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The new JC Penney outlet is shown in 2005 as it opened at the Eastfield Mall, previously housing Forbes & Wallace.

(File photo / Mark M. Murray)

SPRINGFIELD - The former JC Penney building at the Eastfield Mall is slated for demolition by the owners as part of larger redevelopment plan for the Boston Road shopping center.

Representatives of Boston Road Retail, LLC, the owner of the JC Penney site, will present demolition plans during a Monday night hearing before the City Council, which needs special permit approval.

The Eastfield Mall lost the JC Penney as an anchor store in 2011, and the building has been largely vacant since. The building was constructed in 1966, initially as a Forbes & Wallace department store.

Melinda Graulau, general manager of the mall, said the demolition of the two-story building will aid efforts to secure a new, major retail tenant and is part of a larger plan for a substantial makeover of the mall.

"It is part of a larger plan," Graulau said. "The building -- in its vacant state and dated look - it's structurally unsuitable, it's an eyesore, and it's completely and environmentally inefficient. I think it's only going to be better."

In January, American Eagle closed its Eastfield Mall store, and a Radio Shack store is also closed.

Even with the aid of a top retail broker in the Northeast aiding with the effort to find a tenant for the JC Penney site, "to date we have not been successful in obtaining a suitable anchor tenant, primarily due to the dated building issues," Graulau said.

Graulau said she is not able yet to provide specifics regarding the makeover plans for the mall, except for the JC Penney site.

When JC Penney is demolished, the mall's plan is to first find a retail tenant and then build to its needs, she said.

The JC Penney building has been only used on a seasonal basis since the store left, providing space the past two years for a Halloween-related store for just a few months, and has also been used for regional training of police dogs, Graulau said.