Memorial Mall

History

Originally a development of Melvin Simon & Associates (now Simon Property Group), the groundwork for Sheboygan County's first and only enclosed mall was laid in August 1968 with the construction of its first store, large 160,000 sq ft, two-floor J.C. Penney with an auto center as an out-parcel; when J.C. Penney left the auto center business, it became a Firestone Complete Auto Care Center (a Goodyear Auto Center has also been part of the mall since opening, though it moved to the west end of the building in the mid-2000s). Another anchor was a G. C. Murphy variety store, along with a Red Owl supermarket.

Both Sears and J.C. Penney moved from their existing stores downtown, though the major locally based department store H.C. Prange declined to leave their downtown location, or even build a branch store at Memorial Mall. Until its January 2014 closure as Boston Store, Prange's and its forerunners remained located downtown at the same location.

Although Memorial Mall would hold its official grand opening in April 1970 with over 35 shops, eateries and services, the third and final anchor abutting the north end, an 80,000 sq ft Sears with attached Auto Center would not open until November 1970, completing the 350,000 sq ft complex. Until the opening of Fond Du Lac's Forest Mall in 1973, it was the largest enclosed shopping center in east-central Wisconsin. Upon the closing of Murphy's, Kohl's took over the space in 1983; the building was renovated in the mid-2000s to meet Kohl's current store concepts.

In 2001, J.C. Penney left the mall, with Hobby Lobby taking over the first floor space and removing the building's existing escalator. In 2003, Simon Property Group sold Memorial Mall and the new owners renovated the mall building. Walgreens departed their longtime location in the mall in 2001 upon the opening of their new central-city store at the intersection of WI 23/28/42. The former Goodyear space after their move to the Red Owl space (which was used by Hobbytown USA for several years) was given over to Bed, Bath & Beyond for a store which outside of sharing a mall entrance, has no indoor entrance within the mall itself. Outside of a several-month period where the off-price discount retailer Famous Brands filled the space, the Walgreens space has never been filled again outside of use by organizations for charity events. Many of the mall's existing smaller tenants departed the mall when Kohler's Deer Trace power center opened in 2005.

In 2012, Memorial Mall was sold at a foreclosure auction. Bank of America, the lender to the mall, bought the property at a sheriff's auction for about $2.1 million. Prior to the auction, the mall was owned by a group of 17 New York-based limited liability companies and had been in foreclosure since 2009, after falling rental rates and a lack of new tenants left owners owing far more on the property than what it's worth.

In February 2014, RadioShack closed its store after nearly thirty years of being located inside the mall. Sears Holdings announced the closure of its Memorial Mall store and confirmed the closure of Sears Auto earlier that year; Sears would franchise a Sears Appliance and Hardware Store to take its place, located on the city's south side in the Washington Square shopping center (the mall store had removed already removed clothing and white goods by 2012 to focus on appliances, electronics and hardware). 30 employees lost their positions, with the store closed in early February 2015. In January 2015, the mall’s general manager confirmed that three stores announced their intention to leave the mall; Amy’s Hallmark, Revolution (an extreme sports shop which consolidated into their location in downtown Sheboygan), and Deb Shops (which was already being liquidated nationwide).

On March 17, 2015, Siegel Gallagher, Inc. represented NRFC Memorial Holdings, LLC on the sale of Memorial Mall to Michigan-based hypermarket retailer Meijer for $10.75 million. The sale included the acquisition of the adjoining Sears store. Meijer has been busy with expansions of its store locations in Wisconsin, with a number of stores opening in southeast Wisconsin since 2015. Currently the company plans to run out the clock on the mall's existing lessees into 2017, opening their new store in 2019 after razing and reconstruction, with Kohl's and Bed, Bath and Beyond retaining their existing buildings with the indoor entrances into the mall either sealed up or converted to exterior entrances. Powers Goodyear will move to a new purpose-built facility at Washington Square.

The mall's current occupancy rate is at 23% (11 of 48 store spaces), with the north "Sears" end outside of Bath & Body Works vacant in a space laid out for seventeen store spaces. With the closing of the Mexican restaurant Diamond Dave's Taco Company in May 2016, the mall no longer has any food options. Hobby Lobby wound down operations after Christmas 2016 and vacated on January 14, 2017 with no new location announced, while the Book World bookstore formerly located next to Sears followed shortly thereafter with a move to the nearby Taylor Heights.