Westgate Mall - Georgia's First Enclosed Mall
In 1961, Georgia's first enclosed mall opened in Macon, Georgia. This mall was known as Westgate. For years, the mall would struggle to remain relevant, being killed by the larger Macon Mall, and later on Eisenhower Crossing.
On September 25th, 1961, Westgate Mall opened to the public. Unfortunately, the mall had extremely weak anchors. While stores like Sears and Davison's already had locations in Macon, they were both in downtown. Instead, it was anchored by the five-and-dime store JJ Newberry's, and two grocery stores - Piggly Wiggly, and Colonial Stores. The mall also had Woolworth and Sherwin-Williams.
The mall had its moment, but everything fell apart in 1975 when Macon Mall opened. Macon Mall had major anchors such as Sears and JCPenney, but also had over double the stores Westgate had, and two floors. It was no secret that for Westgate to stay alive, it would have to reinvent itself.
In 1987, Westgate Mall was expanded, adding a new, small wing, and a Walmart on the south end of the mall. In addition to this, Scotty's took the former Piggly Wiggly space. Burlington also opened in the former Newberry's.
Unfortunately, this expansion didn't help much with the state of Westgate, and the entire mall was demolished, leaving only the Walmart remaining. At this point, Westgate Mall was redeveloped, as a new open-air power center. A new Burlington was built, in addition to Macon's first Shoe Carnival, PetSmart, and Home Depot.
Unfortunately, this new Westgate Center would also have a quick downfall. Walmart was the first to go in 2001, after building a new supercenter near I-475. OfficeMax closed later in 2002, but was replaced by a home decor store known as Stacy's.
In 2005, Home Depot left Westgate in favor of a new store at Eisenhower Crossing. 2006 saw Westgate suffer 3 closures - Shoe Carnival and PetSmart for new stores at Eisenhower Crossing, and Media Play, due to Sam Goody discontinuing the brand. Burlington and Stacy's remained.
On May 11th, 2008, a tornado struck Macon, directly hitting Westgate. Several buildings suffered damage, but nothing was worse than damage to the Media Play building - where part of the roof was ripped right off of the building. Stacy's closed shortly after.
In 2015, Burlington would leave Westgate in favor of the Macon Mall. This essentially killed Westgate. Some buildings would find new use, such as the former Shoe Carnival becoming the Macon-Bibb Board of Elections, and the former OfficeMax becoming American Freight.
In the late 2010s, Westgate sat mostly dead, with only a few small shops remaining between the vacant Walmart and Burlington.
In 2020, Westgate was redeveloped as the Middle Georgia Industrial Park, seeing most of the buildings being reused for warehouses, offices, and more. The American Freight store closed in 2020 due to bankruptcy.
Westgate has had a rocky history, but now it seems to be at a good place. The industrial park is obviously getting good use, and I highly doubt Westgate will ever come back as an actual shopping space. There's a lot of crime in the Eisenhower/Pio Nono area, and the nearby Kinders Center isn't faring too well.
