Mall of New Hampshire; Manchester, New Hampshire
The Mall of New Hampshire is a 930,000 square foot enclosed shopping mall in Manchester, New Hampshire, the state’s largest city (pop. 108,580) and the largest single municipality in Northern New England. The center is also the third largest in the state, and is one of several serving the state’s populous “Golden Triangle,” a mostly suburban and urban area in the southern part of New Hampshire that grew significantly in population over the last several decades as people from Eastern Massachusetts sought affordable housing in an area that was commutable to Boston-area jobs.
Manchester itself serves as the media and transportation hub for most of the state, although it is–like many New England cities–an aging industrial revolution era mill town, packed with triple deckers and brick 19th century factories. Like many New Hampshire cities, it also boasts a significant retail trade due to the state’s lack of a sales tax, so many people from Massachusetts and Maine cross the border to shop in the state’s malls. The Mall of New Hampshire also benefits from its surrounding environment; it’s the lynchpin of the busy South Willow Street shopping corridor, which is one of the largest commercial strips in the region. Since Mall of New Hampshire is further from the border than some of its competition, it’s somewhat smaller despite serving a larger city.
The Mall of New Hampshire first opened in 1977 as a smaller mall in a “T” configuration, and sported Sears, Filene’s, and Lechmere (I think?) as anchor stores, plus room for around 70 stores in-line. The mall wasn’t changed significantly until 1996, when the center underwent a significant renovation and expansion. The Sears store was expanded, and the existing (smaller) Filene’s was reconfigured to make room for a large expansion that turned the “T” shape mall into a loop. Filene’s constructed a larger, newer store in the new wing, and some of their old space was expanded and converted to a new JCPenney store. Lechmere closed their store at the mall in 1997 when the entire Montgomery Ward-owned chain shuttered; it was replaced in 1999 by a Best Buy and a Kitchen Etc., a locally-based kitchen supply store which itself went out of business several years later and was replaced by AC Moore. The Filene’s store became a Macy’s in the 2006 May/Federated merger; prior to this Macy’s had no presence at the mall, though they do have a large freestanding store several miles away adjacent to the Bedford Mall, the only other enclosed shopping mall in the area (though not for long…).
On the whole, the Mall of New Hampshire is a fairly standard middle-tier mall; lots of standard suburban fare but not too many higher-end or destinational stores. It’s a pretty successful place and well-located in an area without any major competition, but also doesn’t seem to have many interesting historical facts either. Have some stories about the Mall of NH? Offer them up in the comments.
Jonah Norason
June 21st, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Way to go on quick updates! Never seen a mall in a loop shape that wasn’t a Mills mall.
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CE
June 22nd, 2009 at 8:38 am
This mall was developed by Steve Karp’s New England Development until Simon bought most of his portfolio. Best Buy replaced the Lechmere anchor in 1998, like at several other New England malls.
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Jonah Norason (Pseudo3D)
June 23rd, 2009 at 8:46 pm
When I think of “Mall of [state]“, I think of a successful, superregional center with around five anchors and certainly another anchor. Mall of Georgia and Mall of Louisiana come to mind.
But of course, New Hampshire is a small state. What did I expect?
(jk)
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Jen
June 23rd, 2009 at 10:34 pm
The food court is lame. They even lost McDonald’s.
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Bobby Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 5:48 pm
@Jen, Every single mall based McDonald’s I know of has closed.
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SEAN Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 6:48 pm
@Bobby,
The Galleria in White Plains & Queens Center both in NY have the golden arches in the food court. In fact there’s another one next to the subway entrance at Queens Boulevard & 92nd Street, just a half block from the entrance from QCM.
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mallguy Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
@SEAN,
So does Freehold Raceway Mall and Paramus Park.
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SEAN Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 11:51 am
@mallguy,
Also Danbury Fair, although it was remoddled to only have the counter & no inside seating.
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Jonah Norason (Pseudo3D) Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 1:55 pm
I know that the Riverchase Galleria McDonald’s was open (as of 2007) and also Memorial City Mall in Houston (as of 2008) and also First Colony Mall (as of January 2009). The local McD’s at my mall closed in 2002 but was a franchise decision (which is now Sonic…inferior burgers but superior drinks!)
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Panda Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
@Jonah Norason (Pseudo3D), Also, the Meadow Glen Mall in Medford, MA still has a McDonalds.
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Jen Reply:
June 27th, 2009 at 9:42 pm
@Bobby, Fox Run Mall still has their McD’s
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BonRegisKetin
June 25th, 2009 at 5:29 am
Though it may not be a hulking facility with five anchors, it does have a roster of quality national retailers, such as the Limited, Gap and Abercrombie brands. Paired with an assortment of big box merchants, this probably provides the region with a solid assortment of retail offerings. Also, being owned by a REIT with good industry connections, it will probably attract relatively higher quality stores, when the economy improves.
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Jonah Norason (Pseudo3D)
June 25th, 2009 at 7:26 am
Er, when I said “another anchor”, I meant “another floor”. Sorry about that.
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Alpha
June 25th, 2009 at 5:35 pm
This mall looks unpleasantly claustrophobic and bland from the pictures…. is it like that in person?
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BonRegisKetin
June 26th, 2009 at 4:15 am
The rather large McDonald’s inside Bel Air Mall in Mobile, AL has been continuously operating for at least 20 years, so at least one location is doing well.
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Mike
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:44 am
Never seen a Best Buy actually IN a mall with a mall entrance…
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SEAN Reply:
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:10 pm
@Mike, I can think of 4 off the top of my head.
Palisades Center, Poughkeepsie Galleria, Hudson Valley Mall & MOA have Best Buy stores that open in to the mall. I’m sure there are others.
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Ken Reid
July 6th, 2009 at 9:48 am
The Liberty Tree Mall in Danvers, MA, the Square One Mall in Saugus, MA (I’d like to see articles on those) both have Best Buy stores that open into the Malls.
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Jonah Norason (Pseudo3D)
July 13th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Based on the aerial photo (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Mall+of+New+Hampshire&sll=42.956481,-71.4317&sspn=0.002191,0.004678&ie=UTF8&radius=0.12&rq=1&ll=42.955484,-71.431502&spn=0.002191,0.004678&t=h&z=18) it looks like the old Filene’s was totally razed.
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Leslie
July 14th, 2009 at 8:14 am
I think this mall lost business at one point from the Pheasant Lane Mall in Nashua – which was just over the border of New Hampshire – NH is a sales tax free state and when I lived in Mass in the 1980’s I would buy anything I could that was expensive up there.
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JF
September 11th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
The Mall of New Hampshire is a WONDERFUL place to fall asleep. There are many empty spaces, and the very few retailers that have been added is certainly not worth a special trip. The entire South Willow Street shopping area in Manchester was so poorly planned from the start; every single retail strip mall in Manchester seemed to move out there, with car dealers, gas stations, strip malls, and industrial parks all jammed together amongst a maze of traffic lights. But with all the lights you have to sit through, and all the time it takes to get from Elm Street Downtown (another sleepy place) to the mall, there’s nothing on South Willow Street that’s worth the wait. It’s tired, old, and UGLY. Now, Wal Mart wants to build a Supercenter not far from the mall, on Gold Street, a street that opens up into a residential area, that already has way too much traffic passing by private homes. The thought of putting even more traffic there is a disgrace. But from what I’ve seen and experienced there, I don’t see much in the way of city planning in Manchester. I think that when this mall was first built, it attracted more shoppers from Massachusetts, who helped support it, but with the much nicer Rockingham Park Mall closer to the border, much of the population base has shifted, and Manchester’s metro area is too small to bring in the higher-end stores that are moving (albeit slowly) into Rockingham Park and the Maine Mall in South Portland. I visit the mall fairly often to walk, and I have close friends in Manchester who NEVER go, but the walking part is good, because fewer and fewer people are there. The mall, and the whole South Willow Street nightmare, needs to be razed and built again; this time with people who understand urban landscaping and planning. For me, Mall of New Hampshire is not worth a visit.
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Ashley
October 6th, 2009 at 10:35 pm
Yes, this mall is fairly claustrophobic in person. It’s also fairly dead, even before the economic meltdown. For me, the big plus is the preschooler playplace in the food court. When it’s -10 outside and my girls are driving me insane, I know I can force them to walk the mall to look at things I wish I could afford (it’s not an expensive place, but…), and they’ll behave, because if they don’t they don’t get to play. Of course, many of the malls in the area are building or already have these play spots, so if I need something at a store MoNH doesn’t have (a common occurrence), I have other options.
I do have a question, though. I’ve worked in mall retail before, so I sort of know how things work. Even the small store I worked for sometimes had “shipment” of 30-50 boxes of merchandise in a day. I know the inner “ring” of this mall is all smaller stores, but I cannot figure out how these stores get their boxes! Yes, UPS and FedEx are often carting stuff around inside, but never more than a “normal mall amount”, and I’ve driven the perimeter many times without seeing any sort of truck tunnel (maybe out back between JCP and BBY?). One of the malls I worked at had some wierd underground backrooms (Northshore in Peabody, MA), and there was a gigantic and obvious truck tunnel- our store’s shipment’s came through there. Any insight on this? Anyone? Come on! Some bigger stores are on the inner ring here, including Limited and abercrombie. They must get more than a couple boxes at once!
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