Great Northern Mall

Saul Biskind, Sol Shur and Sidney Shur first opened Great Northern Shopping Center as a small outdoor plaza in 1958 on what had been strawberry fields in North Olmsted, Ohio, anchored by Sears, F.W. Woolworth and a Pick-N-Pay grocery store. Biskind Development Company redeveloped the site into the fully enclosed Great Northern Mall in 1976.

At roughly 1,180,000 sqft, the property currently carries approximately 120 stores anchored by Dick’s Sporting Goods, Dillard’s, JCPenney and Macy’s, alongside a 10-screen movie theater. Sears, an anchor since the original 1958 plaza, finally closed in 2020 and has sat vacant since; North Olmsted city officials are considering a proposal to demolish the former Sears building entirely and construct a new, freestanding grocery supercenter and gas station on the site, detached from the mall structure and positioned closer to Great Northern Boulevard. Meijer, a Michigan-based chain already operating 17 stores in Northeast Ohio, is widely reported as the likely tenant, though neither the company nor the city has confirmed this officially as of the most recent reporting; if approved, demolition could begin in 2026 with a new store opening as early as late 2027 or 2028.

Starwood Capital Group owns the property, with Pacific Retail Capital Partners managing it day to day; the RTA 55 bus route provides direct transit access, connecting the mall to the wider Cleveland public transportation network.

That continuous, nearly-70-year retail history on the same physical site, from a 1958 strawberry-field outdoor plaza through a 1976 enclosed-mall redevelopment to a proposed 2020s demolish-and-rebuild grocery redevelopment on the vacant Sears footprint, distinguishes Great Northern Mall from many peer Ohio malls of similar vintage that have closed entirely, reflecting sustained institutional investment (Biskind, then Starwood/Pacific Retail) in keeping the property’s anchor lineup current rather than allowing it to decline toward the anchor-vacant status seen elsewhere in this batch.