One Bellevue Place


One Bellevue Place is a regional shopping mall in the southwestern Nashville, Tennessee suburb of Bellevue. Opened in 1990 as Bellevue Mall, it had capacity for over 90 stores on two floors totaling. The mall itself opened in 1990, began showing signs of decline during the early 2000s recession, and closed in 2008, however two anchor tenants continued to operate beyond the mall's closing. The building was demolished in 2015, and construction began on renovating the property in the 2010s.

History

The first plans for Bellevue Mall were announced in 1971, when Nashville, Tennessee-based real estate developer Roy Shainberg submitted approval plans for a mall to the city of Nashville's planning and zoning commission on behalf of Cleveland, Ohio-based developer M. H. Hausman Co. The original plans called for a mall to be built on U.S. Route 70S between Interstate 40 and Sawyer Brown Road in the city of Bellevue. Construction was to begin in 1973 and would consist of two phases, with the first to be completed in 1975 and the second in 1977. The first phase would consist of of retail space with three anchor stores; the second phase would consist of of additional shop space and space for up to two more department stores. The design of the mall would include marble flooring and fountains, and it would consist of two levels connected by escalators. The Cleveland, Ohio-based firm of William Dorsky and Associates would be the mall's architect. A newly built road would encircle the mall in order to address concerns from local residents over increased traffic, while a "buffer zone" of shrubbery and trees would make its design "harmonious" with the rest of the community. Also planned for the mall's periphery were a supermarket facing U.S. Route 70S, a 200-room hotel, and a business park facing Interstate 40. Overall building costs were estimated at $50 million, and it would be the largest mall in the state of Tennessee upon completion.
By March 1974, Shainberg had announced that Nashville-based real estate company Belz Enterprises and department store chain J. C. Penney would be co-developing the mall, with the latter also serving as one of the anchor stores. According to The Tennessean, both companies had agreed to join in the development after M. H. Hausman had begun to undergo negotiations with prospective tenants, since J. C. Penney had just begun a real estate development division and Shainberg had previously handled land acquisition and leasing for Belz's 100 Oaks Mall, also in Nashville. In 1978, Taubman Centers announced that it had replaced J. C. Penney as co-developer, but that the latter would still be building a store in the mall. The planning and zoning commission approved Taubman's conceptual site plan for the mall in late 1978, under which the mall would begin construction in early 1979 and open in 1981. In addition to all of the features conceptualized by M. H. Hausman, Taubman's plans also called for carpeted seating areas, planters, skylights, and modern sculptures commissioned specifically for the mall. Construction was further delayed due to difficulty in finding suitable anchor stores and tenants, along with delays in rezoning the property for commercial use, and road improvements along Interstate 40 and U.S. Route 70S. By late 1987, Taubman had also confirmed that Castner Knott and Dillard's had signed on as two of the mall's anchor stores.

1990s

Bellevue Center originally opened on August 9, 1990 with Castner Knott and Dillard's situated at the far ends of the trident-shaped mall. Spaces for two other anchors were included in the design. One of these was delegated for Nashville's first Macy's store, but the project was canceled and nothing was ever built on the site. Macy's eventually came to the mall in the former Castner Knott location after a series of acquisitions. Other tenants included KB Toys, Limited Too, Abercrombie & Fitch, Gap Inc., and Electronic Express.
Bellevue Center's upscale offerings showed initial promise, but foot traffic at the mall began to decline soon after, with competition from the Mall at Green Hills and Cool Springs Galleria, where new locations of stores previously exclusive to Bellevue Center began to open. Sears came to Bellevue Center in 1999, building a new store on the empty anchor space in the northeast corner of the mall. Despite the arrival of a third anchor, foot traffic continued to suffer, and retailers began abandoning the mall in the early 2000s. Mall space began to be filled by professional services, churches, and the instructional arts. When Dillard's eventually closed its store and sold its property to the mall's owners in 2007 following years of declining sales, drastic plans for redevelopment were announced.
Bellevue Center officially closed on May 31, 2008, when the last of its non-anchor tenants moved out. Since-abandoned redevelopment plans included converting the former Dillard's building into a branch of the Metro Nashville Public Library and Kohl's department store. The area formerly occupied by the mall itself would have been replaced with an open-air lifestyle center. Sears and Macy's announced initial intentions to remain open through the redevelopment process and anchor the redeveloped property, but Macy's chose Bellevue as one of eleven stores nationally to close during the late 2000s recession. When Macy's closed on March 15, 2009, Sears was left as the final operating retailer at Bellevue Center. In May 2015, Sears began liquidating its store, with plans to permanently close it in August 2015.
During the fall of 2011, the Metro Government announced its intent to build a new Bellevue library elsewhere, abandoning its plans to locate at the mall site. Around the same time, Crosland Southeast began a new redevelopment plan for the former mall, which also was later withdrawn.
The latest redevelopment plan, also by Crosland Southeast, was unveiled in November 2014. It calls for the demolition of the mall, replacing it with a mixed-use center called "One Bellevue Place", which would feature a hotel, a community ice rink facility operated by the Nashville Predators, 300 multifamily residential units, up to of professional and medical office space, a cinema multiplex, and up to of retail space. It was expected to be completed in 2018. One Bellevue Place opened in 2018. The renovated mall includes an AMC movie theater, along with Burlington, Michaels, Ulta Beauty, hotels, and an ice rink.