Anchors
The original anchor stores were Sears, Rhodes Brothers, Diamond's, Goldwater's, and The Broadway. All of the anchors opened in 1973, with the exception of Sears which opened in 1974. The mall had an ice skating rink on the ground level overlooked by the mall's food court, which was designed to resemble the fuselage of an airliner.
The ice rink closed in 1990, the large space where it once sat was filled, and the balcony that overlooked it was filled to house more seating in the food court. The food court was also redesigned and now no longer resembles an airliner fuselage. In 1974, the mall opened a triple-screen movie theater by General Cinema Corporation. The theater was acquired by Harkins Theatres in March 1999, and converted to a 12-screen theater.
Over time, the mall's anchors have changed as a result of acquisitions and consolidation amongst department stores. Diamond's was converted to Dillard's in 1984. Rhodes Brothers was converted to Liberty House in 1974, then to Joske's in 1984. After Joske's was acquired by Dillard's in early 1987, the location became a second Dillard's, and then a JCPenney. JCPenney moved to Christown Spectrum Mall in 2007 and left the former location of JCPenney vacant until Metrocenter's ultimate closure, when it became a Life Storage.
The Broadway was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1996, and converted to a Macy's. Goldwater's was converted to J.W. Robinson's in 1989, which became Robinsons-May in 1993. In 2005, Macy's closed its store at the former Broadway site, which returned to the mall a year later, at the Robinsons-May building after the May Department Stores were acquired by Macy's in 2006. In January 2015, Macy's announced it was closing its Metrocenter location for the second time in ten years by early spring, citing a nationwide reorganization.[18] The store closed in June.
Dillard's was converted to a clearance center in 2009, closing the first level of its store.
In June 2014, it was announced that a Walmart Supercenter would open, taking over the space occupied by the vacant Broadway building. The Broadway building was demolished and construction for the Supercenter began on July 20, 2016. The new Supercenter opened in October 2017, though it is not accessible from the mall.[19]
On May 31, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing in September 2018 as part of a plan to close 72 stores nationwide, which left the mall without any original anchors. Only Dillard's Clearance Center and Walmart (which has no mall entrance) were the remaining anchors until Dillard's closed in 2023.[20]
On February 22, 2023, it was announced that Dillard's Clearance Center would be closing as part of a plan to close 3 stores nationwide. Dillard's Clearance Center closed on April 15, 2023.[21]
On May 29, 2023, Harkins Theatres closed their Metrocenter location permanently, leaving Walmart and CubeSmart Self Storage,[22] the latter located inside the former JCPenny, as the last remaining businesses on the property. The CubeSmart is not set for demolition and is the only original portion of the mall still standing.[16]
