A stretch of Springfield, Mass. that was once home to a dead mall and acres of empty parking lots is back to hosting customers.
It’s been nearly three years since crews demolished the Eastfield Mall off Boston Road, with work starting soon after Onyx Partners Limited bought the property.
Previously a source for “dead mall” tour videos on YouTube, the shopping center still hosted some local businesses and chains before the purchase, but by 2023, with its anchor stores and movie theater gone, the writing was on the wall — walls that subsequently came down.
But, 2.5 years later, customers are back, and officials like City Council Vice President Tracye Whitfield are happy to see the activity.
“It's so important that we have these type of developments and bring [in] these wonderful businesses,” she said beside city leadership Wednesday. “And … I never got a BJ membership, but I'm going to get one today because I want the gas...”
Whitfield, Mayor Domenic Sarno and others formally marked the return of business to where most of the mall once stood — several rows of shops, filling about 360,000 square feet.
A nearby stretch is still vacant — the former Sears’ property not owned by Onyx — but elsewhere there is now a BJ’s Wholesale Club and Chick-Fil-A, employing a combined 265 people.
Others store like PetSmart are open as well, with more coming soon, says developer Anton Melchionda. He tells WAMC Target is slated to open during the first quarter of 2026, with a Hobby Lobby also arriving soon.
“I think we have 500 Springfield residents who are employed, so I would assume by the time everyone's open and operating, which would be by the second quarter of next year, that you'll have 600-700 people from the city of Springfield working,” the founder of Onyx said.
Melchionda tells WAMC the project has come in at about $80 million and will also include at least 40 units of housing.
It also received an $8 million subsidy approved by the city council earlier this year. Whitfield, who is on track to become the council’s president in January, adds that as councilors met with the developers, a push to support local business owners came to fruition, as well.
“In the Eastfield mall, there were local businesses … [the owners] had invested a lot of time and money in those businesses, so we did want to negotiate to make sure that those same small local businesses have a space out here,” she said, gesturing to a series of newly-built storefronts by BJ’s. “Onyx was wonderful about it … looking at the space, it’s going to be a great incubator space for those local businesses, so I'm just ready to see it come to fruition.”
As of Wednesday’s ribbon-cutting, the space Whitfield gestured to was still coming together, with the building up and lease signage hanging in at least one of the new spaces.
All the while, business has been going on across the street and beyond. Boston Road is home to a number of other plazas and stores, with consumers from Springfield, Ludlow and Wilbraham converging on the section of Route 20.
Onyx has also been at work about five miles away, redeveloping the former Springfield Cinemas off of St. James Avenue into a structure hosting a Registry of Motor Vehicles office as well as administrative offices for Springfield Public Schools.
Officials say it’s reactivation that goes a long way in a city with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country — 7.1% compared to the state average of 4.5% as of September.
In addition to jobs, State Senator Adam Gomez added Wednesday, the latest development also means easier access to certain stores that are often out of reach for some.
“People are able to work and put food on the table, and that's the most important thing right now in these in these trying times: to create jobs so people can be able to provide for their families, but also have access to a lot of these different stores that seem to be far-fetched for a lot of the individuals that are outside of the greater Springfield areas as well,” he said.
