Kenwood Towne Centre

Kenwood Towne Centre is a shopping mall located at corner of Montgomery and Kenwood Roads, adjacent to Interstate 71, northeast of Cincinnati.

Presently encompassing 1,078,300 leasable square feet, and housing 180 stores and services, Kenwood Towne Centre is operated by Chicago-based General Growth Properties. The mall includes retailers such as Restoration Hardware, Macy's, Brooks Brothers, Lacoste, Arhaus Furniture, Cheesecake Factory and Williams-Sonoma.^[2]

The Kenwood Collection is located behind the mall.

In 2015, Altar'd State, Lush, Fabletics and Vineyard Vines opened at the mall

History

Originally known as Kenwood Plaza, the linear strip shopping center opened in 1956. At first, it was anchored only by Cincinnati-based McAlpin's. An H & S Pogue was in business by 1959. The PLAZA was situated on a 34-acre (140,000 m²) tract, north of downtown Cincinnati. The site is not located inside a physical city limits, but lies within Hamilton County's Sycamore Township, in an area commonly known as Kenwood.

Inline stores in the original Kenwood Plaza included W.T. Grant, Gray Drug, S.S. Kresge and Kroger and Alber's supermarkets.

The original center underwent a major renovation in the late 1980s. The eastern half of the structure was razed. The western portion, and the two anchor stores, were incorporated into the first phase of a 100,000-square-foot (9,300 m²), enclosed shopping mall. Renamed Kenwood Towne Centre, it opened in October 1987.

The second phase of the project involved the construction of a second, 450,000-square-foot (42,000 m²) bi-level mall concourse, with Cincinnati-based Lazarus department store on its northern end. The newly remodeled shopping center, encompassing 1.1 million leasable square feet, was officially dedicated in late 1988.

Streetscape addition added in 2004.

The mall added LEGO store, which opened on May 21, 2009 (the first in Ohio), and a Teavana store.^[3]

On April 20, 2011, a 12-year-old boy attempted to steal a car at the mall's parking lot. The incident happened at 7:00 PM, according to police. The boy was also seen approaching a Jeep Cherokee and told a man that he wanted the man's car. The suspect was later found inside an electronics store by mall cameras. The suspect was later arrested and charged with aggravated robbery and giving false information to police.^[4]

Anchors

In 1983, Pogue's merged with their Indianapolis-based sister store L. S. Ayres and the store name changed accordingly. In 1988, L. S. Ayres closed all their Cincinnati locations. The Kenwood anchor was sold to J.C. Penney. Birmingham-based Parisian purchased the location in 1993. That store closed in February 2007 after Parisian was purchased by Belk of Charlotte, North Carolina. This building was demolished to make way for a new Nordstrom store on the same site.

The original McAlpin's anchor was renamed Dillard's in 1998 after McAlpin's parent, Mercantile Stores was bought by Dillard's. The Lazarus store, built during the 1988 renovation, was renamed Lazarus-Macy's in 2003. The store fully adopted the Macy's name in 2005.

2000s renovations

A second phase of renovations, completed in 2005, expanded the Macy's to over 213,000 square feet (19,800 m²), and added an adjacent, multi-level parking garage to the rear of the store. More importantly, the entire south facade of the mall was expanded to create an exterior streetscape of restaurants and retail with more inviting entrance features, designed by local architecture and interior design firm FRCH Design Worldwide.

The latest remodeling got underway in early 2007. It consisted of the razing of the old Pogue's/Parisian anchor (on the mall's southwest end). This store was replaced by a 2-level (140,000 square foot), Seattle-based Nordstrom, which opened on September 25, 2009. An extension of the mall concourse designed by FRCH was created to access the new anchor.

Starting in the summer of 2012, a complete interior renovation began, also designed by FRCH, replacing the floor tile for the first time since the mall's opening. A more open and accessible food court area was also created.^[5]

Upscale shopping

Kenwood Towne Centre had become Cincinnati's most upscale shopping mall by the late 1990s. In order for the center to remain in this position, the construction of a trendy, open-air "lifestyle" component began in 2003. This bi-level addition, known as the Streetscape, comprised 100,000 square feet (9,300 m²) and was built onto the southern front of the existing mall, which faces Montgomery Road. It was completed in 2004, and added 12 new retail stores and restaurants.

Anchor stores

• Dillard's
• Macy's
• Nordstrom

References

Notes

Bibliography

• Mall Hall of Fame: Kenwood Plaza / Towne Centre July 2008 Archive

External links

• Kenwood Towne Centre website