Hvaltorvet, or Hvaltorget, is the largest shopping mall in

Sandefjord, Norway Sandefjord () is a city and the most populous municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838. The municipality of Sandar was merged into Sandefjord on 1 January 1969. On 1 ...

. It is located in the town square in the city centre. It first opened in 1989, but an expanded mall was opened on 20 November 2008. It is home to 7-63 stores including H&M,

Jack & Jones Bestseller A/S is a privately held family-owned clothing and accessories company founded in Denmark in 1975. The company provides affordable fashion for women, men and children. They market their products in 70 markets across most of Europe, th ...

Lindex Lindex is a Swedish fashion chain within the Finnish Stockmann Group. The company has around 5000 employees and approximately 480 stores in 18 markets in the Nordic countries, the Baltic States, Central Europe and the Middle East. In addition t ...

Narvesen Narvesen is a Norwegian chain of newsagents / convenience stores which, with its 370 outlets nationwide, is one of Norway's largest retailers. The company has since 2000 been part of the Reitan Group (''Reitangruppen''). Narvesens Kioskkompagni ( ...

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Vero Moda Filler text (also placeholder text or dummy text) is text that shares some characteristics of a real written text, but is random or otherwise generated. It may be used to display a sample of fonts, generate text for testing, or to spoof an e- ...

, and

Teknikmagasinet Teknikmagasinet AB is a Swedish-based retail company which sells consumer electronics and gadgets. Founded in 1989, the company operates stores in Sweden, Norway and Finland. Since January 2004 the company has been controlled by venture capital gro ...

. The mall is . Hvaltorvet is named in honor of the city’s iconic whaling epoch.

History

The location of the current mall was formerly a farm owned by Christopher Hvidt. Kremmerhuset in

Tønsberg Tønsberg , historically Tunsberg, is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, eastern Norway, located around south-southwest of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The administrative ce ...

was the first mall in Vestfold County when constructed in 1971. This is now known as Farmandstredet. The early 1990s saw the opening of Nordbyen in Larvik and Hvaltorvet in Sandefjord. In its first year, 1990, Hvaltorvet’s 13 shops had a turnover of NOK 107 million. In 1998, the mall’s 22 shops had a turnover of NOK 205 million. Hvaltorvet was built in 1988. It officially opened on 12 October 1989. Mayor Per Foshaug undertook the symbolic opening of the mall by cutting a mooring cable with a flensing knife. Previously owned by

Steen & Strøm Steen & Strøm is a Scandinavian retail and real estate company that owns and operates 52 shopping centres in Norway, Sweden and Denmark. In 2006 the shopping centers had 3,300 lessees with total revenue of about NOK 40 billion. It has been a mem ...

Invest AS, it was purchased by Norske Liv AS in 1995. It was sold for NOK 170 million and Norske Liv AS became the owner on 1 January 1996. Its net revenue in 2003, which was NOK 233 million, was lower than three other malls in Vestfold: Sjøsiden (236 million), Nordbyen (440 million), and Farmandstredet (1,063 billion). The mall was expanded in November 2008 to 27,000 m². 65 apartments were built atop the mall after the 2008 expansion. 199 new parking spaces were also added during the expansion, bringing the total number to 400-500 spaces for parking. The main parking structure is located underneath the town square in the city centre.

References

{{Coord, 59.1300, 10.2267, region:NO-30, format=dms, display=title Sandefjord Buildings and structures in Sandefjord Companies based in Sandefjord 1989 establishments in Norway Shopping malls established in 1989