Building permit points to new life at mall's vacant Sears space

A nearly 180,000-square-foot space that's been vacant in Battlefield Mall since 2020 may be getting new life.

Building permits on file this month with the city of Springfield indicate Dillard's could be taking over the space. A May 20 commercial building permit lists CDI Contractors LLC, a subsidiary of Dillard's, as the applicant for a Sears conversion to Dillard's and interior demolition of the former store.

Julie Johnson Guymon, director of investor relations and corporate spokesperson for Little Rock, Arkansas-based Dillard's Inc. (NYSE: DDS), said via email that the retailer is "respectfully declining comment for now."

A Battlefield Mall spokesperson could not be reached for comment by deadline. The mall at Glenstone Avenue and Battlefield Road is owned by Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group Inc. (NYSE: SPG)

The vacant Sears space makes up about 15% of the roughly 1.2 million-square-foot Battlefield Mall.

Sears had been an anchor tenant of the mall for nearly four decades before its 2020 closure, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

Dillard's currently has two spaces in Battlefield Mall, to the north and southeast, according to Simon.com.

CDI Contractors President and CEO Mark Beach told Arkansas Business in 2022 that its Dillard's work has switched to a larger focus on renovations, rather than from-the-ground-up store construction.

"It’s not always a brand-new store and could be a former Sears or JCPenney. The work often involves the retrofit of an existing facility," Beach told Arkansas Business in 2022.

OzarksFirst.com was first to report on the potential for Dillard's to occupy the vacant Sears space at Battlefield Mall.