The Auburn Mall, managed by

Simon Property Group Simon Property Group, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping malls, outlet centers, and community/lifestyle centers. It is the largest owner of shopping malls in the United States and is headquartered in Indian ...

, which owns 56.1% of it, is an enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located on Route 12 in

Auburn, Massachusetts Auburn is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 16,889 at the 2020 census. History The Auburn area was first settled in 1714 as of today outer parts of Worcester, Sutton, Leicester and Oxford, Massachusett ...

, United States, near the intersection of the

Massachusetts Turnpike The Massachusetts Turnpike (colloquially "Mass Pike" or "the Pike") is a toll highway in the US state of Massachusetts that is maintained by the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT). The turnpike begins at the New York state li ...

(

Interstate 90 Interstate 90 (I-90) is an east–west transcontinental freeway and the longest Interstate Highway in the United States at . It begins in Seattle, Washington, and travels through the Pacific Northwest, Mountain West, Great Plains, Midwest, and ...

) and

I-290 Interstate 290 may refer to the following Interstate Highways in the United States: *Interstate 290 (Illinois), a highway from Chicago, Illinois, to Rolling Meadows, Illinois *Interstate 290 (Massachusetts), a highway in Massachusetts that connects ...

I-395 Interstate 395 may refer to: *Interstate 395 (Connecticut–Massachusetts), a spur from I-95 to Auburn, Massachusetts *Interstate 395 (Delaware), a proposed portion of I-95 in Delaware, when it was under construction *Interstate 395 (Florida), a spu ...

. The mall features

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

as an anchor.

History

The mall was originally built in 1971 and featured

Denholm's Denholm & McKay Co. was a department store located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The store was a dominant retailer in Central Massachusetts. The store was popularly known as Denholm's or the Boston Store. The company was founded by William Alexande ...

and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

as anchors. Denholm's was converted to

Forbes & Wallace Forbes and Wallace was an American department store chain based in Springfield, Massachusetts. History Early years The Forbes and Wallace Store was constructed by partners Alexander B. Forbes and Andrew Brabner Wallace in 1873 at the corne ...

, and later to The Outlet, a

Providence, Rhode Island Providence is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Rhode Island. One of the oldest cities in New England, it was founded in 1636 by Roger Williams, a Reformed Baptist theologian and religious exile from the Massachusetts Bay ...

-based department store chain. The Outlet store closed in the 1980s and was replaced with

Caldor Caldor, Inc. was a discount department store chain founded in 1951 by husband and wife Carl and Dorothy Bennett. Referred to by many as the Bloomingdale's of discounting, Caldor grew from a second story "Walk-Up-&-Save" operation in Port Chest ...

. The mall underwent a significant renovation in 1997 which added

Filene's Filene's (formally William Filene & Sons Co.) was an American department store chain; it was founded by William Filene in 1881. The success of the original full-line store in Boston, Massachusetts, was supplemented by the foundation of its off-p ...

as a third anchor. Caldor closed in 1999 and was converted to a Filene's home store. In 2006, the two Filene's stores in the mall were both converted to Macy's. In October 2015, the mall unveiled plans to add a 10-screen cinema and restaurant in the space occupied by Macy's Home Store which closed on December 1, 2015. By April 2016, those plans were approved. However, in November 2016, the mall abandoned previous plans and proposed a new medical center for the Macy's Home Store space. On June 16, 2017, the mall announced that Reliant Medical Group signed a 20-year lease and opened in the space formerly occupied by Macy's Home Store on February 18, 2019. On November 7, 2019, it was announced that Sears would be closing on February 16, 2020, as part of a plan to close 96 stores nationwide which left Macy's as the only anchor left.

References

Shopping malls in Massachusetts Simon Property Group Buildings and structures in Auburn, Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Worcester County, Massachusetts Shopping malls established in 1971 {{Simon Property Group, northeast