The Maine Mall facts for kids
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| Location | South Portland, Maine |
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| Address | 364 Maine Mall Road, South Portland, ME 04106 |
| Opening date | 1971 |
| Management | Brookfield Properties |
| Owner | Brookfield Properties |
| No. of stores and services | 120 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 7 (5 open, 2 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 1,009,044 square feet (93,743.3 m2) |
| No. of floors | 1 with partial upper level (2 in Jordan's Furniture and Macy's) |
The Maine Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in South Portland, Maine. It is the largest shopping mall in the state of Maine, and the second largest in northern New England, only behind The Mall at Rockingham Park.
Anchor stores are Best Buy, JCPenney, Jordan's Furniture, Macy's, and Round One Entertainment with two vacant anchors last occupied by Forever 21 and Sears.
History
In 1969, Jordan Marsh opened a freestanding store, which was the first Jordan Marsh in the state of Maine.
In 1971, the indoor shopping mall and Sears were added.
Porteous, a department store chain based in Portland, Maine opened in 1983 as part of a major mall expansion which doubled the size of the mall. This expansion also added JCPenney as well as the first Filene's in the state of Maine.
In 1994 the mall underwent a $6.5 million renovation that added a food court as well as Lechmere and a larger Dream Machine, a video game and pinball machine arcade.
Porteous closed in 1996 and was replaced with a two-level structure, containing a Filene's Home Store on the lower level with Sports Authority on the upper level, made accessible by the only mall escalators in Maine, excluding department stores. Jordan Marsh was acquired by Federated Department Stores in 1996; as a result, the former Jordan Marsh at Maine Mall became Macy's.
In 1997, F. W. Woolworth Company and Lechmere both closed; within a year, they were replaced by Linens 'n Things and Best Buy, respectively.
In 2003, General Growth Properties acquired the mall for $270 million.
In 2005, Federated Department Stores acquired the Filene's chain. Due to the presence of an existing Macy's at the Maine Mall, both the Filene's and Filene's home store were shuttered in 2006 to prevent overlap.
In late 2008, Forever 21 and H&M opened in the former Filene's Mens & Home first floor. Sports Authority remained in the former Filene's upper floor.
In 2009, Linens 'n Things closed due to the liquidation of the chain.
On December 12, 2012, The Bon-Ton announced plans to open a store in the former Filene's space, which had been vacant since 2006. The store opened on September 12, 2013. This was Bon-Ton's only store in Maine and joined Sears, Macy's, and JCPenney to become the mall's fourth full-line department store when it opened on September 12, 2013.
In August 2016, Sports Authority closed due to bankruptcy.
On June 13, 2017, it was announced that Bon-Ton would be closing its store in August 2017.
On December 6, 2017, it was announced that Round One Entertainment will be opening in the former Sports Authority space in 2018.
On May 28, 2019, Jordan's Furniture announced that it would be opening in the former Filene's/Bon-Ton space in on July 17, 2020.
On June 26, 2020, it was announced that Sears would be closing 28 stores nationwide, including the store in the Maine Mall. The Sears store subsequently closed on September 13, 2020.
Forever 21 closed in 2020.
Future
In November 2020, a proposed plan that hopes to transform a surplus of empty parking spaces at the Maine Mall into land for housing and recreation was detailed in the Portland Press Herald.
With the rise of online retailers like Amazon and Walmart, malls across America have struggled financially to keep up. At first online retailers were strictly competition to malls, but today malls are increasingly being forced to make tough decisions about if they should shut their doors for good.
Many malls already fighting to stay open have been forced to give up the fight with the onset of COVID-19. However, the number of parking spaces at malls are meant to accommodate a thriving economy, but for many malls, it has been years since they were making a profit. Malls hoping to remain open and relevant will need to become more sustainable and the first step is dealing with the parking space issues.
The Maine Mall Transit Oriented District Concept Plan was started by the Greater Portland Council of Governments and funded by a $20,000 federal grant.
To make the mall more sustainable and attractive, the plan aims to accomplish three things. It hopes to reduce urban sprawl, reduce traffic congestion, and increase public transportation in the area around the mall.
The redevelopment plans for the Maine Mall hope to build on similar projects in the Greater Portland area, like Rock Row in Westbrook, Maine. City organizers are hoping to take advantage of recent zoning changes that allows for housing development near the mall.
Transit-oriented development is at the center of such plans. The city already has five different bus routes that makes routine stops at the mall. The goal is to incentivize people to walk or use public transportation in the future.
The mall would still be the main attraction but will feature a more community-centered shopping experience. Through infill development, people will be able to live, work, go to the doctors, and have recreational activities all within proximity of the mall. The hope is that this will make people want to go to the mall.
The Maine Mall has seen tenants come and go frequently and this is a plan that hopes to save the mall. The mall hopes to attract tenants that can make the mall stand out in the future. The mall added Round One Entertainment in 2018, which is a Japanese bowling and amusement store chain.
Brookfield Properties, the owner of the Maine Mall, also owns North Point Mall in Alpharetta, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, which is undergoing a redevelopment plan to add 300 apartments near the mall and the implementation of a bike system.
In the proposed plan, the parking lots at the Maine Mall will be replaced with parking garages that have green spaces on their rooftop. A hotel, convention center, parks, and a baseball field are also a part of the plan.
To accommodate all of this, South Portland will need to change road and traffic patterns that will transform the city. There are some skeptics who think this plan is too ambitious. However, South Portland city planners are ready to implement the newest technological advances.
It is not clear when this change will begin, but it is part of a much larger plan that hopes to make South Portland one of the most sustainable cities in the state of Maine.
