Gulf View Square Mall is an enclosed mall in

Port Richey, Florida Port Richey is a city in Pasco County, Florida, United States. It is a suburban city included in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2020, the city had a population of 3,052. History In 1883, Aaron ...

. Opened in 1980, it is anchored by

Best Buy Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was r ...

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 ...

Clearance Store and is owned by

Namdar Realty Group Namdar Realty Group is an American shopping mall investment company based in Great Neck, New York. They primarily purchase dead mall, dying or dead shopping malls with partner Mason Asset Management. Namdar and Mason are both family owned, and as ...

History

Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation first proposed Gulf View Square in 1974. At the time, its

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 were slated to be

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 ...

Maas Brothers Maas Brothers was a leading Tampa, Florida, department store founded by Abe and Isaac Maas in 1886 that grew from a small store to a chain of 39 stores throughout the Gulf Coast of Florida. The Maas Brothers brand went defunct in 1991 when it ...

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 ...

-Lindsey, and

Robinson's of Florida Robinson's of Florida was a chain of department stores on Florida's Gulf Coast and Orlando and based in St. Petersburg, Florida, starting with a store at Tyrone Square Mall in 1972. It had been founded in the 1970s as an attempt by Associated Dry ...

. The mall opened in March 1980 with Belk-Lindsey and

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001; its common nickname was "Monkey Wards". ...

as its anchor stores. Maas Brothers opened in August 1981, with Sears following in July 1982.

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 ...

opened on the fifth anchor slot, which was originally planned for

Burdines Burdines was an American department store chain founded in 1898 by William M. and John Burdine. It operated exclusively in Florida, with its flagship store and headquarters both located in Miami. It evolved from a carriage-trade shop into a ful ...

, in 1990. Burdines ultimately entered the mall by taking over the Maas Brothers store a year later. Dillard's bought the Belk-Lindsey store in 1992.

Casual Corner Casual Corner was an American retail clothing chain founded in 1950. It operated stores under the names Casual Corner, Petite Sophisticate and August Max Woman brands, among others, with more than 525 stores at its peak. History In 1950, childho ...

, Off The Wall, and

Chess King Chess King was an American men's clothing retailer created by the Melville Corporation. From its founding in 1968, it grew to over 500 locations by the mid-1980s, before an eventual decline, sale, and closure of the chain in 1995. History In 1 ...

all closed in 1996. A

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 ...

was added in 1998. In 2001, Dillard's relocated from the former Belk to the former Montgomery Ward. As a result, the former Dillard's store was demolished in 2002 for

Linens 'n Things Linens 'n Things, Inc. was a big-box retailer specializing in home textiles, housewares, and decorative home accessories. Based in Clifton, New Jersey, the chain operated 571 stores in 47 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces, and had 7,300 e ...

and

. Linens 'n Things closed in 2008 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 ...

opened in 2010 and closed in 2021. Burdines became Burdines-

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 ...

in 2003 and Macy's in 2005.

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 ...

, which opened in 2000, closed in 2009. A new management team began managing the mall in 2011, and announced plans to bring new stores. On January 15, 2014, JCPenney announced that they would be closing as part of a plan to close 33 stores nationwide. JCPenney ended its 24-year run as anchor on August 2, 2014. On January 8, 2015, Macy's announced that its store would be closing as part of a plan to close 14 stores nationwide. The store closed in May 2015.

Washington Prime Group Washington Prime Group Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers. The company is organized in Indiana with its headquarters in Columbus, Ohio. From January 2015 to September 2016, the company had the name WP ...

sold Gulf View Square Mall to

in February 2017 for $15 million. On December 28, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 80 stores nationwide. The store closed March 2019.

References

External links

* {{Tampa Bay Area malls Shopping malls established in 1980 Buildings and structures in Pasco County, Florida Tourist attractions in Pasco County, Florida Shopping malls in Florida 1980 establishments in Florida Namdar Realty Group