Three Rivers Mall Is No Longer What It Was, But It's Still There in Kelso, Washington

When the doors first opened at Three Rivers Mall

Before the parking lots and glass doors, the ground at Three Rivers Drive was open grass, part of a small golf course that met the edge of the highway. By 1986, the fairway was marked for excavation, and a new mall took shape.

The Hahn Company, already known for building regional shopping centers, designed the project as a one-level enclosed space with long corridors and skylights to brighten the center court.

Construction began in 1986, and the grand opening followed in 1987 with four anchors: The Bon Marche, JCPenney, Sears, and Emporium.

Each retailer closed its downtown Longview location and reopened inside the new complex.

The Bon Marche occupied about 80,000 square feet with apparel and home goods spread over wide aisles.

JCPenney and Sears flanked other wings, their signs visible from the highway.

Emporium completed the four-corner plan on the east side of the mall.

Between them stood smaller names like Radio Shack, Foot Locker, and B. Dalton Bookseller.

Orange Julius and Corn Dog on a Stick filled the food court.

The mall was air-conditioned, bright, and enclosed from the rain.

Its corridors formed a loop that visitors quickly memorized, replacing the old downtown grid with tile floors and steady indoor foot traffic.

The 1990s buildout - pads, big box, and steady trade

By the early 1990s, the land around Three Rivers Mall no longer looked bare.

Asphalt pushed farther out each season, and new lights appeared along the drive that curved past the main entrance.

Target arrived in 1990, built on its own parcel across the road, its red logo rising high enough to catch the eyes of drivers coming off the interstate.

People began to move easily between the two buildings, parking once and crossing between them in the rain.

The empty corners outside the mall filled next.

First came Red Lobster, square and solid with its front turned toward the road.

Fiesta Bonita followed, a bright stop for families wrapping up their errands.

Together they gave the property its second shift, alive again after the big stores locked up.

TOP Food & Drug showed up, transforming in time to Safeway, and with it came the steady movement of grocery carts.

Inside, the big stores still held their ground at either end, quiet but stubborn.

The smaller shops came and went without much notice.

You'd see new signs go up where old ones had faded, but nothing really changed.

Carts still rattled out front, shoes still echoed down the tile halls, and by Saturday afternoon, the parking lot was packed, same as it ever was.

Shock to the lineup - Emporium exit and a slow thinning

The calm that carried through the 1990s ended in 2001 when Emporium closed all of its stores.

At Three Rivers Mall, its large corner went dark, leaving an empty box with display racks still visible through the glass.

The closure broke the mall's four-anchor symmetry for the first time.

Smaller tenants began to slip away over the next few years.

As national trends turned elsewhere, Radio Shack, KB Toys, and Sam Goody exited one by one.

Their shuttered gates grew in number along the corridors.

The vast Emporium space found itself repurposed over time: a winter showroom of cars, a fleeting Halloween shop, and eventually a church that claimed the floor for its weekend gatherings.

In 2005, The Bon Marche went dark at Three Rivers Mall and was folded into the larger Federated Department Stores system.

The space was reborn as Macy's soon after.

When the Bon Marche letters came off the building, the mall lost its last piece of the local department store identity that once defined it.

Sears announced its own departure in late 2012 and finished its final sale early in 2013.

The loss carved out another corner of the property, reducing regular draw from the department stores that had anchored it since opening.

JCPenney and Macy's managed to keep their customers, but the route connecting them had gone still.

The once-inviting glass entrances were now barred, signaling the curtain fall on that early period of retail life.

An entertainment turn - 2014 to 2015 refits and openings

The mall began to change shape again in 2014, when new tenants moved into spaces that had sat empty for years.

Sportsman's Warehouse opened that July in the former Emporium box, its high ceilings lined with tents, fishing rods, and racks of camouflage.

It gave the property a new purpose, pulling in shoppers who came for gear instead of clothes.

That spring, a Food Network crew filmed inside the food court for an episode of "Food Court Wars."

The show pitted two local vendors against each other for a free lease, and the winning stall, Gaufre Gourmet, opened in April.

It closed by fall, but the filming brought a short burst of attention to a corridor that had gone quiet.

Planet Fitness arrived next, carving its 20,000-square-foot gym out of the old Chuck E. Cheese's and adjoining space.

The bright purple signage was up by September, and doors opened in January 2015.

Around the same time, Regal Cinemas built a new 12-screen theater on the footprint of the demolished Sears building.

With those two openings, the property leaned toward entertainment.

Evening traffic replaced weekend crowds, and the echo of footsteps gave way to the sound of treadmills and movie previews.

Closures and a sale - 2016 to 2019 reset of the roster

After the brief revival, Three Rivers Mall faced another cycle of turnover.

Rouse Properties, the owner since 2012, was acquired in 2016 by Brookfield Properties Retail Group, bringing the mall into a new corporate portfolio.

The changes were mostly quiet on the surface, but leases thinned, and several in-line stores closed.

Macy's announced it was leaving in early 2017, closing the book on a run that stretched back to The Bon Marche more than thirty years before.

By March, the 80,000-square-foot store had gone dark, its glass doors hidden behind brown paper before the heat of summer.

Not long after, a Panera Bread rose by the entrance road on a new pad built for dining.

Brookfield sold the property in July 2019 to a new ownership group, Three Rivers Village, LLC, based in Arizona.

JCPenney, Sportsman's Warehouse, and Regal bore most of the activity.

As the decade wound down, the mall leaned on those steady anchors more than on shopping itself.

Lean years and small wins - 2020 to 2023 on the floor

The early 2020s brought small changes to Three Rivers Mall, quiet but steady ones.

In March 2020, The Coffee Court opened inside the food court, taking the place of long-vacant counters.

Its espresso machines filled the open space with a new sound, and for the first time in years, a few tables were occupied each morning.

Later that year, Pier 1 Imports closed its nearby store after the company went out of business.

Some smaller stores shifted toward service or hobby use. One unit became a comic shop, another a local art studio.

A few offices leased short-term space to avoid the cost of separate buildings.

The shopping floor began to carry a mix of errands, workouts, and public meetings more than daily retail.

City programs used the concourse for safety fairs and seasonal events.

The mall no longer filled with shoppers, but it still gave people an indoor space to pass through, its polished tile echoing with small, familiar sounds that marked the routines of an aging retail space still in use.

New owners, new label - 2024 to 2025, and what opened

Ownership shifted again in late 2024, when Three Rivers Development Group purchased the property for 20 million dollars from Three Rivers Village LLC.

The new company introduced the name Three Rivers Crossing and began preparing renovation plans that included an updated food court and new perimeter restaurants.

Signs with the new branding went up by early 2025.

In February 2025, the new owners discussed setting consistent operating hours for tenants to reestablish daily flow inside the mall.

The spring brought other kinds of headlines: federal agents arrested a Columbia County juvenile suspected of planning an attack there.

The investigation began with a May 19 tip, and the FBI went public with the arrest on June 5 as legal hearings unfolded through the summer.

Throughout the year, small openings continued to shape daily life on site.

Wing Lord began serving customers in September with hours posted from late morning to evening.

Regal, JCPenney, and Sportsman's Warehouse still anchored the property, and Planet Fitness stayed open to members.

By autumn 2025, the rebranded mall stands as a mixed-use complex in transition, its glass entrances carrying a new name above doors that had been in place for nearly four decades.