Citadel Mall

For the mall in Colorado Springs, Colorado, see The Citadel (mall).

Citadel Mall

Location	2070 Sam Rittenberg Boulevard, Charleston, South Carolina, USA 29407
Coordinates	32°47′53″N 80°1′55″W / 32.79806°N 80.03194°W / 32.79806; -80.03194Coordinates: 32°47′53″N 80°1′55″W / 32.79806°N 80.03194°W / 32.79806; -80.03194
Opening date	1981
Developer	Jacobs, Visconti & Jacobs
Management	CBL & Associates Properties
Owner	CBL & Associates Properties
No. of stores and services	100+[1]
No. of anchor tenants	6
Total retail floor area	1,138,527 square feet (105,773 m2)[1]
Parking	5427
No. of floors	1
Website	www.citadelmall.net

Citadel Mall is a regional 1,138,527 square feet (105,773 m²) shopping mall located in Charleston, South Carolina, USA. It opened in 1981 and is located just off the I-526 exit, the mall features more than 100 stores, including six anchor stores: Belk, Dick's Sporting Goods, Dillard's, JCPenney, Sears and Target. It is owned and managed by CBL & Associates Properties.

Development

The mall opened in 1981 as a project of national mall developer Jacobs, Visconti & Jacobs of Cleveland, Ohio. Citadel Mall is located at the intersection of Sam Rittenberg Boulevard (S.C. Highway 7) and Savannah Highway (U.S. Highway 17) at the junction of Interstate 526 in the heavily commercialized West Ashley suburb of Charleston, South Carolina.

Opening

At the time of its opening, Citadel Mall was anchored by Sears which relocated from a free-standing location in Downtown Charleston at Calhoun and St. Philip Streets, Belk, which shuttered a 1950s store in Pinehaven Shopping Center in North Charleston and relocated to the mall, and Thalhimer's, an upscale Richmond, Virginia based department store chain new to South Carolina owned by Carter Hawley Hale Stores.

Features

In addition to the 6 anchor stores, the mall featured approximately 100 national specialty retailers and eateries - some of which were new to the Charleston area. The mall was well-received in Charleston and was the catalyst for many nearby large-scale commercial projects as shopping centers and restaurants were built all around the mall's perimeter.

Today, the mall contains a gross leasing area of 1,138,527 square feet (105,772.6 m²), boasting a total of 100+ in-line stores.

New Changes

Dillard's

Jacobs, Visconti & Jacobs later became The Richard E. Jacobs Group in the 1990s. The first major change at the mall occurred in 1992 when it was announced that Thalhimer's, now owned by the May Department Store Company would be folded into the Hecht's Department Store chain and the Charleston location would be sold to Dillard's. Dillard's operated in the former Thalhimer's building until 1994 when they relocated to a newly constructed, much larger building at the mall.

Target

Dillard's sub-leased the former Thalhimer's building to JCPenney, though the former eventually shuttered this location in January 2001. Target purchased the vacant two-story JCPenney building and demolished it to make way for a new Target store - the first in Charleston. Target's success at Citadel Mall prompted the company to quickly construct three other locations in the Charleston area.

Belk

Not to be out done by Dillard's and its luxurious and spacious new store, Belk announced plans to construct a 200,000 square feet (20,000 m²) two-level flagship prototype store on the back of the mall next to Dillard's. Belk sold their vacated building to Parisian, a division of Saks Incorporated, who completely gutted the interior and opened an upscale two-level department store. It was announced in August 2006 that Saks Incorporated would sell their Parisian chain to Belk Incorporated and that all Parisian stores would be converted to Belk in the third quarter of 2007. The Parisian store closed that year.

JCPenney

Belk announced in a press release that the Citadel Mall Parisian store would close on February 2, 2007 since Belk already operates a newer, larger store at the mall. JCPenney returned to the mall and opened in the vacated Parisian store in October 2007 much to the dismay of shoppers who were hopeful for an upscale anchor tenant replacement for Parisian. It was also considered unusual that JCPenney would return to the mall it had left some six and a half years earlier.

Renovation & Food Court Addition

The Richard E. Jacobs Group added a Food Court and completely remodeled the mall's interior in the early 2000s. Shortly thereafter, Jacobs divested the majority of its mall portfolio and sold Citadel Mall to CBL & Associates Properties. CBL added a sixth anchor store to the mix in 2005 - Dick's Sporting Goods on an outparcel next to the mall's freestanding six screen AMC Theaters.

New IMAX Cinema Megaplex

On April 8, 2008, AMC Theaters announced that it was closing its Citadel Mall Cinema 6 after the final showing on Sunday, April 13, 2008. AMC also announced plans to close its Northwoods Mall Cinema 8 on the same date.

The cinema was originally built as a part of the General Cinemas chain which later was sold to AMC Theaters. General Cinemas had announced plans to demolish and replace the Citadel Mall Cinema 6 with a huge new multiplex featuring stadium seating and Dolby surround sound to be built on a vacant parcel of land behind the existing cinemas. With the sale to AMC these plans never materialized. On April 12, 2008 it was announced that the property was acquired by Southeast Cinema Entertainment of Charlotte, North Carolina. It was reopened temporarily until September 2008 when the current cinema building was demolished. It was replaced by a state of the art sixteen screen megaplex known as Citadel Mall IMAX Stadium 16 with several screens dedicated to art films and featuring stadium-style seating with leather seats, 3-D and IMAX capabilities, and an extended concessions menu featuring hot dogs, pizza, soft pretzels and CinnaBon CinnaPretzels; all at bargain pricing. The new IMAX megaplex opened October 2, 2009.

News reports have stated that Citadel Mall earns just 84 cents for each dollar of debt payments made by the mall, and the mall has lost stores such as Cache, GAP, and Hollister. However, the mall's owner has been reported as aggressively marketing the mall and attracting new tenants.^[2]

Anchors

• Belk (189,892 sq ft (17,642 m²))
• Dick's Sporting Goods (freestanding)
• Dillard's (186,455 sq ft (17,322 m²))
• JCPenney (129,790 sq ft (12,058 m²))
• Sears (120,816 sq ft (11,224 m²))
• Target (125,381 sq ft (11,648 m²))

Food court

• Charley's Steakery
• Chick-fil-A
• China Master
• Corrado's Pizza
• Little Athens Gyros
• Sarku Japan

Restaurants

• King Street Grille
• Red Lobster (freestanding)
• Sesame Burgers and Beer
• Subway
• Wholly Cow Ice Cream & Coffee

Outparcels

• Citadel Mall IMAX Stadium 16 (freestanding)
• PetSmart (freestanding)

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Citadel Mall". CBL & Associates Properties, Inc.. http://cblproperties.com/pag.nsf/CorpSiteByAlphaWeb/Citadel+Mall?opendocument. Retrieved 2011-01-25. 
2. ^ Singe, Kerry (2010-12-26). "Trouble ahead for 6 Carolina malls?". The Charlotte Observer. http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/26/1934679/trouble-ahead-for-6-carolinas.html. 

External links

• Citadel Mall website
• CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. The owner of Citadel Mall