Hamilton Place Mall and the long drive east
In the mid-1980s, the area near the Shallowford Road exit off I-75 still looked like the outskirts of Chattanooga. It was pastureland, with a few homes scattered around it, and not much reason to stop unless you lived nearby or missed your exit.
CBL & Associates, led by Charles B. Lebovitz, bought 210 acres there and started drawing up plans for a super-regional mall with five anchor stores. The first timeline was ambitious.
Construction was initially slated for 1984, then slipped. By the time work actually began in 1986, locals had already had time to form opinions, and a common one was simple: the site was too far from downtown.
The distance was the whole point. CBL was counting on easy highway access and plenty of space to build something large. The main mall would not fit into the old shopping areas.
It would build a new one, starting with a large indoor building set near the highway, designed to bring in shoppers from Chattanooga, North Georgia, and any nearby areas.
August 1987: doors open, crowds prove it
Hamilton Place opened to the public on August 5, 1987. The opening drew strong foot traffic from the start.
The building opened as a two-level shopping center with 125 stores and services. At the center was an 11-bay food court called "The Oasis," set up for lunchtime lines and long pauses at the tables.
Three two-level department stores anchored the early mix: Belk, Loveman's, and Parisian.
A United Artists Cinemas 9 multiplex was planned as part of the property and rounded out the initial draw.
The mall was not fully complete on opening day. Sears and the movie theater opened after the initial debut. By 1989, the mall's footprint was complete with Sears and the UA 9 in place.
The project cost about $180 million, and by 1988 the center offered roughly 1 million square feet of leasable space.
Hamilton Place opened as Tennessee's largest shopping mall and held that distinction for the next decade.
Eastgate fades as Gunbarrel fills in fast
Hamilton Place Mall shifted where Chattanooga shopped after it opened.
Shoppers arrived from beyond the city, and the new mall quickly eclipsed Eastgate Mall, an older open-air center that had opened in 1962 about four miles away.
Eastgate began declining as anchors closed or relocated. JCPenney and Hess's planned moves to Hamilton Place, and Eastgate's decline accelerated.
The area around Hamilton Place changed at the same time. Big-box stores, strip centers, and restaurants were built along Gunbarrel Road and Shallowford Road after the mall opened.
Open fields on the east side became a commercial district tied to the mall and its traffic.
Anchor changes inside Hamilton Place began early. In 1988, Loveman's was acquired by Proffitt's Inc., and the store was rebranded as Proffitt's.
Hess's entered the Chattanooga market by taking over a planned Miller's store at Hamilton Place, opening on July 27, 1988.
In early 1992, JCPenney relocated from Eastgate into a newly constructed two-level store at Hamilton Place and welcomed its first shoppers on February 28, 1992.
With that addition, the mall expanded to about 1.16 million square feet.
Proffitt's takes over Hess's and reshaping mall-security duty
Retail consolidation changed Hamilton Place anchor lineup in the early 1990s. In 1992, Proffitt's Inc. purchased a group of Hess's stores, including location at Hamilton Place.
Proffitt's kept both department store boxes in operation and reassigned their roles.
The original Loveman's location became Proffitt's for Women. The former Hess's location became Proffitt's Men, Kids & Home.
By 1993, the mall had two Proffitt's-branded anchors operating at the same time, and the arrangement continued for more than a decade.
In 1993, a woman was abducted from inside the mall and forced through the parking lot to her truck.
She later sued the mall owner, a department store, and the security contractor. The case became Staples v. CBL Associates and reached the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2000.
The record included 286 criminal incidents at the mall over a 14-month period.
The Court found the abduction foreseeable and held that the mall owed patrons a duty to provide reasonable security. The case was sent back for a jury to decide negligence and comparative fault.
The decision became a landmark Tennessee ruling on premises liability and mall security.
The 1998 facelift and the Dillard's sign
By the late 1990s, Hamilton Place was old enough to need a refresh and successful enough to justify one.
In January 1998, CBL began a major interior remodel tied to the mall's 10th anniversary.
Over seven months, contractors updated flooring and decor, added new seating and planters, improved accessibility for people with disabilities, and expanded the food court by 6,000 square feet.
A new entrance was created that led toward additions, including Big Apple Diner and Atlanta Bread Company. The mall also introduced a new logo. The renovation was completed by August 1998.
A bigger visual change arrived that same summer.
In July 1998, Belk - an original anchor - exited the Chattanooga market as part of a deal involving Dillard's and Mercantile Stores Co.
The Belk at Hamilton Place was rebranded as Dillard's, with Dillard's taking over the two-level space of roughly 128,000 square feet.
By the end of the decade, the anchor roster included Dillard's, Parisian, Proffitt's for Women, Proffitt's Men, Kids & Home, JCPenney, Sears, plus the Regal Cinemas.
The mall's size title shifted, too: Memphis's Wolfchase Galleria surpassed Hamilton Place in February 1997, and Knoxville's West Town Mall expanded again in late 1998, pushing Hamilton Place down to third-largest in Tennessee.
Big numbers, HQ move, and chain mergers
Hamilton Place entered the 2000s as a regional machine that kept pulling shoppers off the interstate.
By the early 2000s, the mall was attracting more than 15 million visitors a year, and its retail sales were about 30 percent above the national average for malls.
The surrounding district kept thickening with hotels, restaurants, and big-box retail, effectively turning the I-75 interchange into Chattanooga's retail second city.
After converting into a publicly traded REIT in 1993, CBL continued managing Hamilton Place directly.
In 2002, it built its corporate headquarters on the south perimeter of the mall property. The building, known as CBL Center, measured about 147,000 square feet.
Meanwhile, department store names kept changing hands. Belk acquired the Proffitt's chain, and the deal closed in early 2005.
By March 8, 2006, both Proffitt's locations at Hamilton Place had been converted: the former Proffitt's for Women became Belk Women's & Children, and the former Proffitt's Men, Kids & Home became Belk Men's & Home.
In October 2006, Belk acquired Parisian as well. Since Belk already operated two large stores at Hamilton Place, it did not keep the Parisian there. The Parisian store closed in February 2007.
Movies out, books in, and a $100M pause
Hamilton Place also started remaking itself around uses that were not department stores.
The mall's original movie theater closed first. The Regal Cinemas 9, which had operated under the UA name early on, showed its last film in September 2007.
CBL demolished the old theater structure and used the site for new retail development.
A Barnes & Noble bookstore replaced it, built as a single-story building of about 29,700 square feet.
Barnes & Noble opened on November 12, 2008. Movies stayed in the Hamilton Place orbit through a newer Regal multiplex built on an outparcel nearby.
In May 2008, CBL announced a $100 million expansion proposal for Hamilton Place and its environs.
The vision included two multi-level parking garages, an open-air lifestyle wing with more shops and restaurants, and additional interior renovations.
To finance it, CBL sought a special business tax or surcharge on sales at the mall and five nearby CBL-owned centers, pitched at roughly 0.5 to 1 percent.
The Tennessee General Assembly did not approve the plan, and by 2009, CBL shelved the $100 million expansion. The scaled-back work focused on smaller improvements.
The Shoppes at Hamilton Place, an adjacent open-air plaza, received a 6,000 square foot addition that brought in Sweet Peppers and specialty shops such as Bath Junkie.
2011 refresh, Forever 21, and new buzz
In 2010, Belk completed a $4 million remodel of its two stores and consolidated departments. The Belk Men's & Home store was partially downsized, and its upper level was vacated.
The change left a large, finished retail floor without an operating department, with lighting and fixtures still in place but no longer part of Belk's sales space.
The vacated level was leased to another tenant. Forever 21 took the former upper floor and opened a large store there on March 16, 2011, adding a new apparel draw inside an anchor box.
CBL followed with an interior renovation across the mall. In early 2011, CBL announced a multi-million dollar project focused on interior finishes and amenities.
Construction began in March 2011 and proceeded in phases, with much of the work scheduled overnight to reduce disruption.
The work included new flooring, updated lighting and signage, remodeled restrooms, and refreshed common areas. A new logo and updated branding were introduced during the project.
The renovation continued through November 2011. By the end of 2011, Hamilton Place had a cleaner, more contemporary look.
From fireworks panic to the Sears redevelopment plan
On December 26, 2016, fireworks were set off inside a Victoria's Secret PINK store. Shoppers feared an active shooter, and the building evacuated in a rush that caused injuries.
In 2017, a couple who had been trampled filed a lawsuit against the mall owner and its security contractor.
In November 2017, H&M opened a store on the mall's upper level and added a new national brand to the lineup.
In 2018, the property added a large restaurant outparcel. Chattanooga's first Cheesecake Factory opened as a freestanding building on December 4, 2018.
Sears began closing as the chain entered bankruptcy. In October 2018, Sears filed for Chapter 11 and announced the closure of 142 stores, including Hamilton Place.
Liquidation sales began, and the store closed on January 6, 2019, ending a 30-year run at the mall.
CBL bought back the Sears building and planned a redevelopment of the space. In November 2018, Dave & Buster's was announced for part of the former Sears space.
In December 2018, Dick's Sporting Goods announced it would relocate from a nearby strip center into the mall and take another portion of the Sears building.
After Chapter 11: Completing the Sears redevelopment
In 2019, the former Sears structure had been divided and reassigned. The lower level was reconfigured for Dick's Sporting Goods at about 46,000 square feet.
The upper level was split between Dave & Buster's at roughly 29,700 square feet and a planned Crunch Fitness of about 35,000 square feet.
Dick's Sporting Goods opened on March 3, 2020. Dave & Buster's had targeted a March 16 debut, but COVID-19 postponed the opening until June 2020.
Crunch Fitness opened later, in 2024, and completed the Sears redevelopment.
In November 2020, CBL Properties filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to restructure roughly $1.6 billion in debt.
CBL emerged from Chapter 11 by late 2021, and Hamilton Place continued operating day to day.
On June 28, 2021, a 135-room Aloft by Marriott opened adjacent to the former Sears site. The hotel included a rooftop bar and Mean Mug Coffee on the ground floor.
As of 2026, Hamilton Place is marketed as a campus that combines the enclosed mall with surrounding open-air centers and lists more than 180 stores and restaurants.
Belk and Dillard's each operate two stores. JCPenney remains in its longtime space. The former Sears space operates as entertainment, fitness, and large-format retail.
