Bankers Life Insurance Company of Nebraska, now known as Ameritas Life Insurance Company, developed Gateway Mall, first opened in 1960 as the open-air Gateway Shopping Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, anchored originally by Montgomery Ward and local department store Miller & Paine. Construction was estimated at $4.5 million on a 30-acre site.
The center expanded in 1971, and 1990s renovations enclosed the previously open-air walkways. A 2001 sale brought a rebrand to Westfield Shoppingtown Gateway alongside further expansion, before a 2012 sale reverted the property to its Gateway Mall name. Younkers closed in August 2018 amid its parent company’s bankruptcy, Sears followed in March 2019, and Forever 21 closed that November as part of its own national store-closure round.
At roughly 975,000 sqft, the property is the largest shopping center in Lincoln, carrying 107 stores anchored by Dillard’s, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Round 1 Entertainment and JCPenney; Ross Dress For Less opened in the former Sears space in 2022, while the former Younkers space remains vacant. CBL Properties currently manages the property, which is served by the local StarTran transit system.
That three-name history, Gateway Shopping Center to Westfield Shoppingtown Gateway to simply Gateway Mall, tracking two separate ownership changes across six decades, reflects how thoroughly this property’s identity has been shaped by its changing institutional owners even as its underlying role as Lincoln’s largest shopping destination has remained constant throughout.
