The Mall of New Hampshire is a

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 the Lower South Willow neighborhood of

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...

. Its major anchoring stores are

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 ...

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

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 ...

, Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy, and

Dave & Buster's Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of October 2022, the company has 151 locations in the United States and two ...

. The mall has 125 stores as well as a large food court and is , making it the third largest mall in New Hampshire after the

Mall at Rockingham Park The Mall at Rockingham Park is the largest shopping mall in the state of New Hampshire, with of floor space. The mall is located in the town of Salem, about north of Boston. The mall is adjacent to Interstate 93 and the former Rockingham Park ...

in Salem, and the

Pheasant Lane Mall Pheasant Lane Mall, occupying , is one of the largest shopping malls in the state of New Hampshire and the focal point of the commercial area in south Nashua. As of , the mall has about 139 stores and kiosks, including four anchor stores: Dick ...

Nashua Nashua may refer to: * Nashaway people, Native American tribe living in 17th-century New England Places In Australia: * Nashua, New South Wales In the United States: * Nashua, California * Nashua, Iowa * Nashua, Minnesota * Nashua, Kansas City ...

, which opened in 1991 and 1986, respectively. This was the first large-scale shopping mall in New Hampshire; initial construction of the mall was completed in August 1977, though it has since been dramatically expanded. The Mall of New Hampshire is 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 India ...

, which owns 56.4 percent of it. The mall is also 44 percent owned by the

CPP Investment Board The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB; french: Office d'investissement du régime de pensions du Canada), operating as CPP Investments (french: Investissements RPC), is a Canadian Crown corporation established by way of the 1997 ''Cana ...

, which manages the Canada Pension Plan national pension system. The mall is located just off the South Willow Street exit (Exit 1) of

Interstate 293 Interstate 293 (I-293) is an auxiliary Interstate Highway surrounding Manchester, New Hampshire, roughly shaped like two sides of a triangle. Completing the loop in the northeast (the third side of the triangle) is I-93. The southern porti ...

, and has convenient access from the entire

Golden Triangle Golden Triangle may refer to: Places Asia * Golden Triangle (Southeast Asia), named for its opium production * Golden Triangle (Yangtze), China, named for its rapid economic development * Golden Triangle (India), comprising the popular tourist ...

of New Hampshire and portions of northeastern

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

. Because of its location in south-central New Hampshire, the mall, along with other area malls draw a significant portion of its customer base from

citizens, as well as residents of neighboring

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and ...

and

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

, wishing to take advantage of New Hampshire's lack of sales tax.

History

The Mall of New Hampshire opened in August 1977 with

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 ...

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 ...

, and

Lechmere Lechmere ( "leech-meer") was a Massachusetts-based chain of retail stores that closed in 1997. At the time of its closing, it had 27 stores, including 20 in New England. The chain offered electronics, appliances, and various household goods. It a ...

as anchors. The mall underwent a huge expansion and remodeling from late 1996 to early 1998. Sears was expanded in 1997 and remodeled. The original Filene's was relocated to a newly built store in a newer wing of the mall in early 1997. The original Filene's was demolished and rebuilt into a 2-level

in early 1998. The Lechmere closed in 1997 and became in 1998 a Best Buy and a Kitchen ETC. The food court was renovated in early 1998 and changed to a 550-seat food court. In 2006, as a result of the Federated/

May May is the fifth month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars and is the third of seven months to have a length of 31 days. May is a month of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and autumn in the Southern Hemisphere. Therefore, May ...

merger, all Filene's locations, including the one at the mall, were closed, followed by most of them, including the Mall of New Hampshire location changing over to

. In April 2013, JCPenney went under another big renovation on both the top and bottom levels of their store, adding in a Sephora to help ease customers from going to the locations down at the

and the

. 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- ...

spun off 235 of its properties, including the Sears at Mall of New Hampshire, into Seritage Growth Properties. On August 22, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to 46 stores nationwide. The store closed in November 2018. On December 8, 2018, it was announced that Dick's Sporting Goods would be opening in half of the former Sears. The other half of the former Sears will become

. Dick's Sporting Goods opened on October 30, 2019, and Dave & Buster's was originally scheduled to open on March 30, 2020, however it was delayed to August 24, 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. The former Sears Auto Center will be demolished for more parking spaces.

References

External links

The Mall of New Hampshire
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mall Of New Hampshire Buildings and structures in Manchester, New Hampshire Simon Property Group Shopping malls in New Hampshire Shopping malls established in 1977 Tourist attractions in Manchester, New Hampshire 1977 establishments in New Hampshire