Foothills Mall is an indoor regional

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 Maryville,

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

, United States. Foothills Mall features approximately 70 stores and restaurants. Adjacent to the mall is the Foothills Plaza complex which includes several additional restaurants and a

Kroger The Kroger Company, or simply Kroger, is an American retail company that operates (either directly or through its subsidiaries) supermarkets and multi-department stores throughout the United States. Founded by Bernard Kroger in 1883 in Cinc ...

. Opened in 1983, Foothills Mall is the only shopping mall in suburban Blount County, part of the

Knoxville Metropolitan Area The Knoxville metropolitan area, commonly known as Greater Knoxville, is a metropolitan statistical area (MSA) centered on Knoxville, Tennessee, the third largest city in Tennessee and the largest city in East Tennessee. It is the third larges ...

. The mall was originally anchored by Maryville-based

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 ...

, a regional

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store under one roof, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store mad ...

; Miller's, another regional department store that was a division of

Allied Stores Allied Stores was a holding company of department store chains in the United States. It was founded in the 1930s as part of a general consolidation in the retail sector by B. E. Puckett. See also Associated Dry Goods. It was the successor to Hahn ...

;

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 ...

; and

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 ...

, which closed in February 2019. Proffitt's and Miller's no longer exist. The original Proffitt's space is now used by

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, a ...

, while the former Miller's/Hess's was demolished in 2011 to accommodate a new movie theater. The mall was renovated in 2006. On June 4, 2020, JCPenney announced that it would close in October 2020 as part of a plan to close 154 stores nationwide. After

closed,

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (doing business as AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC) is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered ...

, and

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 ...

are the only remaining anchor stores left. The old Sears building was demolished a few years after Sears closed and a new grocery store known as Publix Super Market opened. In 2025, BJ’s Wholesale opened at the former JCPenny department store site. The entire building was demolished and rebuilt. Additions include a new BJ’s Wholesale Gas Station and a BJ’s Wholesale Auto Center.

References

External links

Foothills Mall Website
Shopping malls established in 1983 Shopping malls in Tennessee Maryville, Tennessee Buildings and structures in Blount County, Tennessee CBL Properties Tourist attractions in Blount County, Tennessee 1983 establishments in Tennessee {{US-mall-stub io:Maryville, Tennessee pt:Maryville (Tennessee)