Westgate Mall (Fairview Park)

Westgate Mall has existed as a Greater Cleveland suburban shopping center in some form since the mid-1950s. Located at the intersection of Center Ridge Road and West 210th Street Fairview Park, Ohio at the boundary of Rocky River, Ohio. Westgate mall is now known as "Westgate", and now has reformed into an outdoor shopping center.

Built several years after the close of World War II, the original Westgate Center opened in 1954. The first such shopping mall in Greater Cleveland, 8.5 miles (13.7 km) from Downtown's Public Square, and the first suburban shopping mall in Ohio, as one of the first post-war suburban retail centers with department store anchors in the United States, situated on a 55-acre (22 ha) parcel. The original anchors of what was then an open-air plaza of separate stores and outdoor walkways were a 3-level Halle Bros. Co., 2-level Federal's Department Store, a Kroger Supermarket, and in 1961 Federal's built a new 1 level store across the lot from Halle's and the former Federal's become the first suburban store for Higbee's Department Store.

Eventually, Higbee's also took over the newer Federal Department Store space when Federal's closed in 1969 but not before Atlantic-Spartan opened in the location in 1969 until 1972. Higbee's moved their Home Store to this location in 1973. The center was roofed over in the late 1960s to compete with neighboring newer Parmatown Mall 8 miles (13 km) southeast and Great Northern Mall 4.5 miles (7.2 km) southwest of Westgate Mall.

1972 saw the construction of a four-screen movie house operated by General Cinema Corporation.

Halle's closed in 1983 when the chain went out of business.

In 1984, the Richard E. Jacobs Group, a Cleveland-based real estate developer, took ownership of the complex and began renovations and remerchandising to aim for the upper-income buyers surrounding the mall. The year saw the addition of Pittsburgh-based Joseph Horne Co. in the former Halle space and the Promenade Food Court, which was added to replace the original movie theatres. A new six-screen cineplex was built behind the mall in a satellite building, near the Higbee's Home Store.

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Wikipedia