Chesapeake Square

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, four anchors (Burlington Coat Factory, Cinemark Theatres, JCPenney and Target), several eateries at the mall's food court including Chick-Fil-A & Nori Japan, and two restaurants: Tilted Kilt and Big Woody's (both located at the mall's main entry).

Chesapeake Square is owned by WP Glimcher and has an 86.5% occupancy rate of its stores. It is currently the second-largest WP Glimcher mall property in Virginia behind Virginia Center Commons.^[2]

History

The mall was built and opened in October 1989 in former forest and swamp land of the Western Branch section of Chesapeake. Later, the business district grew with two other shopping centers including the adjacent Chesapeake Center (also Simon-owned—with a Kmart, Dollar Tree and a Value City Furniture) 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.

Montgomery Ward was an original mall anchor. After it closed in 2001, its building was expanded for use by Target.^[3]

On May 9, 2009, it was reported that Dillard's shuttered 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 and 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 replaced the former Dillard's Men's building in October 2010.^[5] The new store opened on September 24, 2010.

On November 12, 2010, the mall announced that the Cinemark movie theater moved to the former Dillard's Women/Hess's anchor space in with possible lifestyle stores and restaurants.^[6] The theater has stadium seating with twelve screens, including an Extreme Digital (XD) auditorium and opened at December 16, 2011.^[1]

Sears announced the closure of its Chesapeake Square store in late 2014.^[7]

Sbarro closed its doors at Chesapeake square in 2014.^[8]

Piccadilly Cafeteria is now closed.^[9] With the Tilted Kilt Irish Pub & Eatery occupying its space.

Macy's announced the closing of its store by early 2016.

References

Coordinates: 36°49′36.3″N 76°24′52.8″W / 36.826750°N 76.414667°W / 36.826750; -76.414667