2026 Top 10 Retail Center Experiences: No. 7 — Eastwood Mall
(Chain Store Age ranks the most innovative shopping center experiences each year. We will be counting down the top 10 until No. 1 is revealed.)
It holds more than 200 retailers, restaurants and entertainment venues—the largest selection of consumer offerings in eastern Ohio and western Pennsylvania.
It is home to the only Bass Pro Shops within a 50-mile radius and the largest department store in the trade area, a 180,000-sq.-ft. Boscovs. And — though we can’t be absolutely sure about this — it’s the only shopping center in the land that contains a minor league baseball stadium, home field of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers.
“Eastwood Mall is a city within a city. Actually, it spans two different municipalities,” said Cafaro Properties co-president Anthony Cafaro Jr., whose grandfather turned a golf course into one of the nation’s largest shopping centers. “When it opened in 1969, it was anchored by May Company, Strouss, Montgomery Ward, A&P and Woolworth’s. Today we have three million square feet of retail in the mall and six different power centers.”
Eastwood Mall is the prime retail and entertainment destination in eastern Ohio and draws customers from as far as 100 miles away to shop its plethora of brands. Over the past five years, more than 20 new brands have opened at the complex. Among them are Meijer, HomeGoods, Dave & Busters, Macy’s Backstage and Sierra.
Recently arrived food and beverage brands include Raising Canes, Popeye’s Louisiana Kitchen, Bibibop and Bubbles Tea & Juice. Regal Cinemas Eastwood just completed an extensive renovation with luxury seating, improved concessions, and improved projection technology.
“Eastwood may not be the highest grossing mall in the nation, but what we’ve accomplished over all these years is designing a conglomeration of retail, restaurants, and entertainment scaled for middle markets,” Cafaro said. “That’s what we’ve been able to do for more than 57 years.”
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