Chapel Hill Mall
"The friendliest Mall of All"
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| Location | Akron, Ohio, USA |
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| Opening date | 1967 |
| Developer | Forest City Enterprises and R.B. Buchholzer |
| Management | McKinley Management Company |
| Owner | Kohan Retail Investment Group |
| No. of stores and services | 81 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 3 (1 open, 2 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 860,000 sq ft (80,000 m2) |
| No. of floors | 1 (2 in JCPenney and former Macy's) |
| Parking | 4,200 |
| Website | http://www.chapelhillmall.com |
Chapel Hill Mall is a one-story, 860,000 sq ft (80,000 m2) enclosed mall located at 2000 Brittain Road in Akron, Ohio. Built by Richard (R.B.) Buchholzer and Forest City Enterprises, it opened on October 12, 1967. They continued to own the mall until 2004, when it was sold to the Chattanooga, Tennessee company CBL & Associates Properties, Inc., who owned it until 2014. The mall features more than 100 stores, with JCPenney as the sole anchor store. Macy's and Sears were former anchors until they closed in spring 2016 and spring 2017, respectively.
Chapel Hill Mall sits on land once owned by Richard Buchholzer's father, J.J. Buchholzer. During the Great Depression, J.J. Buchholzer became owner of a Hower's department store in downtown Akron. The Buchholzers knew Akron would grow to the north, and they felt that a Hower's store should be located on their land. It later became evident that even larger opportunities existed, and the natural choice was a climate-controlled shopping mall. Buchholzer teamed up with Forest City Enterprises to build Akron's first indoor mall. Plans were ready by 1963, but before the mall opened, Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation built Summit Mall on the west side of Akron. In the 1930s, young Richard Buchholzer found what appeared to be an old Indian council circle on his father's land. Because of this, Buchholzer named the development "Chapel Hill".
Expansion plans to include a Higbee's store came up numerous times in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A plan was considered in 1988 by part-owner Forest City Enterprises. It included a 90,000-square-foot (8,400 m2) addition for an additional department store. Expansion was again mentioned in 1989. A front-page story on the January 31, 1990 edition of the Akron Beacon Journal read "Higbee's Coming to Chapel Hill Mall". The store, along with a food court and additional retail space, would be open by Fall 1991, it said.
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