CityPlace Burlington (previously named Burlington Square Mall and Burlington Town Center) was a formerly 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 ...

. Located on the

Church Street Marketplace The Church Street Marketplace is an uncovered outdoor pedestrian shopping and dining mall in Burlington, Vermont, consisting of the four blocks of Church Street between Main and Pearl Streets. The mall was initially conceived in 1958 and was ...

open-air mall in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

, United States, it opened in 1976. The mall's

anchor store In North American, Australian and New Zealand 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 ...

s were

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

L.L.Bean L.L.Bean is an American privately held retail company that was founded in 1912 by Leon Leonwood Bean. The company, headquartered in Freeport, Maine (where it was founded), specializes in clothing and outdoor recreation equipment. History L.L. ...

. The western portion of the mall closed in fall 2017 for redevelopment. The eastern portion remains standing but shuttered as of 2022.

History

The mall opened in 1976 as Burlington Square Mall. Its original

was a Porteous department store, which later went out of business. An expansion in 1999 added the only

Filene's Filene's was an American department store chain founded in 1881 by William Filene. The historic Filene's Department Store in the Downtown Crossing district of Boston, Massachusetts housed the flagship store and headquarters, while branch store ...

(later

) in Vermont. In 2014, L.L.Bean announced that it would be opening a store in the mall. In December 2013, Devonwood Investors, a development company led by managing partner Don Sinex, acquired the Town Center for $25 million. In November 2014, Sinex announced plans for a $200 million rebuilding of the mall, with new retail, office, and housing space, as well as a hotel and expanded parking facilities. By late 2016, Sinex and Devonwood had obtained private financing for the project, which had been split into two phases. In December, Sinex filed the majority of the permit applications for the $125 million first phase, which, subject to city approval, would build a 14-story tower on part of the property. Construction was to take place between July 2017 and January 2019, in time for the planned anchor tenant, the

University of Vermont Medical Center The University of Vermont Medical Center (UVMMC) is a five-campus academic medical facility under the corporate umbrella of the University of Vermont Health Network that is anchored by a 562-bed hospital in Burlington, Vermont. UVMMC is based ...

, to take occupancy after the lease on its previous location expired. The western portion of the mall was demolished in 2017 for redevelopment. On January 3, 2018, it was announced that Macy's would be closing as part of a plan to close 11 stores nationwide, which left the state of Vermont without a Macy's location. The store closed in March 2018. On March 2, 2021, Downtown Burlington High School was unveiled in the vacant Macy's building as a temporary replacement for the original campus. On August 2, 2021, it was announced that L.L.Bean would be relocating to Williston in summer 2022. By February 2, 2022, all of the businesses remaining in the mall had shuttered and the building will remain entirely vacant until further development projects are completed.

References

External links

Official website
Shopping malls established in 1976 Shopping malls disestablished in 2022 Shopping malls in Vermont Defunct shopping malls in the United States 1976 establishments in Vermont 2022 disestablishments in Vermont Buildings and structures in Burlington, Vermont Tourist attractions in Burlington, Vermont {{US-mall-stub