West Towne Mall

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Coordinates: 43°03′26″N 89°30′21″W / 43.05722°N 89.50583°W / 43.05722; -89.50583
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Not to be confused with Westgate Mall (Madison, Wisconsin).
West Towne Mall
Total retail floor area
915,307 square feet (85,034.8 m2)
No. of floors1 (2 in Dick's Sporting Goods and JCPenney)
Parking7,870
Public transit accessBus interchange Metro Transit
Websitewww.shopwesttowne-mall.com

West Towne Mall is a

Cleveland, Ohio, the developer of Brookfield Square in Milwaukee.[1] The 56,000-square-foot (5,200 m2) Manchester's store was later replaced by a food court. West Towne is the sister mall to the East Towne Mall
which opened a year later.

Businesses

Anchor stores

Food Court

History

1970s

The West Towne and its sister mall, East Towne, were originally developed by

Richard E. Jacobs Group. Initial anchors were Prange's, Sears, J. C. Penney and Manchester's. The Manchester's location was their sixth and at the time their largest store.[1] The store would eventually be replaced by a food court.[citation needed
]

West Towne was built in a

HVAC units on the building's roof to control the climate of the building.[1]

West Towne's

grand opening was on Thursday October 15, 1970, at 9:30 a.m. and had no ceremony or ribbon cutting to mark the occasion. The mall's manager James M. Roche explained the lack of a ceremony saying, "We feel the shopper has come out to see the center. Our "grand opening" will be symbolized by all stores opening their doors promptly at 9:30 a.m." Part of the opening included young women called "mall-ettes" handing out balloons, flowers and mall directories to shoppers. Only 28 stores were open at the time and two of the anchors Sears and J. C. Penney opened later.[1][3]

Original logo of West Towne Mall.

Two artists were commissioned to provide artwork for the main mall area.

Cleveland, Ohio, was commissioned to help design three of the four fountain areas as well as a suspended sculpture and water sculpture locater at the center of the mall. Part of the central fountain included a 19-foot-tall (5.8 m) metal piece with several nozzles that circulated 800 US gallons (3,000 L) of water per minute, forming part of the sculpture. He also created four magnesium sculptures that were suspended from the ceiling between the fountain and one of the sunken lounge areas.[1] The fountains and sunken lounges were removed during a late-1980s remodeling of the mall.[citation needed
]

1980s

West Towne and East Towne malls were at the center of a mid-1980s Wisconsin Supreme Court case. In Jacobs v. Major,[4] an anti-nuclear dance group, called the Nu Parable dancers, was barred from performing a dance which ended in a "die-in" on the mall's property. At issue was the right of non-consensual use of private property for freedom of speech purposes. In 1987, the Wisconsin Supreme court ruled 4–3 in favor of the mall owner's right to exclude Nu Parable from both malls.[3]

2000s

Office Max, Nordstrom Rack, Metcalfe's Market and Barnes & Noble. CBL refurbished both East Towne and West Towne unveiling the changes which included more skylights, family restrooms, improved interior decor, seating, flooring and other changes in November 2003.[7] The face lift to West Towne Mall cost $2.8 million and was the first significant change to the mall since the 1989 addition of a fourth anchor store. According to CBL, the new design used elements of the Wisconsin State Capitol specifically noting the high chandeliers and wooden table and benches.[8]

In 2003, the former Boston Store locations were demolished at both East Towne and West Towne and Dick's Sporting Goods stores were constructed at a total cost of $5.5 million.[8] Those stores opened at the end of October 2004.[9] Boston Store remained in both malls in the former location originally occupied by Prange's.[citation needed]

2010s

Granite City,

Payless ShoeSource, and Gymboree all closed in the 2010s. Apple relocated to Hilldale Shopping Center
.

In 2015, Sears Holdings spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at West Towne Mall, into Seritage Growth Properties.[10]

On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Boston Store would be closing as its parent company, The Bon-Ton, was going out of business. The store was due to close in August 2018.[11]

On June 28, 2018, it was announced that Sears would also be closing as part of a plan to close 78 stores nationwide. The store closed in September 2018.[12] Part of the former Sears became Dave & Buster's and Total Wine & More.

2020s

In 2021, Hobby Lobby relocated their Madison store from South Towne Mall to the former Sears area.[13] In October 2022, Von Maur opened in the former Boston Store location. Originally it was supposed to open in 2021 but was delayed a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[14]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "West Towne Mall Supplement". Wisconsin State Journal (Madison, Wisconsin), October 14, 1970.
  2. ^ "East Towne Supplement". Wisconsin State Journal, October 13, 1971.
  3. ^
    ProQuest 390616968
    .
  4. ^ Jacobs v. Major, 139 Wis.2d 492 85-0341 (June 23, 1987).
  5. ProQuest 395167676
    .
  6. ProQuest 395176169
    .
  7. ProQuest 391119698
    .
  8. ^
    ProQuest 395259762
    .
  9. ProQuest 395270991
    .
  10. ^ "At West Towne Mall | Seritage". Archived from the original on 2018-12-28. Retrieved 2018-12-27.
  11. ProQuest 2026758618. Archived
    from the original on 2020-02-15. Retrieved 2020-08-15.
  12. ProQuest 2062740769. Archived
    from the original on 3 July 2018. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  13. ^ "Next at South Towne: Hobby Lobby relocating out and a new store for vacant Shopko site". madison.com. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
  14. ^ "Von Maur opens and West Towne Mall gets a much needed boost". madison.com. Retrieved 2024-03-01.

External links

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=West_Towne_Mall&oldid=1221263998"