Friendly Center is a large, open-air mall located in northwestern

Greensboro, North Carolina Greensboro (; ) is a city in Guilford County, North Carolina, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 299,035; it was estimated to be 307,381 in 2024. It is the List of municipalitie ...

, near the interchange of Wendover Avenue and Friendly Avenue. The anchor stores at Friendly Center are

Belk Belk, Inc. is an American department store chain founded in 1888 by William Henry Belk in Monroe, North Carolina, with nearly 300 locations in 16 states. Belk stores and Belk.com offer apparel, shoes, accessories, cosmetics, home furnishings, a ...

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 Harris Teeter.

History

The shopping center opened in August 1957, and with its inward orientation, Friendly Center could be classified as an outdoor lifestyle center. Its anchor tenants include

(formerly Thalhimer's, later Hecht's), and

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 ...

. Other tenants include

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. The company operates approximately 600 retail stores across the United States. Barnes & Noble operates mainly through its B ...

and Old Navy, The Grande Theatre is a 16-screen multiplex cinema operated by Regal Cinemas. It also contains Harris Teeter's flagship supermarket location encompassing 72,000 square feet (6,700 m2) and

Whole Foods Market Whole Foods Market, Inc. (colloquially referred to as simply Whole Foods) is an American multinational supermarket chain store, chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from Hydrogenated fat, hydrogenated fats and artificia ...

. There are specialty "

foodie A foodie is a person who has an ardent or refined interest in food, and who eats food not only out of hunger but also as a hobby. The related terms "gastronome" and "gourmet" define roughly the same thing, i.e. a person who enjoys food for pleasur ...

" stores tucked away in the back corner by Harris Teeter such as the Savory Spice Shop and Midtown Olive Oil. It features a number of national retailers such as Banana Republic,

Victoria's Secret Victoria's Secret is an American lingerie, clothing and beauty products, beauty retailer. Founded in 1977 by a Stanford graduate student and his wife, Roy Raymond, Roy and Gaye Raymond, the company's five lingerie stores were sold to Les Wexner i ...

, Bath & Body Works, Express, The GAP, Eddie Bauer, Talbots, and Birkenstock Feet First. In early 2006, construction of "The Shops at Friendly Center" began after the nearby Burlington Industries office building was demolished. Its opening on October 19, 2006, introduced retail shops that had not previously been present in the

Piedmont Triad The Piedmont Triad (or simply the Triad) is a metropolitan region in the north-central part of the U.S. state of North Carolina anchored by three cities: Greensboro, North Carolina, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, and ...

market such as an

Apple Store The Apple Store is a chain of Retail, retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell, service and repair various Apple products, including Macintosh, Mac desktop and MacBook laptop personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad ta ...

, Brooks Brothers, REI, J. Crew, Coldwater Creek (closed in 2014), White House Black Market, Pendleton, J. Jill, and Johnston & Murphy. Several chain restaurants located in the center, including P.F. Chang's, Fleming's Prime Steak House and Wine Bar, Bravo Cucina Italiana, and Mimi's Cafe. On November 8, 2006, a Harris Teeter supermarket opened as the chain's largest in North Carolina. On April 3, 2007, Starmount Company put Friendly Center up for sale along with most of their other commercial real estate. On October 5, 2007, CBL & Associates contracted to buy Friendly Center and all of Starmount Company's retail and office holdings. On January 4, 2008, The Triad Business Journa

reported that CBL & Associates paid more than $200 million for Friendly Center and the Shops at Friendly Center. On April 13, 2023, it was announced that

would be closing its location in summer 2023. Until this announcement it was the last Sears store in

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

References

External links

Friendly Center official site
{{CBL Properties CBL Properties Shopping malls in Greensboro, North Carolina Shopping malls established in 1957 1957 establishments in North Carolina Brick buildings and structures in North Carolina