Mall St. Matthews

Mall St. Matthews is a Louisville, Kentucky shopping mall located at 5000 Shelbyville Road in the eastern suburb of St. Matthews.

Opened in 1962 and originally named The Mall, it was the first enclosed suburban shopping mall in the state of Kentucky. Located next to the Watterson Expressway, the mall had A & P, J.C. Penney, Kaufman-Straus, and Rose’s as its anchor stores. The mall’s features included a children’s play area near Rose’s (which is now a food court), an oversize chess set near Kaufman-Straus, and numerous fountains. The name of the mall was changed to The Mall in St. Matthews as other malls were built, but the mall gradually declined with stores moving to newer malls. In the late 1980s the mall was purchased by The Rouse Company which simplified the name to Mall St. Matthews and remodeled the mall to include a food court, built a new wing dedicated to stores owned by Limited Brands, and expanded the former Kaufman-Straus store (which had become both a Stewart Dry Goods and L. S. Ayres before closing) to accommodate a Bacon’s department store which relocated from its freestanding location at 3937 Shelbyville Road. As more retail stores wanted to move to the mall after these changes, a new wing was built which resulted in the re-routing of Sherburn Lane to the west of the new wing.

The mall expanded again in 1995 with a new wing and the addition of Dillard’s, and in 1997 Lord & Taylor followed suit. In 1998 the Bacon’s chain was merged into Dillard’s, and the former Bacon’s location became the Dillard’s Men’s, Children’s & Home store. In 2000 Nordstrom tentatively agreed to build a store, but withdrew in 2001 before a concrete agreement was reached with Rouse. Lord & Taylor closed their store in early 2004, a portion being occupied by regional junior department store Dawahares until early 2007.

The mall currently has over 1.1 million square feet and includes the anchor stores of JCPenney and separate Dillard’s locations for Women (in the 1995 Dillard’s building) and Men’s, Children’s & Home (in the former Bacon’s building). The Dillard’s Men’s & Home store relocated to the former Lord & Taylor building in late 2007, and Dillard’s then turned over the former Bacon’s store to the mall owner, potentially for redevelopment.

On July 13, 2007 Business First of Louisville announced in its print edition that Mall St. Matthews will undergo a major renovation with the possibility of new restaurants and a movie theatre. The former Dillard’s could possibly become a lifestyle center type development.

The mall is currently owned by the Chicago company General Growth Properties, which also owns neighboring Oxmoor Center.