Main Street Oak Ridge

Main Street Oak Ridge, formerly known as Oak Ridge City Center and Oak Ridge Mall, is an outdoor shopping mall (or Community 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".

RealtyLink, a South Carolina based development company, purchased the former Oak Ridge Mall site on June 30, 2016 for $6.3 million. The new owner is TN Oak Ridge Rutgers LLC, a company established by RealtyLink for the development project.^[2] Plans by the developer call for replacing the former mall with Main Street Oak Ridge. This will be a 58-acre, $75 million mixed-use development property.^[3]

Demolition of the former Oak Ridge Mall began on the morning of Tuesday, July 26, 2016.^[4]

With the exception of anchor stores Belk and JCPenney, the former mall has been demolished, as of November 23, 2016.^[5] Dick's Sporting Goods opened in 2017 on the new property, which was renamed Main Street Oak Ridge.^[6]

References