Hampshire Mall is a primarily one-story

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 ...

with a small second floor in

Hadley, Massachusetts Hadley (, ) is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,325 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area. The area around the Hampshire and Mountain Farms Ma ...

, United States, with approximately 30 stores owned by

The Pyramid Companies Pyramid Management Group (also known as The Pyramid Companies) is a development firm formed in 1968 in Upstate New York, by Robert J. Congel. It is the largest privately held shopping mall development firm in the Northeastern United States, wit ...

. Current

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

s include

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores an ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

PetSmart PetSmart is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, ...

and

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

. The mall is home to Interskate 91 North, a roller skating rink on the second floor. Attached to the skating rink is LaserBlast: Ancient Adventure (a Lasertag facility that was formerly home to LaserStorm).

History

When the mall opened in 1978 it was anchored by

, Steiger's and

Kmart Kmart Corporation ( , doing business as Kmart and stylized as kmart) is an American retail company that owns a chain of big box department stores. The company is headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, United States. The company was inc ...

. The Steiger's store was demolished in 1994 for

Media Play Media Play was a chain of retail stores founded in 1992 by Musicland that sold VHS, DVDs, music, electronics, toys, video games, anime, books, and board games similar to Hastings Entertainment, 2nd and Charles, and Half Price Books. Each store ...

. The Media Play store opened August 10, 1995. Kmart closed in 2002 because of the chain's bankruptcy. In 2003 the former Kmart space was rebuilt and extended to house a Target store. Originally the mall contained a six screen movie theater that existed from 1978 to 1999. This was then expanded to a 12-screen Cinemark movie theater in 2000. A

store opened in early 2005, replacing a former

Eastern Mountain Sports Eastern Mountain Sports (or EMS) is an outdoor clothing and equipment retailer in the Northeastern United States headquartered in Meriden, Connecticut. EMS sells outdoor equipment and clothing from both name brands and its own EMS line. The compa ...

Best Buy Best Buy Co. Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics retailer headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally founded by Richard M. Schulze and James Wheeler in 1966 as an audio specialty store called Sound of Music, it was rebra ...

and

Steve & Barry's Steve & Barry's was an American retail clothing chain, featuring casual clothing, footwear and accessories. By mid-2008, the chain operated 276 stores in 39 states. The company was headquartered in Port Washington, New York. The company liquidate ...

replaced Media Play in early 2005. Steve & Barry's filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008 and subsequently closed their Hampshire Mall store in August 2008 and it was replaced by the racetrack.

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

developers beginning in 2005 wished to build a new Supercenter southeast of Hampshire Mall. However, there have been various hindrances as a consequence of a bylaw designed to keep out large stores by restricting new stores to . After two years of negotiations, on November 20, 2007, a subdivision plan that exempted the planned Walmart Supercenter from the current bylaw restrictions was approved. Developers have eight years to get a site plan approved before the exemption expires. This would almost certainly mean the current store, attached to the east end of Mountain Farms Mall, would close.

Road access to the mall

The state of Massachusetts is considering widening Route 9 to two lanes in each direction from Middle Street to the mall area to alleviate frequent traffic jams. This would add to a previous project completed in 2008 that widened Route 9 from the

Calvin Coolidge Bridge The Calvin Coolidge Memorial Bridge is a major crossing of the Connecticut River in western Massachusetts, connecting the towns of Northampton and Hadley. The bridge carries Route 9 across the river, where it connects to Interstate 91. His ...

Northampton Northampton () is a market town and civil parish in the East Midlands of England, on the River Nene, north-west of London and south-east of Birmingham. The county town of Northamptonshire, Northampton is one of the largest towns in England; ...

and result in two lanes in each direction from Northampton through Hadley to the Amherst line. This would also enable easier access to Mountain Farms mall and the new Hadley Corner shops.

References

External links

Official website

{{Shopping malls in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Hadley, Massachusetts The Pyramid Companies Shopping malls established in 1978 Shopping malls in Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Hampshire County, Massachusetts

History

Road access to the mall

See also

References

External links