Chesapeake Square Mall

Chesapeake Square
Location Chesapeake, Virginia
Management Simon Property Group
Owner Simon Property Group 75%[1]
No. of stores and services 100+
No. of anchor tenants 5
Total retail floor area 717,282 square feet (66,637.7 m2)[2]
No. of floors 1
Website [1]

Chesapeake Square is a 717,282 sq. ft. regional mall and was built in 1989 in Chesapeake, Virginia, in the Hampton Roads metropolitan area.

The mall has approximately 100 stores, five anchors (Burlington Coat Factory, JCPenney, Macy's, Sears and Target), several eateries at the mall's food court including Chick-Fil-A, Dairy Queen & Sbarro, and two restaurants: Piccadilly Cafeteria and Whiskey River. (both located at the mall's main entry)

Chesapeake Square is 75% owned by Simon Property Group and has an 86.5% occupancy rate of its stores. It is currently the fourth-largest Simon Mall property in Virginia behind Virginia Center Commons, Potomac Mills, and the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City.[3]

History

The mall was built and opened in October 1989 in former forest and swamp land of the Western Branch section of Chesapeake. Later on, the business district grew with two other shopping centers including the adjacent Chesapeake Center (also Simon-owned—with a Kmart, Dollar Tree and a Cinemark Movies 10 theater) and the Crossroads at Chesapeake Square across the street which has a Best Buy, Ross Dress For Less, and Old Navy at the former Walmart spot and a Dollar Tree Market and Tuesday Morning at the former Circuit City building.

There are three hotels at the mall's business district, SpringHill Suites, Holiday Inn Express, and a Hampton Inn. Two other hotels including a Country Inn are located in an expanded shopping area with a Lowe's west of the mall.

In summer 2002, the relocated Walmart (Supercenter) and a new Sam's Club opened at the northern end of the mall, which was also a former small forest.

On May 9, 2009, it was reported that Dillard's may close their Chesapeake Square Mall locations in 2009 along with four other undisclosed locations.[4] On July 27, 2009, Dillard's announced that it will close the two Chesapeake Square locations laying off or transferring 45 employees. Early September 2009, the Men's building had closed & items were moved to the Women's building until September 23 in which the store had closed as well.

In January 2010, both of the main retail booksellers, B. Dalton's and Waldenbooks closed their Chesapeake Square locations, after announcing their closures in December 2009.

Announced in May 2010, Burlington Coat Factory will replace the former Dillard's Men's building in October 2010, in which it will be the Hampton Roads area's fifth and Virginia's fifteenth. [5] The new store opened on September 24, 2010.

On November 12, 2010, the mall announced that the current Cinemark movie theater would move to the former Dillard's Women/Hess's anchor space in with possible lifestyle stores and restaurants. [6] The theater will have stadium seating with twelve screens and will open at the end of 2011. [2]

References