County East Mall was opened in 1966 as an open-air mall with Sears, Mervyns, and W. T. Grant as the original anchor tenants. In the mid-1970s, JCPenney replaced Grant's as the mall's third anchor. A major overhaul in the late-1980s transformed the mall into an enclosed shopping center with Gottschalks added as a fourth anchor tenant. JCPenney closed on January 25, 1997, and was occupied for several years by a furniture retailer until the building was gutted in 2003 and replaced by the larger two-story Macy's anchor in 2004. Further expansion brought in Marshalls as a fifth anchor in March 2008. In August 2008, Mervyns announced it would close several underperforming stores, including the Somersville Towne Center location, which closed in December of that year. Gottschalks closed due to bankruptcy in 2009, leaving two anchors vacant at the mall. In late 2012, it was announced that a trampoline park was slated to take a portion of the former Gottschalks. In December 2016, half of the former Gottschalks building became a 24 Hour Fitness Super Sport club; the other half of the building remains vacant. In 2013, Factory 2-U opened a Fallas Paredes store in the former Mervyns location and became an anchor tenant. A year later, the mall was sold by Macerich to Time Equities, with Spinoso Group as leasing agent. Marshalls closed in 2013 and the space remained vacant until 2015, when Smart & Final opened up as a replacement tenant. In November 2018, Hibbett Sports opened up in the mall, replacing the spaces that Hot Topic & Zumiez occupied which closed in 2013 & 2018, respectively. On August 6, 2019, it was announced that Sears would be closing the Somersville Town Center location in October 2019 as part of a plan to close 26 stores nationwide. On January 8, 2020, it was announced that Macy's would be closing in April 2020 as part of a plan to close 125 stores nationwide. After Macy's closed, Fallas, 24 Hour Fitness, and Smart & Final are the only anchor stores left.
Renovations
In 1989, County East Mall was converted from an open-air shopping mall to an enclosed shopping center. The mall's most recent renovation was in 2004, which included the name change to Somersville Towne Center along with the opening of the Macy's anchor tenant in a new two-story building, and a cosmetic makeover of the mall's interior. The new construction and makeover, which included new paint, new landscaping, new flooring, and improvements to the mall's entrances, cost a reported US$20 million.
