Annapolis Mall (formerly Westfield Annapolis) is an enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is 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, but in the late 1960s, i ...

Parole Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...

, just east of the intersection of

Interstate 97 Interstate 97 (I-97) is a north-south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It runs entirely within Anne Arundel County, Maryland, for from U.S. Route 50 in Maryland, U.S. Route 50/U.S. Route 30 ...

and

U.S. Route 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlantic ...

and in close proximity to the mall's namesake of

Annapolis, Maryland Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east ...

. Owned by Atlas Hill RE and Centennial Real Estate Management while being managed by the latter, the mall features 1,416,744 sq ft (131,622.6 m²) of

GLA GLA or Gla may refer to: Entertainment * ''GLA'' (album), by Scottish alternative rock band Twin Atlantic * Great Lakes Avengers, a fictional comic hero group Organisations * Gangmasters Licensing Authority, a British regulatory body * Genera ...

, making it the second-largest shopping mall in Maryland after

Arundel Mills Arundel Mills is a shopping mall located in unincorporated Anne Arundel County, Maryland, United States (with a Hanover mailing address). It is 59.3% owned by Simon Property Group, who manages the mall. With its GLA, it is the largest mall ...

. As of 2022, the mall features two traditional anchors

Macy's Macy's is an American department store chain founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. The first store was located in Manhattan on Sixth Avenue between 13th and 14th Streets, south of the present-day flagship store at Herald Square on West 34 ...

and

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

, as well as an 11-screen

AMC Theatres AMC Entertainment Holdings, Inc. (doing business as AMC Theatres, originally an abbreviation for American Multi-Cinema; often referred to simply as AMC) is an American movie theater chain founded in Kansas City, Missouri, and now headquartered ...

and prominent specialty retailers such as

Zara Zara may refer to: Businesses * Zara (retailer), a fashion retail company based in Spain * Zara Investment Holding, a Jordanian holding company * Continental Hotel Zara, Budapest, Hungary People and fictional characters * Zara (name), primari ...

The Container Store The Container Store Group, Inc., is an American specialty retail chain which offers storage and organization products, and custom closets. History The Container Store was founded in Dallas by Garrett Boone and John Mullen. With the backing of th ...

and

Crate & Barrel Euromarket Designs Inc., doing business as Crate & Barrel (stylized as Crate&Barrel), is an international furniture and home décor retail store headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois. They employ 8200 employees across over 100 stores in the Uni ...

History

The site was at one time the location of the Annapolis terminus of the

Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway The Washington, Baltimore and Annapolis Electric Railway (WB&A) was an American railroad that operated from 1899 until 1935 in central Maryland and Washington, D.C. It was built by a group of Cleveland, Ohio, electric railway entrepreneurs to se ...

, and was known as the "Best Gate" station, which had three single-ended and four double-ended sidings, where rail cars could be shunted on or off of the single-track WB&A east–west railway which ran to the north–south

Baltimore and Ohio Railroad The Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was the oldest railroads in North America, oldest railroad in the United States and the first steam engine, steam-operated common carrier. Construction of the line began in 1828, and it operated as B&O from 1830 ...

and

Pennsylvania Railroad The Pennsylvania Railroad ( reporting mark PRR), legal name as the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, also known as the "Pennsy," was an American Class I railroad that was established in 1846 and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At its ...

lines. This "Best Gate" station gave the name to the nearby Bestgate Road, which today runs along the northern perimeter of the mall. A free-standing, single-level

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a mail-order business and later a department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001; its common nickname was "Monkey Wards". ...

store occupied the site during the 1970s. Following the construction and opening of a single-level mall on the site in 1980, Montgomery Ward became an anchor. Additional anchor stores included Washington, D.C.–based

Garfinckel's Garfinckel's was a prominent department store chain based in Washington, D.C. that catered to a clientele of wealthy consumers. Its flagship store at 14th and F in the city's F Street shopping district is listed on the National Register. It fil ...

and

Hecht's Hecht's was an American department store chain founded in 1857 by Samuel Hecht, Jr. It was headquartered in Washington, D.C., and operated in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic and Southern United States. The family business was acqui ...

, both with two levels. The mall was expanded in 1983 with the addition of a single-level

. Garfinckel's closed in 1990 after the company went bankrupt. After the mall was acquired by

Westfield Group Westfield Group was an Australian shopping centre company that existed from 1960 to 2014, when it split into two independent companies: Scentre Group, which owns and operates the Australian and New Zealand Westfield shopping centre portfolio; ...

, it was expanded again in 1994 with the addition of a two-level

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

store as well as an expanded food court. In 1998 a two-level

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was an American department store chain founded in 1826 by Samuel Lord. It had 86 full-line stores in the Northeastern United States at its peak in the 2000s, and 38 locations at the time of its liquidation in 2021. The Lord & Tay ...

store opened which was followed by the opening of an 11-screen movie theater. The Montgomery Ward store closed in 2001 and in 2002 was replaced with a

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

store. Hecht's became

in September 2006. In 2007, the mall completed a $150 million expansion. The expansion added an additional of retail space featuring 60 new stores such as

Pottery Barn Pottery Barn is an American upscale home furnishing store chain and e-commerce company, with retail stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico and Australia. Pottery Barn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Williams-Sonoma, Inc. The company is hea ...

and H&M. The former Garfinckel's space once housed a two-level

Borders Books and Music A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

store which operated during the mid-2000s until its closure in 2011. A

Forever 21 F21 OpCo LLC, trade name, doing business as Forever 21, was a multinational fast-fashion retailer. It was originally founded as Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles, Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984.Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved ...

location opened in the space in 2013. On February 22, 2025, Forever 21 announced that they would be closing their location at the mall as part of their Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The store closed on April 29. In August 2017, Lord & Taylor announced that they would close their store at Westfield Annapolis. In December of that same year, the mall's owner Westfield Group was acquired by French firm Unibail-Rodamco, becoming

Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield SE (previously Unibail-Rodamco SE) is a European multinational commercial real estate company headquartered in Paris, France, and is the owner and operator of Westfield shopping centres in the northern hemisphere. It ...

(URW). In January 2020, URW announced that the former Lord & Taylor space would be reconstructed into a “retail district” featuring stores such as

In April 2018, Anne Arundel County Public Library opened a temporary branch called "Discoveries: the Library at the Mall", in Westfield Annapolis. It moved to a permanent location in the former American Eagle and Charlotte Russe stores in February 2020. Since July 2021, the library includes a Community Pantry where staff distribute diapers, baby supplies, hygiene items and menstrual supplies twice a month. In May 2020, Nordstrom announced it would shutter their Annapolis location during a wave of secondary store closures. The store closed on July 15 of that same year. The

SPCA A Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) is a common name for non-profit animal welfare organizations around the world. The oldest SPCA organization is the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which was founded ...

Anne Arundel County Anne Arundel County (; ), also notated as AA or A.A. County, is located in the U.S. state of Maryland. As of the 2020 United States census, its population was 588,261, an increase of just under 10% since 2010. Its county seat is Annapolis, wh ...

opened an

animal shelter An animal shelter or pound is a place where stray, lost, abandoned or surrendered animals – mostly dogs and cats – are housed. The word "pound" has its origins in the animal pounds of the agricultural communities, where stray livestock w ...

called "Paws at the Mall" at the mall in September 2020. It was the first animal shelter of its kind to operate inside of an indoor shopping mall. In April 2022,

announced the acquisition of seven

Bow Tie Cinemas BTM Cinemas (formerly known as Bow Tie Cinemas) is an American movie theater chain, with eight locations in Colorado, New York, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. It is the oldest surviving movie exhibition company in the United States, having ...

locations, including their location at Westfield Annapolis. The theater reopened as AMC Annapolis Mall 11 on the weekend of April 21, 2022. On May 10, 2024, a listing by local retail broker H&R Retail revealed that JCPenney was slated to close in 2025 and be replaced by five tenants, including

Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., formerly Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, is an American retail company. It owns a chain of arts and crafts stores with a volume of over $5 billion in 2018. The chain has 1,001 stores in 48 U.S. states. The Green family fo ...

Grocery Outlet Grocery Outlet Holding Corp. is an American discount closeout retailer consisting exclusively of supermarket locations that offer discounted, overstocked, and closeout products from name-brand and private-label suppliers. The company has stor ...

and Onelife Fitness. In February 2025, JCPenney announced that they would be closing its store as part of a plan to close eight stores nationwide. The store was originally scheduled to close by May 25. However, on April 16, it was announced that JCPenney had extended their lease at Annapolis Mall through August 31. The store's liquidation sales were halted the same day. Following the lease extension, a representative from the department store stated "We are optimistic that we can come to an agreement that will suit all parties involved, and that JCPenney can continue to serve our loyal customers in the Annapolis area for years to come", but it was announced in mid-June that the store will close on August 17. On May 16, 2024, it was confirmed that URW was in negotiations to sell the mall. This came after a prior announcement in 2022 that the company was seeking to sell their American malls, later amended to only selling non-flagship properties. On August 5, 2024, it was reported that Centennial Real Estate Management acquired the property for an undisclosed sum. Following the sale, all Westfield branding was removed and the mall was renamed to Annapolis Mall. On September 3, 2024, Centennial formally announced their acquisition of the mall as part of a consortium that also includes former

WeWork WeWork Inc., headquartered in New York City, is a provider of coworking spaces, including physical and virtual shared spaces, in approximately 600 buildings in 125 cities. WeWork was founded in 2010 by Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey. Ove ...

and GGP CEO

Sandeep Mathrani Sandeep Mathrani (born 1962) is an Indian-American real estate executive, and was the chief executive officer and chairman of WeWork until he resigned on May 26, 2023. He was CEO of Brookfield Properties' Retail Group and vice chairman of Brookfie ...

Waterfall Asset Management Waterfall Asset Management (Waterfall) is an American alternative investment management firm headquartered in New York City. The firm's focuses investments in credit structured products mainly high-yield asset-backed securities (ABS). It also ...

and Lincoln Property Company. Through Mathrani's company Atlas Hill Real Estate, both Centennial and Mathrani will serve as owners of the property. The announcement also came with news that two new anchors would be joining the mall, both initially slated to open in the winter of 2025 before being delayed to early 2026:

Dick's House of Sport Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized in all caps as DICK'S Sporting Goods) is an American chain of sporting goods stores founded in 1948 by Richard "Dick" Stack. It is the largest sporting goods retailer in the United States and is listed o ...

and

Dave & Buster's Dave & Buster's Entertainment, Inc. (stylized in all caps) is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's location has a full-service restaurant, full bar, and a video arcade; the latter of w ...

. On December 30, 2024, Sandeep Mathrani announced that the former Sears site was to be replaced by “half retail and half rental apartments.” He also announced negotiations to fill of vacant space throughout the mall. These negotiations include two tenants to fill about in the mall’s 2007 expansion corridor. On February 9, 2025, Centennial CEO Paul Kurzawa announced that another new anchor for the mall was "in the works," although he declined to reveal the name of the anchor or where in the mall it would be located. In April 2025, the mall announced several major tenants through their "leasing pitchbook." These new tenants include

Primark Primark Limited (; trading as Penneys in Ireland) is an Irish multinational fashion retailer with headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with outlets across Europe and in the United States. The original ''Penneys'' brand is not used outside of Irel ...

, which will replace a portion of the former Sears parcel, and

Uniqlo ( ; ) is a Japanese casual wear designer and retailer. The company is a subsidiary of Fast Retailing, Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. Clare Waight Keller is the creative director. History Men's Shop OS was founded in Ube, Yamaguchi. It was rebrand ...

which will open near JCPenney.

2006 shooting

On Saturday, November 18, 2006, an off-duty

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security tasked with conducting criminal investigations and providing protection to American political leaders, thei ...

agent was at the mall when he witnessed a fight in progress in the food court. During the attempt to break up the fight, one of the combatants pulled a gun and fired at the agent, wounding him. The agent returned fire, hitting the shooter twice. A third person was wounded in the altercation. A midshipman from the U.S. Naval Academy ran toward the sound of gunshots and provided first aid for the Secret Service agent. That midshipman later received the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal. The mall was closed shortly after the incident, with all patrons asked to leave over the public address system. The associated trial ended in December 2007 and the shooter was sentenced to 65 years in prison.

Current anchors

(since 1983) closing 2025 *

(since 2006) *

(since 2009) *

(since 2021) *

(since 2022) *

(opening 2026) *

(opening 2026)

Former anchors

(1980–1990) *

(1980–2001) *

(1980–2006) *

(2001–2011) *

(1998–2018) *

(1994–2020) *

(2002–2020) *

(1998–2022) *

(2013–2025)

References

External links

* {{WestfieldUnitedStates 1980 establishments in Maryland Buildings and structures in Annapolis, Maryland Shopping malls established in 1980 Shopping malls in Maryland Tourist attractions in Annapolis, Maryland

Annapolis Annapolis ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of Maryland. It is the county seat of Anne Arundel County and its only incorporated city. Situated on the Chesapeake Bay at the mouth of the Severn River, south of Baltimore and about east o ...