A fight for survival: Charleston's Citadel Mall

Regional enclosed shopping centers across the country are in decline. Charleston's Citadel Mall is one that ownership has continuously attempted to revamp to respond to changing retail demographics and trends.

Located near the interchange of I-526 and U.S. 17, the Citadel Mall was the last of four enclosed regional shopping malls built in the Charleston, South Carolina metropolitan area during the 1970s and 80s. The first two malls, Northwoods Mall and Ashley Plaza Mall opened in June and August of 1972. The third, Charles Town Square, opened its doors in 1976. Today, Citadel Mall is one of two remaining (the other being Northwoods Mall) enclosed regional shopping malls in suburban Charleston, South Carolina.

The mall was developed by Jacobs, Visconsi & Jacobs of Cleveland, Ohio. It opened to great fanfare on July 29, 1981, with Sears, Belk, and Thalhimer’s as department store anchors. In 1992, when the Thalhimer’s chain was folded into Hecht’s, the Citadel Mall store was sold to Dillard’s. Two years later, the store was taken over by JCPenney when Dillard’s completed construction on a larger store at the shopping center.

Around 2000, Belk built a larger two-story department store at the mall, which allowed its smaller, older building to be sold to Parisian. During this period of time, the mall was renovated and a food court was added. In 2001, the mall’s JCPenney closed and was razed in order to make way for a new Target store. JCPenney returned to the mall in 2007, replacing Parisian after that chain was acquired by Belk. In 2009, a sixteen screen megaplex, the Citadel Mall IMAX Stadium 16, opened in the mall’s parking lot. This theater replaced an older six screen cinema that was originally built by General Cinemas and later operated by AMC.

The mall was purchased by TMP SRE 1, LLC. in early 2017 for $17 million. A month later, JCPenney announced the closure of its store at Citadel Mall. This space was then leased to the Medical University of South Carolina. Today, this space is known as the MUSC Health West Campus. The West Campus is being positioned to offer services that won’t require users to come to the downtown Charleston campus.

In 2018, Sears closed its store, along with 41 other locations across the country. In 2019, this space was then leased to HBO for the filming of its comedy television series “The Righteous Gemstones.” While mall ownership has aggressively attempted to position the property to align with changing retail shopping trends and demographics, the shopping center was sold to Singerman Real Estate of Chicago in January 2023.

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Health West Campus is located in a space once occupied by JCPenney. The MUSC Health West Campus is being positioned to offer services that won’t require users to come to the downtown Charleston campus.

The southeast mall entrance to Citadel Mall.

Closed storefronts inside the Citadel Mall.