Rivergate Mall, Goodlettsville, TN

 A dead mall

One of the only Nashville area regional enclosed centers that I have never visited, Rivergate Mall’s location far to the north of the city center usually meant it was out of the way when we ventured northward for a visit.

1- The site where Rivergate Mall now stands in 1968. (Source)  2 & 3- Rivergate Mall’s original footprint in the mid-seventies. (Source for both)  4- Inside the newly opened mall in 1971. (Source)

Located in one of the few municipalities in Davidson County not called Nashville, the low slung, single level monolith makes its home in the suburb of Goodlettsville.  Not far from the intersection of I-65 and the highway Vietnam Veterans Boulevard, it seems as though the respectable 54 year run may soon be coming to an end.

Rivergate Mall Mallmanac ca. 1998.  View the full PDF version here.

Rivergate Mall came to be in 1971 as the largest enclosed retail complex in Tennessee.  The original three anchors included Nashville legacies Castner Knott on the west end and Cain-Sloan to the east as well as national name JCPenney in the middle.

1- The Cain Sloan store exterior in 1971. (Source)  2- The Cain Sloan mall entrance in 1986. (Source)  3- Rivergate Mall at Christmastime in 2005. (Source)  4- A 2011 event at the mall. (Source)

In 1978, Rivergate’s first expansion opened on the front of the facility which included twenty or so new shops.  Cain-Sloan was replaced by Dillard’s in 1987 while, just two years later, a new wing housing a food court and the fourth anchor, Sears, opened perpendicular to the rest of the complex between JCPenney and Dillard’s.

Rivergate Mall lease plan ca. 2017.  View the full PDF version here.

Arguably at the apex of its popularity, the nineties saw damage and recovery from a tornado, the introduction of Knoxville based Proffitt’s taking the place of Castner Knott and the acquisition and ensuing renovation by CBL.  Opry Mills, an enclosed but non-traditional retail competitor opened in 2000 on the site of the defunct amusement park Opryland (R.I.P.)

1- A Rivergate Mall parking lot entrance sign in 2001. (Source)  2 & 3- Two of the Rivergate Mall entrances.  (Source for both)  4- The JCPenney exterior. (Source)  5- Rivergate Mall’s packed parking lot in 1988. (Source)  6- Rivergate Mall from above in the 2010s. (Source)

But the ensuing decades haven’t been as prosperous for the aging stalwart.  CBL offloaded the property in 2013 while Sears became the first anchor to shutter in 2019.  Macy’s departure came soon after in 2020.  Despite these vacancies, the 1978 expansion was converted into another short lived anchor, Smart Buys Furniture, that sits empty today as the third darkened anchor space.

Rivergate Mall Mallmanac ca. 2024.  View the full PDF version here.

The only retail destination of its type north of I-40, even its relative isolation hasn’t been enough for it to escape the realities that traditional shopping malls face today.  Though Dillard’s and JCPenney continue to hang on, in my unfortunate opinion, Rivergate Mall will soon be joining market peers Bellevue Center, Hickory Hollow Mall and Harding Mall in the giant parking lot in the sky.

1- Recent shots of Rivergate Mall’s interior.  3- The JCPenney mall entrance.  4- The food court. (Source for all)

Rivergate Mall official website

CoolSprings Galleria, Franklin, TN

An extant asset

(Source)

In the early nineties, we were tightly packed on an old yellow school bus motoring or way up I-65 on our way from the Huntsville area to Nashville.  We were on a high school field trip with our ultimate destination being Vanderbilt University.  As we passed through Nashville’s suburban neighbor Franklin, I noticed an extensive construction site right off of the freeway to our left.  I found out later that the mounds of cleared earth and rising steel skeleton was what would one day be CoolSprings Galleria.

1- CoolSprings Galleria aerial a few months before opening.  (Source)  2- The Castner Knott mall entrance.  (Source)  3- A mall entrance at night.  (Source)

Located just a few miles south of Nashville’s oldest mall, 100 Oaks, I usually made a point to visit both on my many trips 100 miles to the north.  I finally got to see CoolSprings Galleria’s washy bi-level concourses for myself later in the mid-nineties and it was everything you would expect from a mall built during that era.  Extensive, shaded barrel skylights hanging above our heads.  Pastel ceramic tiles underfoot.  And the mezzanines between the bottom and top levels were lined with mauve and blue protruding half-circle shaped design elements, which for some reason are what I remember most about CoolSprings in those early days.

CoolSprings Galleria Mallmanac, ca. 1996.  View the full PDF version here.

CoolSprings Galleria opened in 1991 in a location that was then just on the southern fringes of Nashville’s urban area.  It was developed by Chattanooga based CBL Properties in partnership with DeBartolo.  The original anchors were Sears, Dillard’s, and Nashville based Castner-Knott, whose massive store on the mall’s north end, with its darkened glass entranceways and horizontal pin stripes, punctuated the visual impact of the modern new shopping facility.  Parisian and JCPenney were added not long after.

1- CoolSprings Galleria exterior before opening.  2- Castner Knott takes shape.  3- The original look of one of the main entrances.  4 to 6- Views of the nineties interior.  (Source for all)

As the years went on, the area surrounding CoolSprings grew tremendously.  The fields were replaced with suburban high rise office buildings while acres of new retail sprung up where soybeans used to grow.  Now the entire area is fully urbanized, with Nashville’s urban outskirts now reaching all the way down to Columbia.  Castner-Knott went through several name changes, from Proffitt’s to Hecht’s to Macy’s today, while Parisian was taken over by Belk.

CoolSprings Galleria lease plan, ca. 2021.  View the full PDF version here.

Sears closed their location on the mall’s southern end in 2013.  The bottom level was soon occupied by Belk and rebuilt as their men’s and kids’ store but the upper level was completely demolished to make way for an outdoor “lifestyle center” expansion featuring H&M and American Girl.  It’s rare to see a shopping mall today with so many anchors and none of them vacant.  Only the most viable shopping malls in a market can boast this, and along with the Mall at Green Hills, CoolSprings is among the top dogs of Nashville’s retail scene.

1- Sears and the main mall entrance in 1996.  2- Hecht's and JCPenney in 1996.

Over the years, previous retail stalwarts such as Hickory Hollow Mall, Harding Mall and Rivergate Mall have seen their timely ends.  But CoolSprings Galleria is one example of why I think malls will not ever be completely obsolete.  Right now, we are just seeing a major cull of all of the overbuilt retail establishments.  Once a proper and sustainable number of enclosed shopping centers has been reached, we’ll probably see a lot less churn.  And I would be more than confident in saying that CoolSprings Galleria will be one of the ones left.

The newer entrance design for CoolSprings Galleria (Source)

CoolSprings Galleria official website

Hickory Hollow Mall, Antioch, TN

A dead mall

(Source)

Nashville has always been a city that I loved. Many a night my friends and I would take the northward drive for Nashville over the larger alternative of Atlanta. I really loved downtown and the west end near Vanderbilt. But, despite being in close proximity to Nashville International Airport, a must see on almost every trip, I think we only stopped by Hickory Hollow Mall once or twice. The impression the bi-level structure always gave was one of conformity; nothing groundbreaking or memorable was encased underneath its high ceilings and within its wide concourses. Just names and faces that could be seen at any number of the nation's mid-market shopping mall.

-UPDATE-  1- Aerial of Hickory Hollow Mall in 1987 (Source)  2- Construction for an expansion of Dillard’s in 1990.  (Source)  3- Dillard’s darkened entrance after the department store departed in 2008.  (Source)  4- Sears during its liquidation in 2012.  (Source)

Hickory Hollow Mall opened in 1978 among Nashville's growing southeastern neighborhoods. A fully two-tiered facility, it opened with Sears, Castner-Knott and Cain Sloan as anchors. In 1982, a JCPenney and its accompanying wing were added. Then, in 1991, after Dillard's had taken over the Cain Sloan space, they expanded by adding a new structure to the flanking side of their old box, while their previous square footage was converted into mall shops. The mall kept this footprint up to the bitter end.

Hickory Hollow Mall Mallmanac ca. 1998. View the full PDF version here.

Even with Castner-Knott's being taken over first by Proffitt's then Macy's, the mall trudged along through the eighties and the nineties as king of its trade area. But changes were coming, and they were rather abrupt. The first anchor to go was JCPenney in 2006, followed by Dillard's in 2008. Smaller stores started exiting in droves, being supplanted by either perpetually drawn gates or local, off brand stores. The final stake through Hickory Hollow's heart was Sears announcement of their impending closure in 2011, while Macy's made their proposed exit public just a few weeks later.

-UPDATE-  Inside Hickory Hollow Mall.  (Source for all)

Despite being left with only a junior anchor (Electronics Express) and a few dozen shops, the mall is in the midst of a redevelopment. The Dillard's has been turned into a branch of the Nashville State Community College while the Nashville-Davidson government has converted the old JCPenney into office space. The former inline square footage was purchased by a local entrepreneur and was recently rechristened as the Global Mall at the Crossings. The upper level is intended for local stores with an ethnic flair while the bottom level is reserved for more traditional tenants. Though they claim to have around 60 spaces leased with Hispanic, African and Middle Eastern influences, the old Hickory Hollow still seems unable to attract those national names essential to most major shopping malls' long term success.

Hickory Hollow Mall lease plan ca. 2011. View the full PDF version here.

Anyone who has followed the retail industry as close as we do knows that this type of venture is risky at best, financial suicide at worst. Very few older shopping malls have successfully pulled off this type of transition. But the mall's new owners point to the success of nearby 100 Oaks Mall, which has seen multiple conversions and now serves as a satellite facility for the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The success of 100 Oaks, however, is rarely repeated when looking at the nation as a whole, so the possibility of its happening two times within the same city is rather unlikely. But we'll have to wait and see. And, with my being the mall enthusiast that I am, I know that I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

-UPDATE-  (Source for all)

Hickory Hollow Mall on Wikipedia