The Mall at Whitney Field

Mall at Whitney Field
Address 100 Commercial Road
Leominster, Massachusetts 01453
Opening date 1967
Owner Vintage Real Estate
No. of stores and services 75
No. of anchor tenants 4
No. of floors 1
Website themallatwhitneyfield.com

The Mall at Whitney Field, formerly Searstown Mall, is an enclosed shopping center located off of Route 2 near the junction with Interstate 190 in Leominster, Massachusetts, United States. The mall opened in 1967 and was renovated and renamed in 2004. The mall features JCPenney, Macy's (originally Filene's), Sears, and Burlington Coat Factory[1] as anchor stores. The mall was previously owned by Walton Street Capital LLC of Chicago until May 2013 when Vintage Real Estate acquired the mall with plans to renovate and turnaround the struggling mall.[2]

History

The mall's food court as of 2014

The Mall at Whitney Field opened in 1967 as the "Searstown Mall". The mall originally opened with Sears, R. H. White, and Bradlees as anchors. Market Basket was next to W.T. Grant with an outside entrance and was where Toys "R" Us was. The mall was expanded substantially in the 1980s adding a long wing created from the closed R. H. White building, leading to a new JCPenney store. In 1992 Sage-Allen closed their store at the mall and was replaced by a Service Merchandise store. Around that time, Toys "R" Us built a store that was attached to Bradlees, but only had an exterior entrance. Market Basket is now located on an outlot. In 1999, more changes came to the mall. Service Merchandise closed their store in 1999 and as a result, the long side wing leading to their old store emptied out. In 2000, the mall big-boxed the wing turning much of it into an Old Navy store along with replacing Service Merchandise with a Circuit City store. After Bradlees departure in 2001, the mall was left with a large vacancy. The former Bradlees store was later demolished in 2002 and its former mall entrance was replaced with an outdoor entrance to the mall. In the same year, Filene's opened a large two-level store at the mall, one entrance down from the former Bradlees store.[3]

In 2004, the mall was extensively renovated and renamed to "The Mall at Whitney Field", most likely an attempt to bring shoppers to the mall from the more affluent I-495 suburbs, rather than only bringing in shoppers from the immediate cities of Fitchburg and Leominster. In 2007, The Mall at Whitney Field was sold for $82 million to Walton Street Capital LLC of Chicago with Jones Lang LaSalle continuing as the mall's manager.[4]

Circuit City was later closed and replaced with Ultimate Electronics in 2010.[5] The chain went out of business only a year later. Steve & Barry's became Jo-Ann Fabrics in 2010.[6]

In 2013, The mall changed ownership once again. The mall was sold from Walton Street Capital LLC of Chicago to California-based Vintage Real Estate for an undisclosed price.[7] Vintage Real Estate bought the center with plans to renovate and turnaround the struggling mall. Immediately after Vintage Real Estate acquired the mall, they announced the signing of a ten-year lease with Burlington Coat Factory to occupy the former Circuit City space that has been vacant for years. Burlington Coat Factory expects the store to open in early 2014.[8]

Old Navy, which used to have an exterior entrance only, moved into a vacant space inside the mall in order to accommodate the addition of Burlington Coat Factory. The new store opened in spring 2014 and features both an interior and exterior entrance.

On March 14, 2018, Toys "R" Us announced that they will be closing all 800 locations in the U.S., including the Mall at Whitney Field location due to bankruptcy. The store closed on June 29, 2018.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Reidy, Chris (2013-05-30). "Burlington Coat Factory to open Leominster store". Boston.com. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
  2. ↑ "Calif. firm buys the Mall at Whitney Field, signs up Burlington Coat Factory as a new tenant". Archived from the original on June 2, 2013.
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Hill, Mary Jo (2007). "Leominster mall sold for $82M; Chicago company buys Mall at Whitney Field". Retrieved 2013-06-03.
  5. ↑ http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_14716160
  6. ↑ http://www.leominsterchamp.com/news/2010-05-14/Business/JoAnn_Fabric_and_Craft_Store.html
  7. ↑ Minch, Jack (2013-05-31). "The Mall at Whitney Field sold to Vintage Real Estate". Sentinel and Enterprise. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
  8. ↑ Reidy, Chris (2013-05-30). "Vintage Real Estate signs ten-year lease with Burlington Coat Factory". Boston.com. Archived from the original on June 2, 2013. Retrieved 2013-06-03.
  9. ↑ http://money.cnn.com/2018/03/14/news/companies/toys-r-us-closing-stores/index.html

Coordinates: 42°31′48.6″N 71°44′33.3″W / 42.530167°N 71.742583°W / 42.530167; -71.742583

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