CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Charleston Mayor Amy Shuler Goodwin says that there have been plans submitted for the new Hilton Hotel that will be located at the old Sears site and that she doesn’t know what the future holds for the town center mall.

“Actually plans, final plans for the hotel were, I wanna say two weeks ago, but I don’t want to lie, so I’ll say within the last 7 to 14 days those plans were submitted,” Goodwin said on 580 Live Monday morning.
The plans being submitted for the new hotel comes after Sears closed their doors in April 2017 and the building was demolished in February 2023.
Goodwin also discussed the future of the Charleston Town Center Mall, a week after JCPenney’s announced that it would be closing its doors in May. This announcement comes almost five years since the store filed for bankruptcy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
JCPenney’s was the last anchor store inside the center, with the other three, Sears, Kaufmann’s and Montgomery Ward closing their doors in recent years
Goodwin says that she honestly doesn’t know what’s going to happen to the center, but she knows that it won’t look like it does now.
“That probably will not be what the town center mall will be. Do I know exactly what it will be, no, but will it be exactly what it is now, I can guarantee it will not be,” she said.
The town center currently has 41 tenants, compared to the 130 tenants it had when it first opened in 1983.
Goodwin said that she has had conversations with current owners, Hull Property Group, in order to discuss the future of the mall.
“While we don’t talk about it every single day, we’re looking at what else can we do with, not just the business owners but the property itself and the properties around it. What makes the best use,” she said.
She said she has been in touch with the owner once a week for the past couple of weeks.
And while right now she doesn’t know what the town center will look like in the future, she believes that retail is to stay.
“Do I think there is room for retail, you better believe it. But I believe that there is room for improvement, massive improvement. You’re talking about more than 13 acres, around 13 acres of property and so where we have to get to, and again these are long hard conversations, is what can we be moving forward,” Goodwin said.