Oak Ridge City Center
Location | Oak Ridge , USA |
---|---|
Opening date | 1955 outdoor format, late 1980s enclosed |
Management | Oak Ridge City Center, LLC |
No. of anchor tenants | 2 |
No. of floors | 1 |
Oak Ridge City Center, formerly known as Oak Ridge Mall, is a shopping mall in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
History
The site currently occupied by Oak Ridge City Center was selected by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission to establish a permanent shopping center in the years following World War II. In 1951 the AEC selected a company headed by Guilford Glazer to build the new shopping center. A shortage of steel resulting from the Korean War delayed construction, but the Downtown Shopping Center opened in 1955.[1] This shopping area was considered a replacement for the former "townsite" area around Jackson Square.
In the late 1980s Crown American purchased the property and converted it to an indoor mall by enclosing the walkways around the stores and significantly expanding the floor area. Currently, the two current anchors are the only stores open. The enclosed unused space between the 2 remaining anchors is currently under demolition to make room for main street oak ridge a "$41 million first phase of an ambitious renaissance of the city's center".
Anchor stores
- Belk (originally Miller's Department Store, later Hess's, then Proffitt's.)
- JC Penney
Former anchors
- Goody's Family Clothing (store closed in 2009 due to corporate bankruptcy)
- Proffitt's (occupied a now-vacant anchor space in corner of the ell; moved in the mid-1990s to former Hess's building now occupied by Belk)
- Sears, Roebuck & Company (closed in Fall 2012)
References
- ↑ The Oak Ridger, August 3, 1987