Chesterfield Towne Center 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 ...

located in the Richmond, Virginia metropolitan area in unincorporated

Chesterfield County, Virginia Chesterfield County is a County (United States), county located just south of Richmond, Virginia, Richmond in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia. The county's borders are primarily defined by the James River to the north an ...

. It opened in 1975 and features five

anchor store In North American, Australian and New Zealand 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 ...

s: At Home,

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 ...

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 ...

, and a combination

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American discount department store chain. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in the country. TJ Maxx is the flagship chain of the TJX Comp ...

HomeGoods HomeGoods is a chain of home furnishing stores headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts Framingham () is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, United States. Incorporated in 1700, it is located in Midd ...

, with one vacant anchor last occupied by

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

Chesterfield Mall, as the center was originally known, opened in 1975. Its sole anchor was

Miller & Rhoads Miller & Rhoads was a Virginia-based department store chain. Throughout its 105-year lifespan, the store played an active role in the Richmond, Virginia, community, along with its friendly cross-street rival Thalhimers. The Richmond flagship loca ...

. During the mall's initial years, traffic was sluggish, leading some to refer to it as the "Chesterfield Morgue." In 1987, the mall underwent a major renovation and expansion, adding the

Hess's Hess's, originally known as Hess Brothers, was a department store chain based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company was founded a single store in 1897, and grew to nearly 80 stores by its commercial peak in the late 1980s. The chains stores were ...

and Leggett-Belk anchors, a food court, a 9 screen movie theater, and the long corridor parallel to Mall Drive. The mall was renamed "Chesterfield Towne Center." It began using a diamond and palm theme, and focused on attracting a more upscale customer. In 1990, Miller & Rhoads rebranded as

Hecht's Hecht's was an American department store chain founded in 1857 by Samuel Hecht, Jr. It was headquartered in Washington, D.C., and operated in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and Southern United States. The family business was acqui ...

. In 1993, Hess's sold its store to

Proffitt's Proffitt's was a department store chain based in Alcoa, Tennessee. The chain was founded in 1919 by David W. Proffitt and James Ellis. In 2006, the Proffitt's and McRae's stores were converted into Belk after Belk had acquired the two chains in ...

. Three years later, the store was sold again to

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an American department store chain with approximately 267 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 company a ...

. In 1994, The

Macerich The Macerich Company ( ) is a real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. It is the third-largest owner and operator of shopping centers in the United States. As of December 31, 2020, the company owned interests in 52 propert ...

Partnership acquired Chesterfield Towne Center. In 1997,

opened a store at the mall, followed by

in 2001, as retailers began to abandon nearby Cloverleaf Mall. Meanwhile, the Leggett-Belk store was traded to Dillard’s, which kept it open as a second location at the mall. Hecht's also completed an addition during this period. Soon, Chesterfield Towne Center was the largest mall in Richmond. In September 2006, the Hecht's store rebranded as Macy's. May 2008, both of the Dillard's stores closed. A

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

bookstore filled the space left vacant by the mall's theater complex in June 2008, relocating from a freestanding store across Huguenot Road. The mall also reworked its food court facade to show off the bookstore and a Red Robin, and renovated the North Entrance. In November 2010, the former Leggett/Belk/Dillard's was replaced with Garden Ridge, and the former Hess's/Dillard's became a combination

store in 2011. These openings began a series of store openings and renovations in 2011, including renovations to

American Eagle Outfitters American Eagle Outfitters, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer headquartered at SouthSide Works in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1977 by brothers Jerry and Mark Silverman as a subsidiary of Retail Ventures, Inc ...

and

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay, San Francisco, Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of t ...

, and a new

Rue 21 New rue21, LLC (rue21) is an American specialty retailer of women's & men's casual apparel and accessories headquartered in the Pittsburgh suburb of Warrendale, Pennsylvania. Their clothes are designed to appeal to people who desire, wish, or ...

store. In December 2013, Macerich sold the mall to Rouse Properties. Many predicted the demise of Chesterfield Towne Center when competitors Stony Point Fashion Park and

Short Pump Town Center Short Pump Town Center is an open-air shopping mall located in the Short Pump census-designated place (CDP) of unincorporated Henrico County, Virginia on West Broad Street (U.S. Route 250), approximately west of I-64, exit 178A/B. Short Pump T ...

opened in 2003. Ten years later, experts noted that Chesterfield had beaten the odds and held its own against the new competition. 2013 sales were down only 3% from 2003 levels. In 2015, H&M took over the place of Coldwater Creek, a non-anchor store. Garden Ridge changed its name to At Home. On November 7, 2019, Sears announced that it would be closing this location as part of a plan to close 96 stores nationwide. This store closed in February 2020. On June 23, 2020, a fight broke out at the mall between two men, one opening fire, sending the other to the hospital where he later died.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Brookfield Properties 1975 establishments in Virginia Brookfield Properties Shopping malls in Virginia Shopping malls established in 1975 Shopping malls in Richmond, Virginia Buildings and structures in Chesterfield County, Virginia Tourist attractions in Chesterfield County, Virginia