Las Catalinas Mall 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 in

Caguas, Puerto Rico Caguas (, ) is a city and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the Central Mountain Range of Puerto Rico, south of San Juan and Trujillo Alto, west of Gurabo and San Lorenzo, and east of Aguas Buenas, Cidra, and Cayey. Caguas was founded ...

. The mall opened in 1997, and is currently anchored by Sector Sixty6 Entertainment Center. A former anchor tenant,

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 ...

, closed their store in February 2021. The store itself sits vacant as of December 2021. The mall is home to the first "Large Premium Format"

movie theater A movie theater (American English), cinema (British English), or cinema hall ( Indian English), also known as a movie house, picture house, the movies, the pictures, picture theater, the silver screen, the big screen, or simply theater is a ...

in Puerto Rico and second in the

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

region at the time of its opening, which is owned and managed by

Caribbean Cinemas Caribbean Cinemas is a chain of movie theaters in Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. It is the only major chain in Puerto Rico following CineVista's bankruptcy. The chain has expanded into Dominican Republic, Panama, St. Thomas, St. Croix, St. Maa ...

History

During the 19th century, Las Catalinas Mall’s grounds used to be a sugar producer farm called ''Hacienda Santa Catalina''. Besides from

sugar Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...

, the Hacienda Santa Catalina also produced

rum Rum is a liquor made by fermenting and then distilling sugarcane molasses or sugarcane juice. The distillate, a clear liquid, is usually aged in oak barrels. Rum is produced in nearly every sugar-producing region of the world, such as the Phili ...

and cultivated fruits. During construction, the mall was originally named the "Caguas Centrum" shopping center. Las Catalinas Mall opened on December 4th, 1997 with 80 stores and 3,000 spaces of parking. The mall was built with the purpose to serve the surrounding communities, but it grew to become a regional mall. The shopping center is currently owned by Urban Edge Properties, which also owns the Montehiedra Town Center in south

San Juan, Puerto Rico San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the jur ...

On November 4th, 1998

Vornado Realty Trust Vornado Realty Trust is a real estate investment trust formed in Maryland in 1982, with its primary office in New York City. The company invests in office buildings and street retail in Manhattan. Investments Notable properties owned by the ...

bought Kmart's 50% interest in the mall forming a joined ownership between Vornado and Yebba Realty Ventures. In addition, Vornado acquired 75% and Yebba Realty Ventures acquired 25% of Kmart's anchor store. Vornado's purchase price in total was $38 million dollars. On September 23rd, 2002

increased its interest in Las Catalinas to 100% by acquiring the other 50% of the mall from Yebba Realty Ventures and the 25% from the Kmart anchor store. The purchase price was approximately $48 million dollars. In 2015,

announced it would spin off multiple of its properties into a new company Urban Edge Properties which included Las Catalinas, this made Urban Edge the shopping centers new owner. In 2015,

Sears Holdings Sears Holdings Corporation was an American holding company headquartered in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. It was the parent company of the chain stores Kmart and Sears and was founded after the former purchased the latter in 2005. It was the 20th-l ...

spun off 235 of its properties, including the

at Las Catalinas Mall, into ''Seritage Growth Properties''. On November 8, 2018, Sears Holdings announced that

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 ...

would be closing as part of a plan to close 40 stores nationwide. The store closed on January 31, 2019. On December 28, 2020, it was announced that Sears would also be closing in February 2021 as part of a plan to close 23 stores nationwide which temporarily left the mall with no anchors left. By Summer 2021, a

Coast Guard Exchange The coast, also known as the coastline or seashore, is defined as the area where land meets the ocean, or as a line that forms the boundary between the land and the coastline. The Earth has around of coastline. Coasts are important zones in n ...

store opened in the former

Office Depot The ODP Corporation is an American office supply holding company headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The company has combined annual sales of approximately $11 billion, and employs about 38,000 associates with businesses in the United States. ...

. In August 2021, it was announced that a Sector Sixty6 Entertainment Center and a

Golden Corral Golden Corral is an American restaurant chain which offers an all-you-can-eat buffet and grill. It is a privately held company headquartered in the U.S. city of Raleigh, North Carolina, with locations in 43 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. History ...

would replace the former Kmart store. They're expected to open by 2022.

Current Anchors

*Sector Sixty6 (Coming 2022)

Outparcels

Home Depot The Home Depot, Inc., is an American multinational corporation, multinational home improvement retail corporation that sells tools, construction products, appliances, and services, including fuel and transportation rentals. Home Depot is the l ...

Supermercados Amigo Amigo Supermarkets ( es, Supermercados Amigo) is a chain of supermarkets located in Puerto Rico and owned by Pueblo. History In the 1920s, ''Supermercados Amigo'' was opened by Jose Marti Fuentes. During the company's formative years, it operat ...

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with it ...

*Coast Guard Exchange *

(Coming 2022)

Former Anchors

Former Outparcels

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 ...

Walgreens Walgreen Company, d/b/a Walgreens, is an American company that operates the second-largest pharmacy store chain in the United States behind CVS Health. It specializes in filling prescriptions, health and wellness products, health information, an ...

References

Caguas, Puerto Rico Shopping malls in Puerto Rico Shopping malls established in 1997 Economic history of Puerto Rico {{PuertoRico-struct-stub