Opening date August 9, 1990 Developer Taubman Centers | Closing date May 31, 2008 No. of stores and services 90+ | |
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Location 7620 Hwy 70 South
Nashville, Tennessee 37221
United States Owner Retail Properties of America, Inc. | ||
Bellevue Center was a regional shopping mall in the southwestern Nashville, Tennessee suburb of Bellevue. It had capacity for over 90 stores on two floors totaling 848,545 square feet (78,832.4 m2). The mall itself opened in 1990, began showing signs of decline during the early 2000s recession, and closed in 2008, however two anchor tenants continued to operate beyond the mall's closing. The building was demolished in early 2016.
History
Bellevue Center originally opened on August 9, 1990 with two anchors, Dillard's and Castner Knott, situated at the far ends of the trident-shaped mall. Spaces for two other anchors were included in the design. One of these (the one closest to Dillard's) was delegated for Nashville's first Macy's store, but the project was canceled and nothing was ever built on the site. Macy's eventually came to the mall in the former Castner Knott location after a series of acquisitions. Other tenants included KB Toys, Limited Too, Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap Inc., and Electronic Express.
Bellevue Center's upscale offerings showed initial promise, but foot traffic at the mall began to decline soon after, with competition from the Mall at Green Hills and Cool Springs Galleria, where new locations of stores previously exclusive to Bellevue Center began to open. Sears came to Bellevue Center in 1999 (shortly after Castner Knott became Proffitt's), building a new store on the empty anchor space in the northeast corner of the mall. Despite the arrival of a third anchor, foot traffic continued to suffer, and retailers began abandoning the mall in the early 2000s. Mall space began to be filled by professional services, churches, and the instructional arts. When Dillard's eventually closed its store and sold its property to the mall's owners (Oaktree Capital Management) in 2007 following years of declining sales, drastic plans for redevelopment were announced.
Bellevue Center officially closed on May 31, 2008, when the last of its non-anchor tenants moved out. Since-abandoned redevelopment plans included converting the former Dillard's building into a branch of the Metro Nashville Public Library (bottom floor) and Kohl's department store (top level). The area formerly occupied by the mall itself would have been replaced with an open-air lifestyle center. Sears and Macy's announced initial intentions to remain open through the redevelopment process and anchor the redeveloped property, but Macy's chose Bellevue as one of eleven stores nationally to close during the late 2000s recession. When Macy's closed on March 15, 2009, Sears was left as the final operating retailer at Bellevue Center. In May 2015, Sears began liquidating its store, with plans to permanently close it in August 2015.
During the fall of 2011, the Metro Government announced its intent to build a new Bellevue library elsewhere, abandoning its plans to locate at the mall site. Around the same time, Crosland Southeast began a new redevelopment plan for the former mall, which also was later withdrawn.
The latest redevelopment plan, also by Crosland Southeast, was unveiled in November 2014. It calls for the demolition of the mall, replacing it with a mixed-use center called "One Bellevue Place", which will feature a hotel, 300 multifamily residential units, up to 125,000 square feet (11,600 m2) of professional and medical office space, a cinema multiplex, and up to 600,000 square feet (56,000 m2) of retail space. When the project comes to fruition, it is expected to be complete by 2017 or 2018.
The final two stores, Sears Automotive and Sears, closed on August 2, 2015, leaving the mall fully vacant in preparation for the aforementioned redevelopment.
The mall was demolished in 2015.