Brass Mill Center 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

Waterbury, Connecticut Waterbury is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut on the Naugatuck River, southwest of Hartford and northeast of New York City. Waterbury is the second-largest city in New Haven County, Connecticut. According to the 2020 US Census, in 20 ...

. The mall and its accompanying complex, the Brass Mill Commons, cost $160 million to build. At , it is Connecticut's fifth largest mall, containing over 130 shops. It is located off Interstate 84 in Waterbury, Connecticut.

History

The Brass Mill Center opened on Wednesday September 17th, 1997. It comprises two floors, as well as a partial third floor belonging to a 12-screen

Regal Cinemas Regal Cinemas (also Regal Entertainment Group) is an American movie theater chain headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee. A division of Cineworld, Regal operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with over 7,200 screens i ...

. There are four

anchor stores 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. W ...

, including

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 i ...

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 ...

, Shoppers World,

Five Below 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awa ...

Ulta Beauty Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of beauty stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high-end and low-end cosmetics, fragra ...

, Barnes and Noble,

Petco Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. is an American pet retailer with corporate offices in San Diego and San Antonio. Petco sells pet food, products, and services, as well as certain types of live small animals. Founded in 1965 as a mail-ord ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

, and Steve & Barry's were former anchor stores, but the latter was vacated when all Steve & Barry's stores liquidated in 2008. For the 2011 Christmas holiday season, Toy ZAM! opened a store in Steve & Barry's former spot. In 2013 Shoppers World opened a store in Steve & Barry's former spot.

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 ...

used to be an anchor in the mall before being converted to Macy's in 2006. Before construction began, 118,000 tons of contaminated soil and 63 vacant and deteriorated buildings were removed from the site. The construction of Brass Mill Center essentially replaced the older Naugatuck Valley Mall, built in 1969 and located on the city's northeast suburban side. In the process, the Filene's (originally a G. Fox & Co. store) and the Sears stores relocated to Brass Mill Center. Naugautuck Valley Mall was demolished in spring 1999.

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 ...

was originally planned as the fourth anchor, but it never opened due to parent company

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

closing the chain in 1997. Numerous former tenants include Shaw’s Supermarket,

Hometown Buffet VitaNova Brands, based in San Antonio, Texas, was an operator of a number of United States, American national buffet chain restaurants including subsidiary company Furr's. All of their Old Country Buffet, HomeTown Buffet, Ryan's Buffet, and Curr ...

and

OfficeMax OfficeMax is an American office supplies retailer founded in 1988. It is now a subsidiary of The ODP Corporation, which is headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. As of December 2012, OfficeMax operated 941 stores in 47 states, Puerto Rico, the U ...

, which closed in 2007, 2011, and 2014 respectively. On June 7, 2018, Sears announced that its store would be closing as part of a plan to close 78 stores nationwide. The store closed September 2018. On May 11, 2019, the ''

Republican-American The ''Republican-American'' is a conservative-leaning, family-owned newspaper based in Waterbury, Connecticut established in 1990 through merger of two newspapers under the same ownership: ''Waterbury American'' and ''Waterbury Republican''. The ...

'' reported that Dick's Sporting Goods would open in the former

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1957; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters loc ...

at the adjacent Brass Mill Commons in the future, which it did on October 11. On January 6, 2021, it was announced that Macy's would be closing as part of a plan to close 46 stores nationwide. The store closed on March 21, 2021. On April 19, 2022, Kohan Retail Investment Group acquired Brass Mill Center for $44.9 million. On September 26, 2022, Regal Cinemas abruptly permanently closed its location in the Brass Mill Center, which left

, and Shoppers World as the only anchors left.

References

External links

Brass Mill Center website

{{Shopping malls in Connecticut Shopping malls in Connecticut Buildings and structures in Waterbury, Connecticut Shopping malls established in 1997 Tourist attractions in New Haven County, Connecticut Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area Kohan Retail Investment Group