Brookpark Road and Great Northern Boulevard
North Olmsted, Ohio
A major North Coast shopping district was developed on a 115-acre site, located 15 miles southwest of Cleveland's Public Square, in the bedroom community of North Olmstead. Its first phase, GREAT NORTHERN CENTER, was built by Cleveland's Saul S. Biskind. Officially dedicated on October 16, 1958, the open-air strip complex encompassed approximately 365,000 leasable square feet.
A second phase of the GREAT NORTHERN complex was constructed on a pad situated east of the existing strip center. "May's Great Northern," a 3-level (181,000 square foot) department store, commenced operation on September 5, 1965.
At the same time, a single-screen movie house was under construction. The RKO Stanley Warner Great Northern Theatre was added to the GREAT NORTHERN strip complex. Its first feature was shown on March 24, 1966. The venue, which eventually featured seven screens, closed for good in October of the year 2000.
Meanwhile, construction began on a fully-enclosed, single-level shopping mall in the mid-1970s; this being added to the east side of May's Great Northern. GREAT NORTHERN MALL, developed by a joint venture of Sol & Sydney Shur and Saul S. Biskind, would occupy 62 acres of the total 115-acre plot.
The new shopping facility was designed by Cleveland-based Keeva J. Kekst Architects and the Andrew J. Burin firm, of Fairview Park. In addition to May Company, its anchors were a 2-level (179,600 square foot) Sears and 2-level (165,400 square foot) J. C. Penney. Sears, which relocated from a smaller store in the adjacent strip center, opened its doors on July 28, 1976. J.C. Penney, also relocated from the strip, was dedicated -along with the mall- on November 3rd of the same year.
Charter GREAT NORTHERN MALL tenants included Kay-Bee Toys, Small Stuff, Gordon's Jewelers, Recordland, J. Riggings men's, The Limited, Hickory Farms of Ohio, Mesmod Jaccard & King Jewelers, Waldenbooks, Winkelman's ladies' and the Great American Game Room. The Commons Restaurants, a 14-bay food court, featured Capri Pizza, Cut The Mustard, Maxie's Deli and Hamilton Burrgers.
Major retail hubs in the vicinity of GREAT NORTHERN MALL included WESTGATE CENTER (1954) {4.5 miles northeast, in Fairview Park / Rocky River} and MIDWAY MALL (1964) {10.4 miles west, in Elyria}.
GREAT NORTHERN MALL and the adjacent GREAT NORTHERN CENTER were renovated and expanded during the 1980s. The nineteen-store North Court was created -in 1985- out of gutted mall space. A fifteen-store South Court section was built onto the mall's southwest corner, with its dedication held in 1987.
The Food Commons, a 2-level -17-bay- culinary complex, was installed in the southeast corner of GREAT NORTHERN MALL, with a grand opening held in 1988. May Company was also enlarged, to 228,500 square feet, with a single-level addition. The Biskind company formed a joint venture with Rotterdam, Holland's Hexalon Real Estate, Incorporated in 1980. In 1991, Hexalon established full ownership of GREAT NORTHERN MALL.
A renovation got underway, which refurbished older sections of the mall and made them consistent in appearance with newer areas. A re-dedication was held on October 20, 1992. May Company was rebranded as a Pittsburgh-based Kaufmann's on May 31, 1993. With these improvements, GREAT NORTHERN MALL encompassed approximately 892,000 leasable square feet and contained 135 stores and services.
Australia's Westfield purchased GREAT NORTHERN MALL in early 2002, and renamed it WESTFIELD SHOPPINGTOWN GREAT NORTHERN. "Shoppingtown" was dropped from the official name in June 2005, with the complex known, henceforth, as WESTFIELD GREAT NORTHERN.
The third addition of shopping space was completed early in the 21st century. An extended South Court was built, with fifteen inline stores and a 2-level (220,000 square foot) Dillard's. This store was dedicated March 19, 2003. A 2-level (84,000 square foot) Galyans Trading Company was also planned; this to be built onto the north-facing front of the mall. That store opened -in 2004- as a Dick's Sporting Goods.
With this addition, WESTFIELD GREAT NORTHERN housed approximately 1,235,200 leasable square feet and contained 152 stores and services; one of these being a rebranded Kaufmann's. It received a Macy's nameplate on September 9, 2006. Outparcel business at this time included US Bank, Red Lobster restaurant, Bennigan's restaurant, Smokey Bones Bar & Fire Grill and 1-level (14,500 square foot) J.C. Penney Furniture.
In May 2011, Westfield initiated an 8 million dollar mall face lift. A 12-bay Dining Court was installed in gutted and rebuilt space adjoining the Dick's store. Eateries included Thai Kitchen, Subway, Chicken Wow, Charley's Grilled Subs, Sarku Japan and Chop It Salad Company. Children's play areas were also created in the Macy's and Dillard's courts. This renovation was dedicated on November 3, 2011.
In October 2012, another remodeling project got underway in the old Food Court. It was razed and rebuilt into the state-of-the-art Regal Great Northern Mall Stadium 10, whose first features were shown on December 12, 2013. Two sit-down restaurants, The Rail Burger Bar and Mama Fu's Asian House, were installed in the space and a new mall entry and corridor built west of the existing Sears.
Westfield sold GREAT NORTHERN in September 2013, as part of a 7-mall transaction with Starwood Retail Partners, an affiliate of the Greenwich, Connecticut-based Starwood Capital Group. The other properties involved were WESTFIELD BELDEN VILLAGE and WESTFIELD FRANKLIN PARK {in Ohio}, WESTFIELD CAPITAL {in Washington State}, WESTFIELD PARKWAY and WESTFIELD WEST COVINA {in California} and WESTFIELD SOUTHLAKE {in Indiana}. After the transaction closed, the name of the Greater Cleveland retail hub reverted back to GREAT NORTHERN MALL.
Starwood Capital encountered financial difficulties in 2020. A joint venture was formed by Golden East Investors {of New York, New York} and Pacific Capital Partners {of El Segundo, California}. This new entity would manage Starwood Capital malls, straighten out financial problems and prepare properties for potential sale. As this was playing out, news of Sears' impending closure at GREAT NORTHERN was announced. The 44-year-old store went dark on August 21, 2020.
Sources:
The Cleveland Plain Dealer
http://cinematreasures.org
http://www.shopgreatnorthernmall.com (Website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
http://www.westfield.com / The Westfield Group
https://greatnorthernohio.com
https://www.mallscenters.com
Cuyahoga County, Ohio property tax assessor website
"Westfield Great Northern" article on Wikipedia
FAIR USE OF MAY COMPANY AND GREAT NORTHERN MALL IMAGES:
The photos from The Cleveland Memory Project and www.cleveland.com illustrate a key moment in the mall's history that is described in the article. The images are not replaceable with free-use or public-domain images. The use of the images does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute them in any way. The images are being used for non-profit, informational purposes only and their use is not believed to detract from the original images in any way.
