Eastern Hills Mall
Eastern Hills Mall is a shopping mall located 11 miles northeast of Buffalo, New York on the western border of the Town of Clarence in Erie County, New York, United States. It lies on Transit Road (New York State Route 78). The mall is north of the junction of NY-78 with NY-5, and Main Street. The name "Eastern Hills" refers to the very low hills that contribute to a slightly higher elevation than the bordering areas along the Onondaga Escarpment. Eastern Hills Mall is part of a long commercial strip on Transit Road. Currently the mall is anchored by JCPenney, Raymour & Flanigan, Orvis, and Niagara Emporium. It consists of two long wings running north and south and one short wing running east and west, which connects the north-south wings in a "double L-shaped" formation. A major department store is at the end of each wing. A food court is located adjacent to the end of the long south wing. History The Eastern Hills Mall was developed by the Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation. The mall was originally to be named "Buffalo Mall", but the name was changed to Eastern Hills Mall at the request of the town of Clarence. Construction began in 1969. The mall was opened on November 8, 1971. The original anchors were AM&A's, JCPenney, Sears, Jenss, Woolworth and Hengerer's. General Cinema opened the Eastern Hills Cinema I-II about six months later on May 24, 1972. Hengerer's became Sibley's in 1981. The mall underwent an extensive overhaul in 1987 that added a food court. The only other expansion the mall sought was a Lechmere store next to JCPenney, but never opened. Originally the largest mall in the Buffalo, NY area, the mall lost that title to the Walden Galleria in 1989. Sibley's became Kaufmann's in 1990. AM&A's became The Bon-Ton in 1994. In 1997, Jenss closed. In 1998, Burlington Coat Factory moved into the former Jenss location. Another renovation to the small east-west center concourse and food court took place in 2005, largely cosmetic in nature. New floor tile was installed in both the center concourse and food court, and imitation fireplaces, small flat screen televisions, and new seating were installed. The longer north-south concourses remained untouched during this second renovation, causing a break in a pink zig-zag floor tile line pattern, which prior to the 2005 renovation existed through the entire mall from end-to-end. In late 2006, Federated Department Stores converted all local Kaufmann's stores to Macy's. By this time, the mall featured many younger national chains. Television station WBBZ-TV established its broadcast studios at the mall in 2012. The later 2010's saw several storied traditional department store retailers update their brick-and-mortar formats after being encroached upon to a degree by several digital retailers in recent years. In April 2016, Macy's, which retains several other much larger outposts around Western New York, announced that after a strategy had been elected by them to solely focus on their highest achieving locations that they would be leaving the shopping