The Mall at Whitney Field facts for kids
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| Address | 100 Commercial Road Leominster, Massachusetts |
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| Opening date | 1967 |
| Developer | Kimco Realty |
| Owner | Hull Property Group |
| No. of stores and services | 75 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4 (2 open, 2 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 744,107 sq ft (69,129.8 m2) |
| No. of floors | 1 (2 in former Macy's) |
The Mall at Whitney Field is a shopping mall in Leominster, Massachusetts. It is located near Route 2 and Interstate 190. The mall first opened in 1967. It was later updated and given its current name in 2004.
Today, the main stores at the mall are Burlington and JCPenney. Two other large spaces, once home to Macy's and Sears, are now empty. The mall has changed owners a few times. Since January 2020, it has been owned by the Hull Property Group.
Mall History
The Mall at Whitney Field first opened its doors in 1967. Back then, it was known as the "Searstown Mall." When it first opened, some of its biggest stores were Sears, R. H. White, and Bradlees. Over time, other stores like Market Basket and W.T. Grant were also part of the mall.
Growing the Mall
In the 1980s, the mall got much bigger. A long new section was added. This new part led to a new JCPenney store. Later, in 1992, a store called Sage-Allen closed. A new store, Service Merchandise, took its place. Around this time, Toys "R" Us also built a store next to Bradlees. It had its own entrance from outside the mall.
More changes happened in 1999. Service Merchandise closed, and that long part of the mall became empty. In 2000, much of that space was turned into an Old Navy store. A Circuit City store also opened where Service Merchandise used to be.
Big Changes and New Names
In 2001, Bradlees closed its store. This left a very large empty space. The old Bradlees store was torn down in 2002. Its mall entrance was replaced with an outdoor entrance. In the same year, Filene's opened a large, two-story store at the mall.
In 2004, the mall had a big makeover. It was also renamed "The Mall at Whitney Field." This change was made to attract more shoppers from nearby towns. In 2007, the mall was sold for $82 million to Walton Street Capital LLC.
Recent Years
Circuit City closed its doors and was replaced by Ultimate Electronics in 2010. However, Ultimate Electronics only stayed open for about a year. In 2010, Steve & Barry's became Jo-Ann Fabrics.
In 2013, the mall was sold again to Vintage Real Estate. This company planned to fix up the mall and make it more popular. Soon after, they announced that Burlington Coat Factory would open a store in the old Circuit City space. Burlington opened in early 2014. Old Navy also moved to a new spot inside the mall. Its new store had both an inside and outside entrance.
On March 14, 2018, Toys "R" Us announced it would close all its stores in the U.S. This included the Mall at Whitney Field location. The store closed on June 29, 2018. In August 2018, Jones Lang LaSalle took over managing the mall again.
In March 2019, Gardner Furniture Outlet opened in the space where Toys "R" Us used to be. On November 7, 2019, it was announced that Sears would close its store. It closed on February 15, 2020. On January 7, 2020, Macy's also announced it would close in April 2020. This left Burlington and JCPenney as the only main stores.
On January 8, 2020, the mall was sold again to Hull Property Group. In March 2020, the Chuck E. Cheese location closed permanently after 15 years.
