Century III Mall is a defunct enclosed shopping mall located along Route 51 in West Mifflin, Pennsylvania, approximately 10 miles southeast of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The mall was built on a former slag dump in 1979. The Century III Mall planning began in 1976, opened in 1979, and closed in 2019. Anchor stores included Kaufmann's, Gimbels, JCPenney, Sears, and Montgomery Ward. It was the third largest shopping mall in the world at the time of its opening, but has since been surpassed by much larger malls. The mall was originally developed and owned by Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation. A 1996 merger between the mall's developer, now known as the DeBartolo Realty Corporation, and Simon Property Group, brought Century III Mall under the Simon DeBartolo Group heading, who owned the mall until 2011. The vacant mall site is currently owned by Las Vegas-based Moonbeam Capital Investments LLC. History In 1969, USS Realty Development, a division of the United States Steel Corporation, wanted to find a more productive use for the slag heap, which had grown into an artificial mountain from years of industrial dumping. Locally known as Brown's Dump, the property encompassed 410 acres and overshadowed the landscape. The excavation and clearing of the slag was a monumental task that would span many years. As a result of the clearing, numerous businesses began to appear at the foot of the mountain by the mid 1970s. In 1976, the Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation partnered with USS Realty Corporation and proposed a $100 million, 1.6 million square foot shopping center. The mall's moniker Century III was intentionally chosen as a way to reflect upon the 1976 United States Bicentennial. The first phase of seventy-five stores was dedicated on October 24, 1979. This included two anchors; a two-level 121,300 square foot, Pittsburgh-based Kaufmann's, and a two-level 173,200 square foot JCPenney. The Kaufmann's unit was the chain's fourth shopping mall store and the first in the Pittsburgh region to anchor a mall-type center. Phase two, with the two-level 168,100 square foot Montgomery Ward and forty-six stores debuted March 12, 1980. The second phase of Century III Mall incorporated the third, fourth and fifth anchors to the complex, including a two-level 126,000 square foot Gimbels-Pittsburgh, which began business in July 1980 and a two-level 231,000 square foot Sears, which opened in October 1980. The Montgomery Ward location at Century III Mall was the first