Westgate Mall, Brockton, MA

Westgate Mall is the oldest mall in the entire state in Massachusetts and is located in Brockton which is 20 miles south of Boston. Westgate Mall opened on February 24, 1963 as Westgate Shopper’s Park with 356,00 square feet of shopping. The mall was expanded in 1984 and 85 nearly doubling the mall’s size to 600,000. The expansion is anchored by a Sears. In 1999 New England Development purchased Westgate for $17 Million to renovate Westgate because the mall was dying due to bigger malls such as South Shore Plaza and Silver City Galleria. Between 2000 and 2003 Westgate Mall was renovated and New England Development was successful turning the mall around and Westgate reestablished itself a a neighborhood mall and is still successful to this day. In 2004 New England Development sold the mall to Gregory Greenfield & Associates. The mall was sold again in 2007 to Babcock & Brown. Bank of America foreclosed the mall in 2009 and in 2010 New England Development bought the mall again and is still the owner to this day. On January 4, 2017 Macy’s announced that they would be closing their Westgate Mall location. In 2019 the former Macy’s space was taken over by a Burlington and other smaller stores as well.

Many people seem to forgotten the definition of a dead mall and the only reason I bringing this up is because many people think Westgate is dead or dying or is struggling. The definition of a dead mall is a mall with a high vacancy rate or low foot traffic and Westgate does not fit any of those symptoms so simply can’t call it a dead mall. Many people think just because a mall has a lot of mom and pop stores like Westgate is dead. I have to disagree. The mall is also getting a Cinnabon so I cannot hate on it personally.

Here are my photos of Westgate Mall from the summer of 2018 and 2020.

2018

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Greendale Mall, Worcester, MA

As my return post to the blog, I decided the best mall to write about is the now-demolished Greendale Mall in Worcester, Massachusetts. Greendale Mall was a very different place in design, department stores, and its tiny footprint. However, this small footprint was a key marketing tactic that the mall used in its earlier years and was proven to have worked because of how successful the mall was up until the 2010s. I can see what was so appealing about this mall before it died and it is unfortunate that I never got to see it at that stage of its life. Greendale Mall opened in 1987 and was a product of New England Development also developed the Arsenal Mall in Watertown which was one of my childhood malls I have many memories there in its final years. I am very familiar with the now-shuttered mall and can tell you firsthand that Arsenal and Greendale are very similar architecturally and in many other ways as well. At Greendale's opening, it was the second mall in the cit...

Woburn Mall, Woburn, MA

Woburn Mall was a a small mall in the shadows of the large Burlington Mall. The mall was never busy on the inside. You’d think by looking at the parking lot it was packed inside because the parking lot is small and the big tenants are right at the mall entrance like Market Basket, and TJ Maxx. There really isn’t much history on this mall because of it size I’m thinking. I am guessing that the mall was built in the early to mid 70’s. The mall was renovated which is honestly shocking in 2004. The Frabric Place which was the anchor in Center Court closed in 2008. The mall had a strange tenant mix. They had many discount oriented shops but not really regular mall chains. They really wanted this to be a place that you could go to and get your groceries, shoes, and takeout at Uno’s. They did have some chains but it wasn’t special. Some of the chains were Talbots Outlet Store, Payless ShoeSource, and GNC. They had a Sports Authority just like many of the dead malls in the area. Th...

Malls I’ve Been To

Grenada Bruce Street Commercial Complex, St. George's Esplanade Mall, St. George's Spiceland Mall, The Lime United States Connecticut Blue Back Square, West Hartford Brass Mill Center, Waterbury Crystal Mall, Waterford Danbury Fair, Danbury Enfield Square, Enfield Mohegan Sun, Uscaville Stamford Town Center, Stamford Tanger Outlets at Foxwoods, Mashantucket The Promenade Shops at Evergreen Walk, South Windsor The Shoppes at Buckland Hills, Manchester The SoNo Collection, Norwalk Westfarms, West Hartford Florida Altamonte Mall, Altamonte Springs Aventura Mall, Aventura Bal Harbour Shops, Bal Harbour Bayside Marketplace, Miami Brickell City Centre, Miami Citrus Park Town Center (Westfield Citrus Park), Tampa Coastland Center, Naples Coconut Point, Estero Coral Square, Coral Springs Dadeland Mall, Miami Disney Springs, Lake Buena Vista Dolphin Mall, Miami Esplanade, Palm Beach Festival Bay Mall (Dezerland Park/Aete...

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