Ashtabula Towne Square, formerly Ashtabula Mall is a one-level shopping mall 2.2 miles (3.5 km) southeast of downtown Ashtabula, Ohio, between North Ridge Road East and OH-11 in Edgewood, a suburb of Ashtabula. The mall had six anchor stores which are currently all vacant. They once housed Dillard’s, Famous Labels, JCPenney, Sears, Steve & Barry’s and Super Kmart.
Mall History[]
The mall's original anchor stores included Kmart, Phar-Mor, Dillard's, Carlisle's, Sears and JCPenney. Kmart was converted into a Super Kmart store in 2000. Carlisle's would only last two years due to the company going out of business in 1994, it would later become a Dillard's Home Store the same year. Phar-Mor closed in 2002 due to the companies bankruptcy, the space would later become Steve & Barry's in 2005. The food court in the mall originally housed a Mr. Hero, Wendy's, Sbarro, Orient Express, Ruby Tuesday and a few other local eaterys.
Decline[]
The mall was first starting to decline when a Walmart store was built right next to the mall on November 1, 1995 which made it pointless to shop at Ashtabula Mall. Decline started badly in 2002 when Phar-Mor, DIY Home Warehouse, Northern Reflections, Waves Music, Famous Footwear and Family Toy Warehouse all have closed. Later in the early 2000's, Dillard's would close its Home Store in 2005 followed by the main Dillard's store closing in 2007. Steve & Barry's would later close its location in 2009 and remain vacant for a good while. In 2008, Cabot Investment Properties later purchased the mall from Cafaro Company and renamed the mall from Ashtabula Mall to Ashtabula Towne Square. Twelve stores in the mall closed during its mall renaming. Ruby Tuesday closed in March, 2008 and Old Navy closed in early 2008. In 2008, the long vacant Family Toy Warehouse space would become Dunham's Sports, relocating from the Saybrook Plaza just a few miles down the road in Ashtabula. After Dillard's Home Store vacating the former Carlisle's in 2005, two years later in 2007, the space was converted into a Famous Labels store. Famous Labels remained until it shut down quietly in early 2010. In 2016, the space was then split into two spaces, the right side became a Wildfire Dance Studio and the left side became a Habitat for Humanity: ReStore. The ReStore would end up closing in 2019. The former Steve & Barry's space remained vacant from 2009 until 2017 when it was half used as a National Retail Outlet store, National Retail Outlet would then relocate in 2020 to the former Deb space. In 2012, Sears closed their mall location and the Sears Auto Center would then relocate to the former Penske Auto Center inside of the Super Kmart. Super Kmart then ended up closing sometime in 2016 along with the Sears Auto Center space and it still remains vacant to this day. In 2017, University Hospitals moved into the former Sears space splitting it in half, the other half would later become Planet Fitness the same year. In October, 2020, JCPenney closed their mall location as it was the last anchor left in the whole mall. The mall currently doesn't have any anchors, not counting the 2 split spaces and the Joann Fabrics store. In July 2023, the six-screen movie theater inside the mall closed down permanently. In March 2024, Joann Fabrics closed down, which was the last open store with a mall entrance.
