About this mall
The Eastfield Mall is a shopping mall in Springfield, Massachusetts. Built in late 1967, it was one of the first indoor malls in New England. Its three anchor stores were built as free standing stores originally with the actual mall built between them afterwards. Today, Eastfield refers to both the mall and the entire retail district interchangeably.
However, the malls fortunes were reversed. After some hesitation, Filene’s, whose parent company May Department Stores had bought Steigers, moved into their old space. A movie theater was built on unneeded parking in the late 1990s, drawing many more people in the mall. Some new restaurants opened nearby, including two onsite. The mall repositioned itself as a smaller alternative to Holyoke, and as the preferred choice to those in the city’s eastern suburbs and neighborhoods. The arcade, however, did close in 2006. The Eastfield Mall announced it will shorten it’s hours of operation starting sometime in April 2009. The new mall hours will be Monday through Thursday 10:00am until 8:30pm. Friday and Saturday will stay the same with a 10:00am opening and 9:00pm closing and Sunday the hours have been reduced 12:00pm until 5:00pm. The anchor stores at this time have chosen to remain with their normal shopping hours with JCPenney Outlet possibly going to the new format on Monday through Thursday.
Current stores
The Eastfield Mall has over seventy-five stores and restaurants including Macy’s (formerly Filene’s), Sears, American Eagle, Aéropostale, Old Navy, Hot Topic, Pacific Sunwear, Showcase Cinemas, 99 Restaurant & Pub and most recently Steve & Barry’s (closed 2009). JC Penney retains a presence at the mall, however, it turned its store into an outlet for its catalog merchandise in 2005. The mall also has a fair number of independent establishments in both food and consumer goods.
