West Ridge Mall

West Ridge Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Topeka, Kansas. The mall has three open anchor stores: Dillard's, Furniture Mall of Kansas, and JCPenney. There are two vacant anchors that were formerly Sears and Burlington. It is the third largest enclosed mall in the state of Kansas, behind Oak Park Mall in Overland Park and Towne East Square in Wichita.

West Ridge Mall
Coordinates39°02′00″N 95°45′58″W
Address1801 SW Wanamaker Road
Topeka, Kansas 66604
Opening dateMarch 2, 1988 (March 2, 1988)
DeveloperMelvin Simon & Associates
OwnerKohan Retail Investment Group
No. of stores and services50+
No. of anchor tenants5 (3 open, 2 vacant)
Total retail floor area992,000 square feet (92,160 m2)[1]
No. of floors2
Public transit accessBus interchange Topeka Metro
Websitewestridgemall.com

History

The mall opened in 1988 under the development of Melvin Simon & Associates. Vanna White made a guest appearance at the ribbon-cutting ceremony.[2] Original tenants included JCPenney, Dillard's, Sears, which closed in September 2018, and The Jones Store. Montgomery Ward would add a store in 1990. It also included a movie theater called the West Ridge 6, which had a Baskin-Robbins inside.[3]

Montgomery Ward closed at the mall in 2001, due to their bankruptcy.[4] Another original tenant, Old Country Buffet, closed in 2003,[5] followed by the movie theater in 2005.[3] The Montgomery Ward building was briefly used for an exhibit by the Kansas International Museum, and became Burlington Coat Factory in 2007 and closed in January 2018.[4] Macy's acquired The Jones Store's parent company in 2006, thus returning Macy's to Topeka after the chain's downtown store closed in 1986.[6] The Macy's closed in 2012.[7] The former Macy's became Furniture Mall of Kansas in late 2013.[8]

The mall was sold to the Kohan Retail Investment Group in late 2021.[9] The mall was sold to Advisors Excel, a local company in Topeka, in September 2023.[10]

References
  1. "Leasing sheet" (PDF). Simon Property Group. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  2. Hart, Megan (1 March 2013). "West Ridge Mall turns 25 Saturday". The Topeka Capital-Journal. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  3. Hooper, Michael (20 April 2005). "Theaters in mall to close: West Ridge 6, ice cream store were original tenants". The Topeka Capital-Journal. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  4. Hooper, Michael (29 September 2007). "Burlington Coat Factory will open next Friday". Topeka Capital-Journal. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  5. Hooper, Michael (15 November 2003). "Old Country Buffet to close: Customers say they are 'devastated'". The Topeka Capital-Journal. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  6. "Macy's is back — Retailer returns". Topeka Capital-Journal. 10 September 2006. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  7. Hrenchir, Tim (4 January 2012). "Macy's closing Topeka store". The Topeka Capital-Journal. Retrieved 29 March 2013.
  8. "Discovery Furniture, partners taking over anchor spot at mall".
  9. Donahue, Kimberly (January 3, 2022). "West Ridge buyer talks plans for mall". WIBW. Retrieved 27 February 2022.
  10. Brunner, Melissa; Cassell, Victoria (2023-09-08). "New owners for Topeka's West Ridge Mall". www.wibw.com. Retrieved 2023-09-10.
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