Regency Mall 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 ...

outside of

Richmond, Virginia Richmond ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), U.S. commonwealth of Virginia. Incorporated in 1742, Richmond has been an independent city (United States), independent city since 1871. ...

in unincorporated

Henrico County, Virginia Henrico County , officially the County of Henrico, is a County (United States), county located in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the population wa ...

, United States. Opened in 1975 as Regency Square, the mall features a

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food Vendor, vendors and provides a common area for self-serve di ...

and more than 60 tenants, currently with no 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 ...

, which had two locations at Regency Square, closed in spring 2016,

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 ...

closed in summer 2017, 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 ...

closed in fall 2020.

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 ...

closed in early 2020 as part of that brand's restructuring plan.

History

Regency Square opened in 1975. It was developed by Leonard Farber of Pompano Beach, Florida in conjunction with local developer E. Carlton Wilton. At the mall's opening, anchor stores included

Miller & Rhoads Miller & Rhoads was a Virginia-based department store chain. Throughout its 105-year lifespan, the store played an active role in the Richmond, Virginia, community, along with its friendly cross-street rival Thalhimers. The Richmond flagship loca ...

and

Thalhimer's Thalhimers was a department store chain store, chain in the Southern United States. Based in Richmond, Virginia, the chain at its peak operated dozens of stores in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and one store in Memphis, Tennessee, Me ...

. Besides the addition of a

in 1987, the mall remained largely unchanged. After Miller & Rhoads closed in 1990, Hecht's bought the location, along with three other former Miller & Rhoads stores in Virginia, and converted it to a Hecht's. Two years later, the Thalhimer's chain was also acquired by Hecht's, and as a result, the Thalhimer's became a second Hecht's location. In 1991, Wilton sold the mall to Prudential.

Taubman Centers Taubman Centers, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The company invests in shopping centers, and is a subsidiary of Simon Property Group since 2020. History The company was founded in 19 ...

then acquired the Regency Square mall in 1997. A children's play place was added in 2003.Play area
In January 2012, Taubman returned the mall to its mortgage lender to avoid foreclosure on the property. The lender hired

Jones Lang LaSalle Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) is a global real estate services company, founded in the United Kingdom with offices in 80 countries. The company also provides investment management services worldwide, including services to institutional an ...

for management of the property. In February 2015, Thalhimer Realty Partners and The Rebkee Company, both local companies, bought Regency for 13.1 million. The new owners plan to revitalize the mall while keeping it focused on retail. In 2016, Macy's closed both of its stores at Regency Square as part of a plan to close 40 stores nationwide . In September 2017, Sears closed its store at Regency Square as part of a plan to close 16 stores nationwide. This left JCPenney as the mall's only original anchor. The same month, an overpass over one of the mall's entrances was demolished, starting work on a 30 million dollar renovation of the mall. It will remove the parking deck on the second story of the mall, making its parking space completely level.

Regal Entertainment Group Regal Cinemas (also Regal Entertainment Group) is an American movie theater chain that operates the second-largest theater circuit in the United States, with 5,720 screens in 420 theaters as of December 31, 2024. Founded on August 10, 1989, it ...

will move into the former Macy's spaces as well. In September 2019,

announced that it would be closing its two-level store at Regency Square after filing for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code ( Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, w ...

. In early 2020, the abandoned Sears store was demolished for construction of a new 320-unit apartment complex. On August 20, 2020, it was announced that JCPenney would close in November 2020 as part of a plan to close 155 stores nationwide, leaving the mall with no anchors. The structure was purchased from JCPenney by the owners of the mall for $3 million for redevelopment. On October 10, 2020, Surge Trampoline Park opened in the top floor of the former Macy's North building.

Competition with other malls

Regency Square faced additional retail competition in 2003, when two other malls opened nearby:

Short Pump Town Center Short Pump Town Center is an open-air shopping mall located in the Short Pump census-designated place (CDP) of unincorporated Henrico County, Virginia on West Broad Street (U.S. Route 250), approximately west of I-64, exit 178A/B. Short Pump T ...

and Stony Point Fashion Park, the latter also a Taubman property.

References

External links

Official website
{{Shopping malls in Virginia Buildings and structures in Henrico County, Virginia Shopping malls established in 1975 Shopping malls in Richmond, Virginia Taubman Centers Tourist attractions in Henrico County, Virginia 1975 establishments in Virginia