Frontier Mall (Cheyenne, Wyoming)

Frontier Mall
General information
Location	1400 Dell Range Blvd Cheyenne, Wyoming
Coordinates	41°9′44″N 104°48′18″W
Opened	March 1981
Owner	CBL Properties
Technical details
Floor area	519,471 sq ft (48,260.4 m2)
Other information
Number of stores	67
Number of anchors	6
Website
[Frontier Mall Website]

Frontier Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in the city of Cheyenne, Wyoming along Dell Range Blvd between Powderhouse Rd (to the west) and Frontier Mall Dr (to the east). The mall is managed by CBL Properties which is headquartered in Chattanooga Tenessee; the mall occupies approximately 519,470-square-foot (48,260 m²) of land and is made up of approximately 67 shops including six anchor stores. This mall is one of three suburban shopping malls in the state of Wyoming.

History

Early years

Sears would be the first anchor store to open at the Frontier Mall, opening on October 8, 1980, the year prior to the mall's opening. It relocated from their East 17th Street location in Downtown Cheyenne.

The mall opened in mid March 1981. At the time, the mall included planters throughout the interior concourse, and a fountain sat next to Fashion Bar (today's Planet Fitness) which opened in 1981.

Some of the earliest tenants of the mall besides the anchor stores included Chick-Fil-A, Cutlery World, Denim Connection, Eli's Records and Tapes, Foxmoor, Hickory Farms, Jo-Ann, Kinney Shoes, Roley's Hallmark Cards and Gifts, Shanty Shop, Taco Etc., The Magic Wok, Thom McAn, Ups and Downs, Van Velzor's House of Music, Western Ranchman Outfitters, Woods and Goods, Your Fathers Mustache, and Zales Jewelers.

The early 1980s would see the expansion of two additional anchor stores. JCPenney built a store on the east end of the mall (relocating from East 17th Street in Downtown Cheyenne), and the new store opened in July 1982. Throughout 1983, Joslins was in the process of building a new department store location just west of the theatre.

Renovations and other changes to the mall

The mall would undergo a renovation in the mid-1990s that would shift the mall to mostly look as it does today.

In the late 1990s, Dillard's would build a new store (which would become known as Dillards (East)) as an additional anchor to the Frontier Mall.

After Dillard's purchased the Joslins brand in 1998, the Cheyenne Joslins would be converted to a Dillard's (which became known as Dillard's (West)). After the conversion, Dillard's (West) was used mainly for men's clothing, children's clothing, bedding, furniture, seasonal products, and other items not sold at Dillard's (East); Dillard's (East) mainly focused on women's clothing and beauty products.

Returning after being long-since gone from the mall, Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts opened a new store at the Frontier Mall on September 15th, 2011. The new Jo-Ann took over several small-format tenants next to Sears including Twills, Natural Lites, Asian Gifts (moved), and Radioshack.

The mall's Sports Authority store (then-formerly Gart Sports) closed in 2016 along with the other remaining Sports Authority locations still open after filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy.

Sears was announced in November 2017 to close, liquidation beginning before the end of the year. The store would close in January 2018. Also during January 2018, Planet Fitness would be setting up their new location in the now-former Sports Authority; the mall's Planet Fitness location opened their doors in February 2018.

JAX Mercantile Company opened a new store in the former Sears called JAX Outdoor Gear, Farm and Ranch in late November 2019. Although labeled as store number 9, it was the eighth full-line JAX store in existence at the time. In December, America's Best Contacts and Eye Glasses remodeled the remaining section of vacant space within the former Sports Authority, opening by the following year.

Dillard's (West), a former Joslins department store location, was converted to a clearance center between 2019 and mid-2020, only to close in November 2020; the Cheyenne Dillard's was shifted to only one store, using the space that previously was Dillard's (East). Appliance Factory & Mattress Kingdom later set up in the former Dillard's (West) space, and the store opened in late May 2023.

Businesses on the periphery

Dotted around the Frontier Mall are several separate buildings that also contain (and have contained) various businesses.

Built next to the northwest parking lot entry on Prairie Avenue, the US Bank branch's building was built in the early 1980s.

Also built in the early 1980s, the building on the corner of today's Frontier Mall Dr and Dell Range Blvd currently is occupied by Verizon and Men's Warehouse. Prior to the current two tenants, a restaurant CB&Potts occupied the building, and prior to CB&Potts, the building was occupied by another restaurant called Sea Galley.

The early to mid-1990s would see the addition of two more buildings. One building would be built near the corner of Powderhouse Rd and Dell Range Blvd, and it's currently occupied by a chain dine-in restaurant called Chilli's. The other building was built between Powderhouse Rd and the northwest parking lot entry on Prairie Avenue; called Frontier Medical Plaza, various medical services are available inside the building.

In 2007, yet another two additional buildings, both restaurants, were built along Dell Range Blvd between Stillwater Ave and Driftwood Dr. The one to the east became an Olive Garden, and the one to the west became a Chipotle.