Swansea Mall

Swansea Mall

Swansea Mall Logo
Location	Swansea, Massachusetts
Coordinates	41°45′19″N 71°13′06″W / 41.755261°N 71.218296°WCoordinates: 41°45′19″N 71°13′06″W / 41.755261°N 71.218296°W
Address	262 Swansea Mall Drive, Swansea, MA 02777
Opening date	1975
Management	Jones Lang Lasalle
No. of stores and services	approximately 80
No. of anchor tenants	2 (Sears, Macy's)
No. of floors	1
Website	Swansea Mall Website

Swansea Mall is a regional shopping mall located in Swansea, Massachusetts. It is a large, single-level, fully enclosed facility with over 80 stores, serving the Southeastern Massachusetts area. It is currently owned and managed by Carlyle Swansea Partners.

Located off Exit 3 of I-195, the mall is situated at the intersection of U.S. Route 6 and Massachusetts Route 118. Located on Swansea Mall Drive, it has three out-parcel buildings: a Walmart building behind the mall, a Toys "R" Us and a shared PriceRite & Dollar Tree (formerly a Service Merchandise parcel, still retaining its same outer design). There is also a large shopping plaza - Swansea Crossings - across the street, which contains a Big Lots and a Regal Cinemas movie theater.

The mall currently has two anchors (with an additional location that has been vacant since the early 2000s). The mall opened in 1975 with anchors Sears and Edgar's. Today, the mall still has its original Sears, with another anchor in Macy's. The mall also has a moderated sized food court and a Ruby Tuesday.

History

Built around 1975, Swansea Mall originally opened with two anchors: Sears and Edgar Department Stores.^[1] The mall had a 4-screen movie theater. A third and fourth anchor, national discount department store Caldor and Rhode Island-based department store Apex, were added as part of a major expansion around 1979. Also, two out-parcels were located just south of the original mall, populated by Toys R Us and Service Merchandise. The mall thrived from the late '70s and '80s.

In 1989 the mall underwent a major interior renovation; when it re-opened, Swansea 4 Cinemas was gone, original anchor Edgar's went out of business and was replaced by Jordan Marsh. The hall space changed as well with the removal of the water fountains, and the installation of new lighting, and new floor tiling. The mall's logo also changed to the current swan design.

In 1996, Jordan Marsh was sold to Macy's, who have operated in the mall since. Caldor suffered damage in a fire in 1997, closed for a year to renovation, and ultimately closed its doors for good when the company went out of business in 1999. Several restaurants left the mall in the late 1990s such as the pizzeria Roman Delight and Newport Creamery. A food court opened by the late 1990s.

In 2001, Walmart replaced the old Caldor location (after purchasing it in 1999.^[2] Apex closed the same year.^[3]

Walmart moved out of the mall into their own newly constructed building, which is not owned by the mall, in September 2013. The old Caldor/Walmart wing of the mall was then demolished. In December 2013, mall owner Carlyle Development sold off the two out parcel buildings (Toys R Us and Price Rite/Dollar Tree) to Gator Investments and announced they were putting the Swansea Mall up for sale. In January 2014 the mall cut ties with their management company, Jones Lang LaSalle, and announced they were bringing those functions in-house. They also hired Kaplan Retail Consulting to oversee the leasing of the mall's large amount of empty retail space. A sale agreement was reached via online auction in November 2014,^[4] but by January 2015 those plans had fallen through;^[5] the mall is still for sale and approximately one-quarter of the stores in the mall are empty.

References

1. Directory of major malls, listing the most important existing and planned ... - MJJTM Publications Corp - Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved 2012-08-16.
2. "Caldor sells more stores". Retrieved 2015-03-03.
3. "Apex to close Swansea and Warwick stores, consolidate". Retrieved 2015-03-03.
4. "Swansea Mall sold for $6.65 million at auction". Retrieved 2015-03-03.
5. "Swansea Mall sale falls through". Retrieved 2015-03-03.

External links

• Proposed expansion as of 2007