Square One Mall 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 along

US Route 1 U.S. Route 1 or U.S. Highway 1 (US 1) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that serves the East Coast of the United States. It runs from Key West, Florida, north to Fort Kent, Maine, at the Canadian border, making i ...

(Broadway) between Main Street and Essex Street in

Saugus, Massachusetts Saugus is a town in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. The population was 28,619 at the 2020 census. Saugus is known as the site of the first integrated iron works in North America. History Native Americans ...

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 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 ...

, Dick's Sporting Goods,

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

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American department store chain, selling at prices generally lower than other major similar stores. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in ...

. Additional stores in the mall include

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 ...

Forever 21 Forever 21 is a multinational fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Originally founded as the store Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984,Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved 27 April 2014 ...

, Famous Footwear, EbLens, and

Bath & Body Works Bath & Body Works, LLC. is an American retail store chain that sells soaps, lotions, fragrances, and candles. It was founded in 1990 in New Albany, Ohio and has since expanded across 6 continents. In 1997, it was the largest bath shop chain in ...

. The mall was a $100 million project undertaken by New England Development Corporation to redevelop the former New England Shopping Center which consisted of

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 ...

Service Merchandise Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002. ...

and the former General Cinemas which had closed in the mid-1980s. The construction of the mall was unique since it incorporated the previously built structure of Sears, signs of this being the difference in building materials between Sears and the rest of the mall. The mall opened for business on August 17, 1994. The mall is credited with bringing sprawl and strip development to Saugus, especially along the Route 1 corridor. Route 1 through the area is a 6 lane highway (3 lanes in each direction) with a speed limit of .

Filene's Basement Filene's Basement, also called The Basement, was a Massachusetts-based chain of department stores which was owned by Retail Ventures, Inc. until April 2009 when it was sold to Syms. The oldest off-price retailer in the United States, Filene's ...

, one of the malls former anchors, filed for bankruptcy protection on May 4, 2009. New York’s Crown Acquisitions, made a bid to buy Filene's Basement including their famous Downtown Crossing location which closed in 2007. All Filene's Basement stores closed in December 2011. TJ Maxx was originally in a space built for

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 ...

, but has since moved to a space formerly occupied by

. 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 Sears at Square One Mall, into Seritage Growth Properties. Sears downsized its store to the lower level in 2017. The upper level of Sears is now vacant. On June 30, 2020, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 28 stores nationwide. The store closed on September 13, 2020.

Bus connections

Along with a large parking lot, the

MBTA The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (abbreviated MBTA and known colloquially as "the T") is the public agency responsible for operating most public transportation services in Greater Boston, Massachusetts. The MBTA transit network in ...

services the Square One Mall with the following

MBTA bus The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates List of MBTA bus routes, 170 bus routes in the Greater Boston area. The MBTA has a policy objective to provide transit service within walking distance (defined as ) for all residents ...

routes: * 429 Northgate Shopping Center - Lynn Commuter Rail Station via Jefferson Ave & Square One Mall * 430 Saugus Center - Malden Station via Square One Mall The 131 has been proposed to be extended from its current route between Malden and Melrose to the Square One Mall. As of now Melrose residents can only access the mall by car or by taking a bus in the opposite direction to Malden Station and then transferring to the 430.

References

{{Simon Property Group, northeast Simon Property Group Shopping malls in Massachusetts Buildings and structures in Saugus, Massachusetts Tourist attractions in Essex County, Massachusetts Shopping malls established in 1994 1994 establishments in Massachusetts