West Park Mall

The mall was built in 1981 by May Centers, a division of The May Department Stores Company. It featured Famous-Barr (now Macy's) and JCPenney as its anchor stores, with original tenants including Hallmark Cards, Foot Locker, Kay-Bee Toys, Claire's, Zales Jewelers, GNC, Waldenbooks, and Lerner New York.[2] An 80,000-square-foot (7,400 m²) Venture was added as a third anchor in 1984.[3] Westfield Group bought the mall from CenterMark in 1993, and renamed it Westfield Shoppingtown West Park in 1998.[4]

The Venture store closed in 1998, the same year in which the mall owners proposed adding a fourth anchor store.[5] The West Park Mall Venture store and another at Kentucky Oaks Mall in nearby Paducah, Kentucky both became Shopko in 1999,[6][7] bringing West Park to 100 percent occupancy for the first time in its history.[8] Shopko closed in 2001.[9]

Old Navy opened in the mall in 2004.[10] A year later, the former Venture and Shopko space became Steve & Barry's.[11] In 2006, Westfield sold the mall to Centro Watt (which in 2011 rebranded as Brixmor Property Group), who reverted it to its original name.[12] Barnes & Noble was also added.[13]

Several stores closed in the mall between 2008 and 2010, including Steve & Barry's, Pacific Sunwear, Tilt, (a video arcade that was originally called "The Gold Mine" in the 1980s,) and a restaurant which had been at the mall for 24 years. Despite these vacancies, the mall was 88 percent occupied in 2010, with several of its original stores still in operation.[14] Brixmor hired Madison Marquette to be the manager of the mall in mid-2012.[15]

Ashley Furniture opened in 2018 in the former Venture building.

On January 5, 2021, it was announced that Macy's would be closing in April 2021 as part of a plan to close 46 stores nationwide.[16]

• Official website