Great Northern Mall (Ohio)

Great Northern Mall, is a single-level enclosed shopping mall in North Olmsted, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland. Its anchor stores are Dick's Sporting Goods, Dillard's, JCPenney, and Macy's and a 10 screen movie cinema. A former anchor store, Sears, closed in 2020. The store still sits vacant as of 2025.

Great Northern Mall

Location	North Olmsted, Ohio, United States
Coordinates	41°25′02″N 81°54′20″W[1]
Address	4954 Great Northern Mall
Opening date	1976
Developer	Biskind Development Company
Management	Pacific Retail Capital Partners
Owner	Starwood Capital Group
No. of stores and services	120
No. of anchor tenants	6 (5 open, 1 vacant)
Total retail floor area	1,180,000 sq ft (110,000 m2)[2]
No. of floors	1 (2 in J. C. Penney, Dick's Sporting Goods, and Former Sears, 3 in Dillard's and Macy's)
Public transit access	RTA
Website	greatnorthernohio.com

History

Originally, a small outdoor shopping center was opened by Saul Biskind^[3] in 1958^[4] on what was a field of strawberries. The plaza contained a Sears (west end), F. W. Woolworth Company (center west), and a Pick-N-Pay grocery store (east end), along with a small-scale J. C. Penney and other stores. A freestanding May Company Cleveland store was built to the east of the original plaza in 1965.^[5]

The enclosed mall was opened in 1976^[4] and attached to the east end of the existing May Company building. It featured new, larger J. C. Penney and Sears stores. In 1980, Hexalon Real Estate—an affiliate of what is now Unibail-Rodamco—became an investor in the mall. The 1980s saw the opening of the Plaza South attached to the original strip (now renamed the Plaza) and the 1987 addition of the award-winning South Court to the mall.^[6] Additionally, 2 mid-level hotels and several office facilities, such as Corporate Center and Technology Park, were built proximal to the retail facilities. These served to feed customers into the Mall and Plazas, as did the strategic location near Lorain Road, Brookpark Road, Great Northern Boulevard, and Interstate 480.

In 1991, Hexalon bought out the remaining Biskind stake in the mall^[7] and undertook a significant upgrade and remodel in 1992. It hired The Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation as its management company^[7] until 2000, when Rodamco's Urban Shopping Centers assumed management. The Biskind family, which had retained the Plazas,^[7] eventually sold them to DDR Corp. in 1997.^[8]

May Company Cleveland was renamed Kaufmann's in 1993, and became Macy's in 2006.^[9] The Westfield Group acquired the shopping center in early 2002, and renamed it "Westfield Shoppingtown Great Northern." Dillard's was added on March 19, 2003, expanding the South Court into a full-fledged new wing. Westfield dropped "Shoppingtown" from the mall's name in June 2005, around the time that a newly built 84,000-square-foot (7,800-square-meter) Dick's Sporting Goods (originally planned to be Galyan's) opened.

The original food court, which had been located between Sears and J. C. Penney, was moved adjacent to Dick's Sporting Goods in 2011.^[6] In March 2013, construction began at site of the original food court for a 10-screen Regal Entertainment Group movie theater, three new restaurants, and extra renovations; this addition was completed by December of that year.^[10] The mall was sold to Starwood Retail Partners, a subsidiary of Starwood Capital Group, in the midst of construction.^[11]

On June 1, 2020, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 28 stores nationwide. The store closed August 16, 2020. This was the last Sears store in Ohio,^[12] besides a Sears Hometown Store in Norwalk, which is closing in 2023 as part of a plan to close all Sears Hometown stores.

The mall became managed by Pacific Retail Capital Partners in 2020.^[13]

Shortly before and after the mall's transfer of management to Pacific Retail Partners, a number of stores began leaving the mall. In 2019, Charlotte Russe and Dressbarn would close at the mall; relating to their bankruptcies. In 2020, Christopher & Banks, Justice, New York & Company, and Payless Shoesource all closed at Great Northern. H&M closed their store at Great Northern Mall in 2021, with their last day of business being June 21, 2021, the Disney Store also closed that same year. Express would close it's store at the mall in 2023, most likely relating to their impending bankruptcy the following year, Hallmark Gold Crown and Things Remembered would close as well in 2023. More stores would close at Great Northern in 2024, Aeropostale, Gio, Shoe Dept. Encore, and Rue21 would close that year. American Eagle Outfitters would close in January 2025, while Forever 21 would close in May 2025 relating to their bankruptcy, Pink consolidated with Victoria Secret in June 2025.

Macy's had put their Great Northern Mall location up for sale in 2024.

On December 10, 2022, Regal Cinemas announced plans to close along with 23 theaters in the United States. The theater closed down on January 26, 2023.^{[citation needed]} On June 13, 2024, the theater reopened under the management of Phoenix Theatres.^[14]