The mall was originally developed by
General Growth Properties, opening in August 1981. The original anchors were
JCPenney, Ben Snyder's, and deJong's.
Lazarus was added in August 1982. General Growth sold the mall as part of a larger portfolio of 19 centers to a passive institutional investor,
Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1984. General Growth retained the management agreement for over the next decade. Snyder's was acquired by
Hess's in 1987 and assumed the Hess's nameplate in 1988. Hess's ran into financial difficulties a few years later, shuttering this store in 1993. The
Famous-Barr division of
May Company bought the closed anchor, demolished it and opened a new store on the same site in 1996. After the mall was acquired by a partnership of
Simon Property Group and
Macerich, it was expanded to provide a larger food court area and a carousel was installed. Simon assumed management at this time. In 2005, the vacant deJong's location was converted into various specialty stores. On May 2, 2000, a
TGI Fridays restaurant would officially open to the public at the mall. Lazarus briefly adopted the Lazarus-Macy's moniker in 2003 before dropping the legacy Lazarus name in early 2005, becoming simply
Macy's. After the
Federated and
May Company department store merger in 2005, the Famous-Barr site was closed in 2006 and sold to
Dillard's. The latest center mall anchor renovated and opened in 2007. In late 2011 Simon and Macerich terminated their decade plus long multi-state partnership and distributed the remaining 11 properties, with Macerich receiving Eastland Mall and assuming management rights in January 2012. In January 2017, The Limited announced they would be closing all of their 250 stores, including the one at Eastland Mall. In July 2017, Gymboree announced they will close 350 outlet locations, including the one at Eastland Mall. ==See also==