Meriden Mall
LocationMeriden, Connecticut
Address470 Lewis Avenue, Meriden, CT 06451
Opening dateOctober 19, 1971[1]
OwnerNamdar Realty Group and Mason Asset Management
No. of stores and services142[2]
No. of anchor tenants3
Total retail floor area894,435 sq ft (83,095.7 m2)[2]
Parking4,065[2]
Websitewww.meridenmall.com

Meriden Mall (formerly Meriden Square and Westfield Meriden) is a shopping mall located in Meriden, Connecticut. At almost 900,000 square feet, Meriden is Connecticut's seventh largest mall, housing over 140 shops. The mall features the traditional retailers Boscov's, Dick's Sporting Goods, and TJ Maxx, while featuring prominent specialty retailers such as Charlotte Russe, Bath and Body Works, Forever 21 Red, Foot Locker, and Torrid.

History

Exterior view of Meriden Mall, June 2016

The facility, originally built and owned by The May Department Stores Company, opened in 1971. Its original architecture was a two-level, dumbbell shaped shopping center with two anchor stores, the Connecticut-based G. Fox, which was also owned by The May Company chain, and JCPenney. Original tenants were Radio Shack, Spencer Gifts, Hickory Farms, Barricini Candy, Record World, Waldenbooks, CVS, a Singer sewing machine store, a piano and organ store, a travel agency, a liquor store, and a tobacco store. The only restaurant in the main part of the mall was a Friendly's Ice Cream parlor and restaurant, though both JCPenney and G. Fox had restaurants located inside of their stores. The mall also featured an incline ramp-escalator in the center court.

A 1993 renovation added a two-level wing anchored by a new Sears department store and also included a new food court, creating a T-shaped floor plan. Also in 1993, G. Fox parent, May Company, acquired Boston-based Filene's and merged the two department stores together under the Filene's name. The Meriden G. Fox store changed its name to Filene's.

The Westfield Group acquired the mall in 1997.[3]

The mall was expanded again in an ambitious renovation announced in 1997. The renovation saw an extra floor area of 147,425 sq ft (13,696.2 m2) added to the center, as well as an additional 30 stores, creating a cross-shaped floor plan.[4] The new anchor, built opposite Sears, was upscale department store Lord & Taylor, the centerpiece of the $38 million revitalization and expansion plan. In addition to its new anchor, a multistory parking garage was built beside Sears on the end of the mall facing Lewis Avenue. The renovation was completed and officially opened in 1999.[5]

In 2005, Lord & Taylor shuttered this location after being repositioned. Westfield quickly moved to replace the division with Dick's Sporting Goods, which moved right into the original Lord & Taylor outpost.[6]

During 2006, Filene's announced that all locations would transition into Macy's separately, including this location.[7]

In 2014, it was announced that Boscov's would replace JCPenney, both expanding and completely remodeling the structure. The location was Boscov's first in Connecticut and in the entire New England region. The store opened in November 2015.[8][9]

The dawn of the 2020s saw several storied traditional department store retailers update their brick-and-mortar formats after being encroached upon to a degree by several digital retailers in recent years in addition to the COVID pandemic.

On November 8, 2018, it was announced that Sears would shutter as part of an ongoing decision to eliminate its brick-and-mortar format.[10]

On January 6, 2020, Macy's, which maintains additional much larger outposts in the region, announced that after a strategy had been elected by them to solely focus on their highest achieving locations that they would be leaving the shopping center.[11]

On September 21, 2021, it was announced that Best Buy would shutter along with several additional locations as a direct result of pulling back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.[12]

Numerous replacement tenants for each space are reportedly in the midst of early discussions.[13]

On October 4, 2021, Yale New Haven Health bought the previous Macy's outpost and is set to raze the building and develop it into a prominent retail health center.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ The Caldor Rainbow (2007-07-02), Indoor Shipping Attracts Patrons at Meriden Square, retrieved 2022-08-27
  2. 1 2 3 "Westfield Meriden". Westfield Group. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012.
  3. ↑ "Westfield America, Inc. Announces Third QuarterEarnings (September 1997)".
  4. ↑ "Westfield America, Inc. announces Lord and Taylor to add stores to the shopping centres" (Press release). Westfield Group. 19 December 1997. Archived from the original on January 15, 2010.
  5. ↑ "Westfield Property Group - Shoppingtown - Westfield Meriden | Midstate Chamber of Commerce". members.midstatechamber.com.
  6. ↑ "Lord & Taylor closing Meriden store". 2003-07-31. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  7. ↑ "Filene's future still unclear, to get Macy's name". 2005-07-29. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  8. ↑ Davidson, Paul. "J.C. Penney closing 33 stores, laying off 2,000". USA TODAY.
  9. ↑ MELVIN, ZACH. "Boscov's Department Store To Open At Meriden Mall, Adding 300 Jobs". courant.com.
  10. ↑ "Sears to close location at Westfield Meriden mall".
  11. ↑ "Macy's Store in Meriden to Close".
  12. ↑ "Best Buy closing Meriden Mall store next month, cites expired lease". 2021-09-21. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  13. 1 2 "Yale New Haven Health buys former Macy's store at Meriden Mall". 2021-10-04. Retrieved 2023-01-13.

41°33′03″N 72°48′13″W / 41.5508°N 72.8035°W / 41.5508; -72.8035

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