee-owned and operated sporting goods and entertainment chain store headquartered in Fargo, North Dakota. Scheels operates thirty-four store locations in sixteen U.S. states. Company Overview The ...

, and Micon Cinemas. There is one vacant anchor store that was once

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

History

The mall opened on October 15, 1986, and underwent a major renovation in 1996. The mall also features a movie theater, which was expanded in 1997 and originally operated by

Carmike Cinemas Carmike Cinemas, Inc. was an American motion picture exhibitor headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. As of March 2016, the company had 276 theaters with 2,954 screens in 41 states, and was the fourth largest movie theater chain in the United State ...

until 2017, when it was re-branded as

AMC AMC may refer to: Film and television * AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain * AMC Networks, an American entertainment company ** AMC (TV channel) ** AMC+, streaming service ** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company *** ...

. The shopping center has seen several changes in its anchor stores over the years. In 2002,

Younkers Younkers Inc. () is an American online retailer and former department store chain founded as a family-run dry goods business in 1856 in Keokuk, Iowa. The retailer had evolved over more than 150 years to include a presence in locations throughout ...

replaced

Target Target may refer to: Warfare and shooting * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artille ...

as one of the main tenants. However, the mall has faced some challenges since the late 2010s, as several of its anchors closed due to bankruptcy and the nationwide

downturn In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction that occurs when there is a period of broad decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be tr ...

in traditional retail.

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

, which had been at the mall since 1991 as

Dayton's Dayton's was an American department store chain founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1902 by George Draper Dayton. It operated several local high-end department stores throughout Minnesota and the Upper Midwest for almost 100 years. Although i ...

and later as

Marshall Field's Marshall Field & Company (colloquially Marshall Field's) was an American department store chain founded in 1852 by Potter Palmer. It was based in Chicago, Illinois and founded in the 19th century, it grew to become a large chain before Macy's, ...

, closed in March 2017 and was replaced by

in August 2018. Younkers followed suit and closed in August 2018, leaving a vacant space that was later purchased by HOM Furniture in January 2019. The furniture store opened in early 2020 after extensive renovations.

, another longtime anchor, closed in November 2018 and has not been replaced. The AMC theater also closed permanently in October 2022, after struggling with the effects of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and competition from

streaming services A streaming media service (also simply called a streaming service) is an online platform that allows users to watch or listen to content, such as film, movies, Television show, TV shows, music, or podcasts, over the internet. Instead of downloadi ...

. A local theater chain, Micon Cinemas, took over the space and reopened the 12 screen cineplex in December that same year.

References

External links

Oakwood Mall official website
{{Coord, 44.77547, -91.44172, type:landmark_region:US-WI, display=title Brookfield Properties Buildings and structures in Eau Claire, Wisconsin Shopping malls in Wisconsin Tourist attractions in Eau Claire County, Wisconsin Shopping malls established in 1986