Westfarms is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that ...

on the

West Hartford West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 census. The town's popular downtown area is colloquially known as "West Hartford Center," or simply "The ...

–

Farmington Farmington may refer to: Places Canada *Farmington, British Columbia * Farmington, Nova Scotia (disambiguation) United States *Farmington, Arkansas *Farmington, California *Farmington, Connecticut *Farmington, Delaware * Farmington, Georgia * ...

town line in the U.S. state of

Connecticut Connecticut () is the southernmost state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island to the east, Massachusetts to the north, New York (state), New York to the west, and Long Island Sound to the ...

. It was opened in 1974, expanded in 1982 and 1995–1997, and remodeled in 2008–2009. With of

gross leasable area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

, Westfarms is the third-largest mall in Connecticut. It is located on Route 71, off the

I-84 Interstate 84 may refer to: * Interstate 84 (Oregon–Utah), passing through Idaho, formerly known as Interstate 80N * Interstate 84 (Pennsylvania–Massachusetts) Interstate 84 (I-84) is an Interstate Highway in the Northeaster ...

and Route 9 junction and near several open-air shopping plazas. The mall is currently owned and managed by

Taubman Centers Taubman Centers, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The company invests in shopping centers, and is a subsidiary of Simon Property Group since 2020. History The company was founded in 19 ...

, a subsidiary of

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 In ...

History

Westfarms opened in 1974. It was developed by

Bloomfield Hills Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern border with the city of Bir ...

-based

, which remains in charge of its management since then. Its original anchors were G. Fox & Co.,

J. C. Penney 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, Girl ...

, and

Sage-Allen Sage-Allen was a mid-market department store chain based in Hartford, Connecticut. The store was a fixture in southern New England and anchored a number of smaller local and regional shopping centers in Connecticut, Massachusetts and, later, Ne ...

. The mall was expanded with a new retail wing in 1982, which included a

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...

store. They relocated from Bishops Corner in West Hartford.

Hartford Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since t ...

-based G. Fox was acquired by

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

-based

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-pr ...

in 1992, and the Westfarms store was rebranded on January 30, 1993. Sage-Allen filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1992, and closed permanently in 1993. Facing competition from the newer Buckland Hills Mall in nearby

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...

, Taubman began a

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

$100-million renovation and expansion of Westfarms in 1995. In the first phase, Filene's and Lord & Taylor were remodeled, and the vacated Sage-Allen space became a Filene's Men's & Home. A four-level parking garage was built in the second phase in 1996, and a new retail wing between J. C. Penney and Lord & Taylor with two additional parking garages was completed in 1997. The wing is anchored by

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

-based

Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, and ...

, which opened on September 6, 1997. It was the first Nordstrom in New England and remained their only store in Connecticut until

The SoNo Collection The SoNo Collection is an upscale shopping mall in the South Norwalk neighborhood of Norwalk, Connecticut. It was announced and originally developed by GGP Inc. (General Growth Properties) in 2017; it has been owned and managed by Brookfield Pr ...

in Norwalk opened in 2019. On September 9, 2006, Filene's became Macy's. There were rumors spreading that Nordstrom would be closing as part of a plan to close 16 stores nationwide in 2020, but on May 7, 2020, Nordstrom confirmed these rumors were false and that the Westfarms location would not be closing. In August 2020, it was announced that the Lord & Taylor location at the mall would be closing. In December, 2022, it was announced that

Jordan's Furniture Jordan's Furniture is an American furniture retailer in New England. There are currently seven retail locations—three in Massachusetts ( Avon, Natick, and Reading) and four in other New England states (Nashua, New Hampshire; New Haven, Connectic ...

would open in the former Lord & Taylor space by 2024.

Architecture

Unlike many enclosed malls, Westfarms does not feature a common-area food court, but some wings of the mall contain several quick service restaurants that are housed in their own storefronts.

List of anchor stores

Gallery

File:WestFarms_mall_entrance,_Connecticut.jpg, Entrance to Westfarms File:Apple store, WestFarms Mall.jpg,

Apple Store The Apple Store is a chain of retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell various Apple products, including Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple TV digital me ...

for consumer electronics File:Nordstrom, WestFarms Mall.jpg,

department store File:Pandora, WestFarms Mall.jpg, Pandora jewelry store

References

External links

* {{Shopping malls in Connecticut Shopping malls in Connecticut Buildings and structures in West Hartford, Connecticut Shopping malls established in 1974 Taubman Centers Tourist attractions in Hartford County, Connecticut 1974 establishments in Connecticut