After surviving recessions, the dawn of online retail and a sweeping redevelopment, JCPenney’s time at Springfield Town Center is at last coming to an end.
The department store will permanently close on May 24 after 53 years at the shopping center formerly known as Springfield Mall.
Signs advertising sales of 20 to 50% off all merchandise have already popped up months ahead of the closure, which was first reported by the Washington Business Journal.
“Regretfully, we are unable to continue our current lease terms for this store location and have been unable to find another suitable location in the market,” said Catalyst Brands, JCPenney’s parent company as of January 2025. “We are grateful to our dedicated associates and the loyal customers who have shopped at our Springfield, VA, location through the years.”
Catalyst, whose other brands include the struggling Eddie Bauer, noted that local customers can still able to shop online and at one of nearly 650 other stores across the U.S., though JCPenney will have just three locations in Northern Virginia.
In addition to Fairfax County’s lone remaining outlet at Fair Oaks Mall, the department store can be found at Potomac Mills in Woodbridge and Dulles Town Center in Sterling.
“We have no other changes planned at this time to our fleet of stores in Virginia,” Catalyst Brands told FFXnow when asked about the Fair Oaks location.
According to Fairfax County property records, JCPenney’s Springfield store was constructed at 6699 Springfield Mall in 1973, making it one of the original anchor tenants for the area’s new shopping center.
As noted by the WBJ, JCPenney’s legacy in Springfield includes a visit on Nov. 11, 1985 by British royals Prince Charles and Princess Diana, who reportedly bought an $8 scarf.
When the couple arrived at the store, chosen for its proximity to Arlington National Cemetery, they were greeted by 5,000 balloons and approximately 6,000 spectators, according to archival reports by the Washington Post. Inside, Charles and Diana reportedly explored the maternity department, debated the merits of double-breasted suits and took in a “much-publicized exhibit of a Rolls-Royce balanced on china cups.”
More recently, JCPenney was one of just three holdovers — along with Target and Macy’s — when Springfield Mall was otherwise gutted and fully transformed into Springfield Town Center between 2012 and 2014. However, the retailer filed for bankruptcy amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 after accumulating $4 billion in debt.
In a sign that changes might be afoot, the Springfield and Fair Oaks stores were acquired in 2022 along with three other locations by The Meridian Group and Martin-Diamond Properties. The developers said they had no specific plans at the time, but they were drawn to those areas for their “mixed-use” potential.
At Springfield Town Center, the longstanding vision of a mixed-use development that offers more than just shopping opportunities is only now starting to emerge, with construction continuing on an apartment building and an extended-stay hotel.
JCPenney’s Fair Oaks store was downsized more than a year ago. The indoor climbing gym Movement is among the retail tenants filling one of the new shell spaces, though its expected opening has been pushed back from late 2024 to sometime in 2026.
