Eastland Mall (Columbus, Ohio)
Eastland Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in Columbus, Ohio. The mall opened February 14, 1968 and closed on December 27, 2022.[2] There are 4 vacant anchor stores that were once Lazarus, JCPenney, Sears, and Macy's. The mall is owned and managed by Eastland Mall Holdings, LLC. Despite having no anchor stores, the mall's interior was until recently thriving with many smaller businesses and its food court, unusual for a mall lacking anchors and thus having enough tenants to keep it from being a dead mall. It would, however, later succumb to that fate.
| Location | Columbus, Ohio |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 39°55′06″N 82°53′03″W / 39.918295°N 82.884103°WCoordinates: 39°55′06″N 82°53′03″W / 39.918295°N 82.884103°W |
| Address | 2740 Eastland Mall Suite B |
| Opening date | February 14, 1968 |
| Closing date | December 31, 2022 |
| Developer | Richard E. Jacobs |
| No. of stores and services | 55 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4[1] |
| Total retail floor area | 999,458 square feet (92,852.7 m2)[1] |
| No. of floors | 1 (2 in former Sears, 3 in former JCPenney and former Lazarus.) |
| Public transit access | 5, 23, 24 |
| Website | eastlandmall614 |
History
The mall was built in 1968 by Richard E. Jacobs group, who also developed Columbus's Northland and Westland Malls.[3] It was the first enclosed shopping mall in Columbus.[1] As with the other two "directional" Jacobs malls in Columbus, Eastland's original anchors included J. C. Penney, Sears, and Lazarus.[4]
Although Eastland itself is a single-story mall, all three of its original anchor stores were constructed with two stories of retail space. The Sears store closed off its upper level at some point during the 1980s.
The mall remained under Jacobs' ownership until Glimcher Realty Trust bought it in December 2003. The property became Glimcher's second mall in Columbus, following Polaris Fashion Place. Among Glimcher's first moves with the property was to add a fourth anchor, Kaufmann's. This Kaufmann's was the first in a "lifestyle" prototype featuring a smaller floor plan with wider aisles.[5] The same year, the Lazarus store became Lazarus-Macy's.[6] Macy's moved from the former Lazarus to the former Kaufmann's in 2006 when the Macy's chain purchased Kaufmann's then-parent company.[7] Three years later, Glimcher proposed to demolish the former Lazarus-Macy's building for a new J. C. Penney, while dividing Penney's existing store among new tenants.[8] However, as of 2013 the former Lazarus-Macy's building remains both standing and vacant. J. C. Penney announced the closure of its existing store in 2015.[9]
With the closure and subsequent demolition of Northland in 2002, Eastland is the oldest operating shopping mall in Central Ohio.
Glimcher defaulted on the mall's mortgage loan in 2012 and turned the property over via a deed in lieu of foreclosure to the lender, a CMBS trust that was serviced by LNR Property, in August 2014.[10][11]
In March 2015, the mall was reportedly sold for $9.25 million.[12]
On January 4, 2017, Macy's announced that its Eastland Mall store would close.[13] The store closed in March 2017, leaving Sears as Eastland's only remaining anchor.
On June 6, 2017, Sears announced that its Eastland Mall store would close by early September,[14] leaving the mall entirely without anchor stores.
Conditions at the mall declined drastically in its final years of operation, resulting in several health and safety code violations. In 2019, City Code Enforcement had begun issuing violations to Eastland Mall Holdings LLC for poor maintenance of the parking lot, structural issues, and zoning noncompliance.[15] As these issues persisted and the mall continued to deteriorate, city officials had filed a case against Eastland Mall Holdings LLC in April 2021.[16] In the court case held in June 2022, Eastland Mall LLC property manager Nihal Weerasinghe had admitted to various maintenance issues, including up to 1,200 potholes in the parking lot.[15] On Monday, June 13 2022, Judge Stephanie Mingo had officially declared Eastland Mall a public nuisance. She ordered the mall's owners to make repairs to bring Eastland Mall to compliance. The case will go back to court on September 22, 2022. If the progress made on the mall is still deemed to be unsatisfactory by then, the City of Columbus will make its own repairs at the owner's expense, and possibly even demolish the property.[17]
References
- ^ a b c "Mall profile" (PDF). Glimcher Realty Trust. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
- ^ Eastland Mall to close later this week after 54 years in Columbus
- ^ Showalter, Kathy (3 March 2003). "New owners poised to revive Westland". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
- ^ Shopping Centers and Malls. Retail Reporting Corporation. 1 September 1992. p. 102. ISBN 9780934590457.
- ^ Goins, Tony (16 December 2003). "Glimcher to buy Eastland Mall, add new-style Kaufmann's". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
- ^ Goins, Tony (22 May 2003). "Lazarus to add Macy's name". Columbus Business First. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
- ^ "Federated selling overlapping stores in three states". Columbus Business First. 2 May 2006. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
- ^ Pramik, Mike (27 July 2007). . The Columbus Dispatch. Archived from the original on 10 June 2014. Retrieved 1 April 2013.
- ^ "JCPenney to close Eastland Mall store in May".
- ^ "Glimcher Giving Up on Eastland Mall; Plans Deed-in-Lieu of Foreclosure". Commercial Real Estate Direct. 2014-07-28.
- ^ Wartenberg, Steve (2014-08-06). . Archived from the original on 2014-10-18.
- ^ "Eastland Mall Seen Selling for $9.25 million; CMBS Loan to be Hit Hard". Commercial Real Estate Direct. 2015-03-27.
- ^ "Macy's to close Eastland Mall store, one of locations at Tuttle mall".
- ^ "Sears to close stores at Eastland, Westland".
- ^ a b Rantala, Lisa (June 13, 2022). "Judge declares Eastland Mall a public nuisance, allowing for demolition if not cleaned up". Fox 28 WTTE Columbus. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
- ^ Bounds, Brandon (March 30, 2022). "Eastland Mall property owners cited with additional health, safety violations". 10tv.com. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
- ^ Weiker, Jim (June 14, 2022). "Eastland Mall declared a nuisance, repairs ordered". Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved July 23, 2022.
External links
- Official website