Eastgate Metroplex is an indoor mixed-use professional/retail complex in

Tulsa, Oklahoma Tulsa ( ) is the List of municipalities in Oklahoma, second-most-populous city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the List of United States cities by population, 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The po ...

. The building was originally a shopping mall that opened in 1984 as the Eastland Mall, but was revitalized into its current use after years of decline.

History

Construction of the mall began during the mid-1970s. But after only partial construction had taken place, the property sat vacant and unfinished for nearly a decade. Around 1984, it was finally open to the public as Eastland Mall and reached full tenancy by the late 1980s. During its prime years, the mall was anchored by

Mervyn's Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, bath products, furniture, jewelry, beauty product ...

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 ...

Service Merchandise Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002 ...

, and

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 ...

, along with a six-screen cinema operated by

General Cinema Corporation General Cinema Corporation, also known as General Cinema, GCC, or General Cinema Theatres, was a chain of movie theaters in the United States. At its peak, the company operated about 1,500 screens, some of which were among the first theaters ce ...

accessed from the food court. The mall, first owned by

Simon Property Group Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indian ...

, was built mainly for the eastern part of Tulsa as a less crowded alternative to

Woodland Hills Mall Woodland Hills Mall is a 1+ million square foot, super regional shopping mall located at 7021 S. Memorial Drive in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tulsa, Oklahoma, United States. It was originally developed jointly by Target Corporation, Dayton-Hudson Corporati ...

and what was then called the Southland Shopping Center but has since been renamed

Tulsa Promenade Mall Tulsa Promenade Mall was a shopping center located in the Midtown section of Tulsa, Oklahoma. At the time of its closing, it was anchored by Dillard's, Extra Space Storage (occupying a building formerly owned by JCPenney), Genesis Health Clubs ...

. Across the street was the Eastland Plaza built up during the late 1980s and early 1990s and originally included since-closed locations for

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1948 in Washington, D.C.; its first store was built in April 1948, with i ...

Marshalls Marshalls, Inc. is an American chain of discount store, off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store (stores operating with HomeGoods combined), ...

, and

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 ...

Decline

Starting in the mid-to-late 1990s, Eastland Mall began to turn into a

dead mall A dead mall, also known as a ghost mall or zombie mall, is a shopping mall that has low consumer traffic or is deteriorating in some manner. Many malls in North America are considered "dead" when they have no surviving anchor store or successor ...

. Easier access to other malls as a result of expanded nearby thoroughfares and sparse development in East Tulsa are speculated by local residents to be the likely causes. Service Merchandise was the first

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 ...

to leave around the same time it filed for

bankruptcy Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the deb ...

protection in 1999. It was eventually replaced with Mickey's Family Fun Center, a locally owned 30-lane bowling alley with a restaurant, a LaZer Runner

laser tag Laser tag is a recreational shooting sport where participants use infrared-emitting light guns to tag designated targets. Infrared-sensitive signaling devices are commonly worn by each player to register hits and are sometimes integrated wit ...

arena, indoor

kart racing Kart racing or karting is a motorsport discipline using open-wheel, four-wheeled vehicles known as go-karts or shifter karts. They are usually raced on kart circuit, scaled-down circuits, although some professional kart races are also held on fu ...

and

billiard table A billiard table or billiards table is a bounded table on which cue sports are played. In the modern era, all billiards tables (whether for carom billiards, Pool (cue sports), pool, Russian pyramid, pyramid or snooker) provide a flat surface us ...

s. However, Mickey's Family Fun Center closed sometime after 2009. By 2001, JCPenney left its tenant space, which especially pushed several

chain store A chain store or retail chain is a retail outlet in which several locations share a brand, central management and standardized business practices. They have come to dominate many retail markets, dining markets, and service categories in many p ...

s and smaller tenants to exit. General Cinema filed for bankruptcy protection in 2000 and, by 2002, the six-screen cinema had reverted to local ownership. As this exodus continued, the mall became increasingly desperate for tenants and storefronts abandoned by brand-name chain stores were replaced with unusual tenants like

martial arts Martial arts are codified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defence; military and law enforcement applications; combat sport, competition; physical, mental, and spiritual development; entertainment; ...

academies, a large space for selling arts and crafts at several kiosks, multiple

dance studio A dance studio is a space in which dancers learn or rehearse. The term is typically used to describe a space that has either been built or equipped for the purpose. Overview A dance studio normally includes a smooth floor covering or, if used ...

s, a

wedding chapel A wedding chapel is a building or room, other than a legal court, where marriages are regularly performed. Usually wedding chapels are for-profit venues to host weddings in resort areas to encourage hotel room stays, catering and gambling by the ...

and a live

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

bar. The Tulsa Public Library also temporarily took up some unused storefronts while their building was being expanded. A public exhibit for disaster emergency preparedness by the City of Tulsa government was maintained in one of the mall's corridors for a time. In early 2006, all three Mervyn's locations in Tulsa were closed, including the one at Eastland Mall. In late 2006, the Simon Property Group sold the property to

Raleigh, North Carolina Raleigh ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, second-most populous city in the state (after Charlotte, North Carolina, Charlotte) ...

–based developer Haywood Whichard, who formed Eastland Partners LLC within a year's time for $2.8 million.

Redevelopment

In 2007, the Eastland Mall started a renovation, first by changing its name to the "Eastgate Metroplex". Except for the

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 Vendor, vendors and provides a common area for self-serve di ...

, all the other trademark tent roofs were replaced and refitted with roofs more suitable for commercial use. The center changed its focus to office space for community service and municipal organizations, continuing education facilities, medical services, health & fitness businesses, as well as some entertainment. The renovation, carried out by Tulsa-based P&H Properties, cost over $50 million. The first two major tenants in the complex were the Community Action Project of Tulsa County and

Coca-Cola Enterprises Coca-Cola Enterprises was a marketer, producer, and distributor of Coca-Cola products. It was formerly the anchor bottler for Western Europe and most of North America. Coca-Cola Enterprises' products included Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, ...

, the latter announcing a regional headquarters and call center in March 2006. Both opened in October of that year. In September 2007, the last remaining original tenant Dillard's was closed and was replaced by a three-story office building accessible from the main building itself. In addition, the center area and entrance of the main building were renovated. On May 10, 2008,

University of Phoenix University of Phoenix (UoPX) is a Private university, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit university headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. Founded in 1976, the university confers certificates and degrees at the Ac ...

opened in the space formerly occupied by Mervyn's. In September 2012, SpiritBank filed a

foreclosure Foreclosure is a legal process in which a lender attempts to recover the balance of a loan from a borrower who has Default (finance), stopped making payments to the lender by forcing the sale of the asset used as the Collateral (finance), coll ...

suit on the office building formerly occupied by Dillard's, alleging that Eastgate Partners LLC failed to pay back approximately $2.41 million in loans. General partner Robert E. Phillips responded, claiming that the suit is the result of a misunderstanding: "I'm certain that it will be resolved very quickly, and we've been trying to resolve this for several months." Enterprise Holdings, which operates Enterprise Rent-A-Car, National Car Rental and Alamo Car Rental brands, announced in September 2014 that it would move 500 employees from its facility in the Cherokee Industrial Park to a space in the Eastgate Metroplex. The move involves the company's Shared Services administrative team and the Damage Recovery Unit, which helps manage the claims process when rental vehicles are damaged. As of 2016, the Eastgate Metroplex houses call centers for multiple companies, including Coca-Cola, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Alorica.

Status of turnaround

Gary Chauvin, development consultant for Eastgate, said the turnaround for the former Eastland Mall has been successful, although it still has some unleased space. As of February 2016, 72 percent of the building's of leasable space is occupied, and that he was negotiating with a client for space that would raise the number to 83 percent.Evatt, Robert."From retail to revamped: Eastgate Metroplex fills up its biggest spaces." ''Tulsa World''. February 18, 2016.
Accessed December 20, 2016.

Current tenants

*Alorica *Beyond Cafe *Capital One *Champion National Security *CX Loyalty *Data Exchange-TPV.com *Department of Public Safety – DMV *Eastgate Metroplex Management Office *Eastgate Sundries *Employees Federal Credit Union *Enterprise (EAN Holdings) *HireRight, Inc. *Kuehne + Nagel *Mama Deluca's Pizza *Merit Financial Solutions (CFSII - Noble Financial Solutions) * OSU Center for Health Sciences *Paul Mitchell Beauty School *SSA Office of Hearing Operations *Social Security Office *Subway *RadNet *Therapitas *Vet Center

Notes

References

External links

Deadmalls.com page
{{Shopping malls in Oklahoma Economy of Tulsa, Oklahoma Buildings and structures in Tulsa, Oklahoma Shopping malls established in 1984 Shopping malls in Oklahoma 1984 establishments in Oklahoma