Editor’s Note: This version of this story has been updated to reflect the current ownership and management of Chesapeake Square Mall.

In just over a week, American Eagle Outfitters will shutter its Chesapeake Square store after 27 years.

Macy’s — a longtime anchor of the mall in Chesapeake’s Western Branch community — is closing this spring, eliminating up to 69 jobs. Three Hampton Roads stores are among the 40 nationwide the company is shutting down after a dismal sales season last year.

Another anchor, Sears, has been dark and vacant for more than a year.

“It’s very disturbing and frustrating,” said Chesapeake City Councilwoman Ella Ward, who has lived in Western Branch for decades. “I am very concerned that anchor stores are leaving … but I was not shocked. Malls are having a hard time across the country.”

Ward hopes the city of Chesapeake heeds the Macy’s closing as a wakeup call. She says the council should take a couple of major steps to revitalize the community and mall — specifically widening Portsmouth Boulevard, a project already in the works, and aggressively recruiting employers with office and daytime job openings.

“It’s going to take a huge investment by the city to determine what can be done, and it’s going to take a mindset change,” Ward said. “We have to do things differently, and … this community has to be involved.”

That comes as good news to Kathy Reagan Young, founder of Western Branch Growing Forward, and local businessman John Arthur, an active member of Growing Forward and other development committees for Western Branch. The Growing Forward group has a Facebook page, promotes development in Western Branch and has organized committees to work on solutions.

Since the Macy’s announcement last Wednesday, members of Growing Forward’s Facebook group have posted comments and threads questioning the future of Chesapeake Square Mall.

Both Young, in her Facebook posts, and Arthur said they don’t believe local mall management knew about Macy’s announcement beforehand.

“They were equally blindsided. This was a corporate Macy’s — a national decision that had nothing to do with leases not being renewed,” Young stated. “They heard Macy’s was closing the same day the Macy’s employees and the rest of the world heard about it.”

According to Young, Chesapeake Square’s management says it will continue with scheduled improvements already budgeted: landscaping issues, parking lot problems and lighting concerns.

Both Arthur and Young say Macy’s announcement could be a great opportunity if the mall’s owners make changes.

The mall is owned by W.P. Glimcher, which was founded in May 2014 after spinning off from Simon Property Group, the former owner of the mall.

However, Simon continues to provide some services, including property management, to Glimcher through a “Transition Services Agreement,” according to Simon spokesman Les Morris.

“WPG is an independent, publicly traded company,” a company memo stated. “WPG is not a subsidiary or affiliate of Simon. The only ongoing relationship between the companies is the property management and other transition services that Simon is temporarily providing WPG under the Transition Services Agreement.”

Arthur hopes someone will take steps to turn the mall into a town center, such as Hampton’s Peninsula Town Center and Newport News City Center at Oyster Point.

Developers turned those aging, box-style malls into modern, open shopping centers that have become destinations, Arthur said.

“We need to make Western Branch a destination, and we don’t need to duplicate Suffolk,” Arthur said. “We need to draw daily work here.”

The Chesapeake City Council should devote resources specifically to the economic development of Western Branch, Arthur said.

Retail is thriving nearby in Suffolk’s Harbour View community, Ward said. Unlike Western Branch, an older community with an aging population, Suffolk’s northern corridor experienced a burst of millennials coming for modeling and simulation opportunities, followed by retail, residential and service development to support them.

Kevin Hughes, economic development director in Suffolk, says he doesn’t expect Suffolk to prosper from Chesapeake’s losses.

“Harbour View’s retail development growth is fueled by an increase in population, strong buying power of that population, well-positioned real estate options and surrounding job centers and convenient access to nearby roadways,” Hughes said.

Mall officials and spokesmen for Macy’s and American Eagle have remained mum on the looming closures.

American Eagle will close its Chesapeake Square store on Jan. 24. It’s the only Hampton Roads store in that chain that’s closing.

After a slumping sales season in 2014, the Pittsburgh-based company announced plans to close 150 of its 1,000 stores nationwide over the next three years.

Chesapeake Square Mall manager Ed Zivic, in a prepared statement, said the mall “will continue to offer shoppers a compelling mix of national and locally owned retailers.”

Young stated that Growing Forward will continue taking steps to promote Western Branch.

“Chesapeake Square Mall will sink or swim based on decisions made at a corporate level,” she wrote in a Facebook post to her group. “Here, we can work to attract daytime employment and unique commercial offerings that will draw consumers from all over the area and support our local economy by filling our hotels, restaurants and utilizing our retail offerings.