Nittany Mall opened in January 1968 on East College Avenue in College Township.
It served the fast-growing area around State College and the nearby Penn State campus. This was a period of suburban growth. Crown American developed the property.
The shopping center opened with W.T. Grant and Penn Traffic as its anchor stores. It also had 30 smaller stores placed between the two department stores. The opening gave the area a full indoor shopping center within four miles of Penn State.
It also established a major commercial hub along the corridor linking Routes 150 and 26. The mall drew shoppers from across Centre County.
Sears arrives, and the mall changes in 1970
In 1970, Sears opened at Nittany Mall and left its downtown State College store.
The new anchor store opened with 45 separate departments. Shoppers could buy clothing, appliances, and tools in one place.
A catalog counter connected the store to Sears' national ordering system. Customers could order items for pickup that were not available on the shelves.
The same expansion also included a 10-bay automotive center. Drivers could have their cars serviced while they shopped in the rest of the mall.
This addition changed the mall's layout. New storefronts were built around the Sears entrance, extending the row of tenants beyond the original floor plan.
Families who once had to run errands in different parts of town could now park once and take care of everyday shopping in one place.
The arrival of Sears gave Nittany Mall a third anchor store. It also helped turn the mall into a regional shopping center that attracted customers from outside the immediate State College area.
The Grants chain closed in 1976, leaving one of Nittany Mall's original anchor spaces empty.
That same year, Gee Bee moved into the space. Its discount department store format kept the anchor location in use.
From Penn Traffic to Hess's and a larger footprint, 1982 to 1990
By 1982, another change came to the anchor lineup.
Penn Traffic, one of the two original stores, was sold to Crown American and rebranded as Hess's.
The new banner brought a department store name already familiar to Pennsylvania shoppers, folding the space into the broader Hess's network without altering its square footage.
Seven years later, the property went through its largest project since opening.
In 1989, construction began on an expansion that introduced JCPenney as a fresh anchor.
Sears used the same project to vacate its 1970 building and relocate into a new, larger store at the east end of the mall.
The replacement doubled the retail area that Sears had previously operated, while the automotive center was situated in a free-standing building nearby.
When work finished in 1990, the mall stood with four major department stores under one roof, a footprint that would define its layout heading into the 1990s.
Anchor turnover defines the 1990s
The early 1990s opened with another round of changes.
In 1992, the Gee Bee anchor converted to Value City after the chain was acquired.
The switch kept the space active while introducing a retailer that specialized in discounted fashion and home goods.
Two years later, Hess's was phased out when The Bon-Ton took over the location in 1994, continuing department store operations in the same wing.
A bigger shift came in 1997, when Value City closed its store at the mall.
The building was torn down and replaced by a new Kaufmann's, which opened on the site before the decade closed.
Kaufmann's brought a department store brand tied to May Department Stores Company, placing the mall within a larger retail network.
In 2005, May was sold to Federated Department Stores, and a year later, the Kaufmann's store carried new signage as Macy's.
By the mid-2000s, the anchors that had once defined the property in its early years had been replaced with new chains that reflected the broader consolidation of retail.
Closures and replacements reshape the floor, 2014 to 2018
In 2014, Namdar Realty Group, a New York-based real estate company, acquired the property and assumed responsibility for leasing and operations.
By the middle of the 2010s, national chains began trimming their mall stores, and Nittany Mall was affected in quick succession.
JCPenney closed its location in 2015 as part of a company-wide cutback.
The empty space was quickly re-leased, and in March 2016, Dunham's Sports opened in the former JCPenney anchor, filling the gap with a sporting goods format.
The next closures followed close behind.
In November 2017, Sears announced it would shut its mall store after decades at the property.
The location went dark in January 2018, though its separate automotive center continued to operate for a time afterward.
That spring, The Bon-Ton also closed after the chain's liquidation, leaving another large anchor box vacant.
Within a three-year span, three of the mall's four traditional department store anchors had been replaced or gone dark, creating the largest round of turnover the property had experienced in its history.
After Macy's exit, new anchors arrived from 2020 to 2021
The decade began with another anchor loss.
On January 6, 2020, Macy's announced it would close its Nittany Mall store, with operations to end by March of that year.
The departure left the property without one of its most visible department stores, creating another large vacancy on the concourse.
Replacements arrived quickly for other empty spaces.
On March 13, 2021, Rural King opened inside the former Sears box, bringing a farm and home retailer into the mall for the first time.
That summer, on June 23, 2021, Gabe's began trading out of the former Bon-Ton space, filling another vacant anchor slot.
With Dunham's Sports still holding the former JCPenney location, the lineup of anchors had shifted from department stores to a mix of discount fashion, sporting goods, and home merchandise.
Licensing affirmed and site issues addressed, 2024
In July 2024, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld a decision by the state Gaming Control Board to award SC Gaming OpCo a license for a Category 4 casino at the former Macy's site.
The ruling ended a prolonged dispute that had delayed the project, clearing the way for work to move forward inside the mall.
The legal outcome meant that the box left empty in 2020 would take on a new use, tied to the state's gaming expansion.
A separate issue unfolded on the property itself that same summer.
In August 2024, College Township approved a plan to repair a sinkhole that had opened on the mall grounds after the owner stopped remediation work.
The township took action to stabilize the site, citing the need to ensure public safety.
The decision brought municipal resources onto the property at the same time developers were preparing to convert one of the mall's largest anchors into a casino.
Both developments kept the site in focus, linking its future use with questions of oversight and infrastructure.
New partnership and visible steps toward a casino, 2025
Momentum built in 2025 as new partners and programs tied to the casino project were announced.
In March, Saratoga Casino Holdings entered into a framework agreement with SC Gaming to develop and manage the future Happy Valley Casino at the mall.
The deal provided Saratoga with a path to majority ownership once construction was completed, adding a new company to the project's structure.
Regulatory approval followed in the summer. In September, plans shifted toward staffing.
In early September, Happy Valley Casino announced it would open a 12-week Dealer School, with enrollment beginning October 1 and classes scheduled to start in December and January.
A few weeks later, College Township received a new independent impact study, measuring the casino's projected effects on the local economy and public services.
Together, the events of 2025 marked visible movement from stalled licensing battles toward preparation for opening in spring 2026.
