Today's open-air, WESTGATE power center, which opened in 2007.
Photo from www.centro.com.au (Centro Properties Group)

WESTGATE CENTER
Center Ridge Road and West 210th Street
Fairview Park and Rocky Ridge, Ohio

The first shopping mall in the Cleveland metro -as well as in Ohio- opened in 1954. It was situated on a 55 acre parcel, 8.5 miles southwest of Public Square.

WESTGATE CENTER, originally a 500,000 square foot open-air shopping venue, was anchored by a 3-level (135,000 square foot), Cleveland-based Halle's [rhymes with "Bally's"] and 3-level (110,000 square foot), Dearborn, Michigan-based Federal. The center also included an S. S. Kresge 5 and 10 and Fisher Foods and Pick-n-Pay supermarkets.

WESTGATE was joined by PARMATOWN CENTER -8 miles to the southeast- in 1960, and GREAT NORTHERN MALL -4.5 miles to the southwest- in 1976.

The Federal department store closed in 1960. Cleveland-based Higbee's reopened in the space in 1961; the store being the chain's first suburban branch.

The building was expanded, into a 160,700 square foot location, in 1967. A renovation of the mall, into a fully-enclosed and climate-controlled structure, was also undertaken at this time. The complex reopened, as WESTGATE MALL, during 1968.

One of the center's supermarkets reopened as a Kroger. This store was shuttered in 1972; being replaced by a 4-screen multiplex cinema.

This was followed by a 6-screen theater, which was built as an outparcel in the mall's eastern parking lot. This new cinema opened in 1984. The old cinema site inside the mall became the Promenade Food Court.

1984 also saw the opening of a new anchor store at WESTGATE, in the old Halle's, which had been vacated when the retail chain went bankrupt in 1982. Pittsburgh's Joseph Horne Company leased the store, but was in business at the WESTGATE location for only eight years.

In 1992, the Higbee's reopened as a Little Rock-based Dillard's. The next year, the Dillard's chain also assumed the old Halle's location, vacated by Horne's the previous year.

The former Higbee's was dedicated to men's and children's attire, with the old Halle's / Horne's selling ladies attire and cosmetics. An outparcel Higbee's Home Store, dealing in furniture and electronics, was also taken over by Dillard's.

Although WESTGATE had had a major renovation in 1984, by the mid-1990s, it was showing its age. The proliferation of newer and larger shopping malls in the Cleveland suburbs was providing more competition than the fifty year-old shopping center could withstand. Even a 1-level (94,500 square foot), Wisconsin-based Kohls (added in in 1996) could not stop the mall's downward trajectory.

By 2004, the end was near. The WESTGATE Dillard's stores were struggling, with the Home Store in the old Higbee's Home spot closed. The two department stores were consolidated in the larger Halle's / Horne's building (the north anchor). A year later, Dillard's pulled out of the mall entirely.

In August 2005, the mall was demolished, leaving only the nine year-old Kohl's standing. Work soon got underway on a new, open-air power center, known as simply WESTGATE.

This 618,900 square foot complex was anchored by the previously-existing Kohl's. A single-level (127,000 square foot) Target opened July 27, 2007. The third destination store, a single-level (119,700 square foot) Lowe's, was dedicated the following November.

The new WESTGATE was developed by a joint venture of the Cleveland-based Richard E. Jacobs Group, New York City-based New Excel Realty Trust and Chicago-based Transwestern Investment Company. In February 2007, New Excel Realty Trust was acquired by the Australia-based Centro Properties Group.

Sources:

Comment Post by "Anonymous"
"Westgate Mall" article on Wikipedia
"Higbee's" article on Wikipedia
"Halle Brothers Company" article on Wikipedia
Dead Malls.com / "Westgate Mall" article / Submitted by Brian Robinson
http://www.westgateohio.com/
http://www.centro.com.au/
http://www.ulib.csuohio.edu/