Middlesboro Mall

Middlesboro Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Middlesboro, Kentucky, on U.S. Route 25E. It includes over 26 stores and services. Anchor stores are Belk and Roses.

Middlesboro Mall
LocationMiddlesboro, Kentucky, United States
Coordinates36.6193°N 83.7060°W / 36.6193; -83.7060
Address905 North 12th Street
Opening dateOctober 1983 [1]
OwnerErshig Properties
No. of stores and services26+
No. of anchor tenants3 (2 open, 1 vacant by around October 2020)
Total retail floor area317,426 square feet (29,489.8 m2)
No. of floors1
Websiteshopmiddlesboromall.com

History

The mall is part of a retail business concentration that developed along U.S. 25E beginning in the late 1960s. It opened in October 1983 [1][2] with Belk, JCPenney, Kmart and an array of specialty merchants. The mall's first owner was David Hocker and Associates.[3] The mall is an important retail center for a large rural area in the mountains of eastern Kentucky and nearby Tennessee.[2]

Sears joined the mall in June 1987 with a 16,500-square-foot (1,530 m2) hometown store, then added another 5,283 square feet (490.8 m2) in 1989. Kmart closed on June 1, 2002. Steve & Barry's opened in place of Kmart in 2006 but closed in 2009 following bankruptcy in the midst of the 2008 economic downturn.[4] Roses opened to fill the Kmart store in 2010.[5] Sears left in November 2012 and opened a new store north of the Mall on U.S. Route 25E.

On June 4, 2020, JCPenney announced that this location would close as part of a plan to close 154 stores nationwide.[6]

Since 2004, the mall has been owned by Ershig Properties, which is based in Henderson, Kentucky.[3][7]

Literacy programs

Middlesboro Mall has a history of supporting community literacy programs. The mall's use as a site for adult literacy classes was cited in a 1993 academic paper as an example of the function of shopping malls as "public spaces" for their communities.[8] The Children's Reading Foundation of Appalachia-KY has used the facility for Read Across America events and local events such as Malloween, Books with Santa, and a back-to-school fashion show. In 2013, the mall management announced that, after observing the importance of these activities for the community, it was donating space in the mall to house offices of the Children's Reading Foundation.[9]

References
  1. http://www.shopmiddlesboromall.com/#!about
  2. Clark, Thomas D. (1992). "Middlesborough (Middlesboro)". The Kentucky Encyclopedia. pp. 634–635. ISBN 0813128838.
  3. "The Middlesboro Daily News - Middlesboro Mall to celebrate silver anniversary". Archived from the original on 2013-07-02. Retrieved 2013-07-02.
  4. "Former Kmart/Steve & Barry's, Middlesboro, KY (Now Rose's) - a photo on Flickriver".
  5. "Middlesboro Mall in Middlesboro, KY - Shopping, Department Stores and Restaurants". Archived from the original on 2013-07-01. Retrieved 2013-07-01.
  6. "JCPenney Store Closings – Penney IP LLC". 4 June 2020.
  7. "All Properties". Archived from the original on 2021-07-25. Retrieved 2022-07-13.
  8. Goss, Jon (March 1993). "The "Magic of the Mall": An Analysis of Form, Function, and Meaning in the Contemporary Retail Built Environment". Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 83 (1): 18–47. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8306.1993.tb01921.x. JSTOR 2569414.
  9. Cunningham, Reina P. (June 2013). "Middlesboro Mall donates office to CRF". The Middlesboro Daily News.
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