East Towne Mall (Madison, Wisconsin)

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East Towne Mall is a shopping mall located in Madison, Wisconsin.

The mall opened for business in 1971, a year after West Towne. Being Madison's largest enclosed mall, it boasts four large anchor stores in Sears, JC Penney, H.C. Prange Co., and Gimbel's. Prange Way also took up a large section at the back of Pranges' space, so it could be considered a fifth anchor.

Gimbel's would become Boston Store in 1987 upon Gimbels' collapse a year earlier, and close in 2003. This space was razed, and rebuilt in 2003. It is now a Dick's Sporting Goods and new mall space.

Prange's switched to Younkers upon the buyout of the chain in 1992. Before this buyout, Prange Way would pull out, allowing Younkers to expand into the large section the discount store had originally taken. Younker's would be switched to the Boston Store nameplate at this, as well as the West Towne Mall (Madison, Wisconsin) and Regency Mall (Racine, Wisconsin)'s locations in 2003 when then-owners Saks Inc. decided to consolidate all southern Wisconsin stores into one banner. They had closed both Milwaukee-area Younker's stores at Northridge and Southridge in 2000 previous to East Towne's location.

The mall now boasts over 100 shops and services, a food court (opened as part of an expansion in 1989) with about a dozen eateries to choose from, and a small format Barnes & Noble store adjacent to the food court. From the mall's opening until around 2003, the mall also had a 6-screen movie theatre, which from the middle of the 80's to about 2003 was called Budget Cinemas owned by Silver Cinemas. It closed in 2003 because Budget Cinemas Mall Wing Entrance, as well as some other stores by the Entrance, was bought by Steve & Barrys's University Sportswear, and the mall entrance was turned into the Entrance for Steve & Barry's.

The mall and its sister mall, West Towne, were originally developed by the Richard E. Jacobs Group out of Ohio. It is now a part of CBL Properties who has, since purchasing the mall in 2002, remodeled the structure inside and out, and has brought in new tenants to give the mall more of its own identity, rather than bring in the same tenants that West Towne has. There's a greater emphasis on regional names and gift shops, plus some national apparel shops that West Towne does not have.