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Kodiak01 t1_iqs7n82 wrote

Reply to comment by BirdBearHareFishy in Connecticut's last SEARS closed in early 2021 - Manchester CT by ILovePublicLibraries

The rest of that mall is still pretty busy, though.

We recently were up at the Burlington Mall in MA. They took the Sears location and built an entire extension of the mall with a bunch of new stores, several restaurants and communal outdoor areas with everything from fire pits to cornhole to open turfed areas where they hold free exercise classes for the public. They really did a beautiful job, showed what can be done with the old spaces that isn't just a health club and urgent care center.

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Feralhousewife930 t1_iqsy3tf wrote

Burlington Mall is one of a few that are surviving. The big high end malls are hanging on.

Meanwhile, the searstown mall/ mall at Whitney field in Leominster MA is turning into an apex entertainment center.

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Kodiak01 t1_iqt06r2 wrote

Ingleside in Holyoke is still doing good as well.

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genji2056 t1_iqum4qj wrote

Round 1 is really clutching it for Holyoke imo

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Feralhousewife930 t1_iqvs6a6 wrote

I still miss Kahunaville and drunken college nights dancing on that bar. In the Holyoke mall. Gorgeous.

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HomerJSimpson3 t1_iqu8djv wrote

Buckland has been a dying mall since I started working there in 2010 at that Sears before moving to the mall office. The politics and egos of the both mall management, and to a lesser degree the store owners, lead to a mass exodus. Many of the anchor stores and main attractions are gone: Panera, Bertucci’s, Dick’s, Sears, Regency, all gone. Many replaced by dollar stores. I’ve heard rumors about Newburry Comics about ready to leave too. One of the mall’s biggest blunders was not attaching Dave and Busters to the mall itself. Management expected a huge increase in mall customers which never happened because it’s so far away from the main building.

Couple that with the mall having an absolute shit reputation due to the high profile Mall Brawls involving kids, shootings, drugs, etc Buckland is circling the bowl. The higher end malls like Westfarms are still doing very well for themselves though

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Vespaeelio t1_iquawyp wrote

I found the norwalk one pretty busy last time I went, not sure about Milford.

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PhilipLiptonSchrute t1_iqvf15t wrote

I walked through the Brass Mill Center last week, and I think the ratio of empty to occupied stores is close to 2:1

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Kodiak01 t1_iqvfisd wrote

This is what Burlington did with the old Sears property. There is also a mall entrance with more interior stores.

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PhilipLiptonSchrute t1_iqvfqzw wrote

That's smart. I don't see something like that ever getting legs in Waterbury though.

Watertown did something similar with the old Kmart. It doesn't have the outdoor seating, but very similar otherwise. Seems to be working well. All the spaces have been occupied for some time now.

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