Methuen Mall
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The Methuen Mall was built in 1974 on a 60-acre site and included Jordan Marsh, Sears and seventy other stores. It was in Methuen, Massachusetts and was off exits 2 and 3 on Route 213 on Pleasant Valley Street. The mall's decline started in 1991 when the Mall at Rockingham Park opened across the border in Salem, New Hampshire with the advantages of being a much larger mall and the lack of sales tax in New Hampshire. The Methuen Mall closed in 1997 and was demolished in early 1999.
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[edit] History
[edit] Early years
The Methuen Mall was built in 1974 and was one of the first indoor shopping malls in the country. The single-story mall stood in close proximity to three major highways. Route 213, now also known as the Loop Connector, ran directly behind the mall and connected the major interstates of Route 93 and Route 495, both a short distance from the mall site . When the mall was built, the area was mostly a farming community. Directly across Pleasant Valley Street was Mann's Orchards, which still stands today. Further down Pleasant Valley Street were many farms and livestock. The opening of the Methuen Mall began to turn the Pleasant Valley section of Methuen into a much more commercialized area. In the years after the opening, the area also became home to a McDonald's, Burger King, Andover Bank (now a TD Banknorth), Market Basket, Osco Drugs (now a mattress store) and Caldor (now a Wal-Mart).
[edit] First signs of competition
Methuen, being a border city of New Hampshire, has always been at a disadvantage due to New Hampshire's lack of a sales tax, compared to Massachusetts's 5.0% sales tax. However, for many years, the Methuen Mall competed very well with its cross-border counterpart, the Rockingham Mall, which was much smaller and did not contain the high profile anchors that the Methuen Mall did. However, that changed in 1991 when the Mall at Rockingham Park opened across the street from the Rockingham Mall. The new mall was, and still is, the largest mall in New Hampshire. Although the prices were higher than those of the Methuen Mall, the allure of the big, two-storied mall with no sales tax attracted many previous customers of the Methuen Mall, especially during the Christmas shopping season, when the differences in crowds were very apparent.
[edit] Attempt to survive
In the mid-1990's, Ann & Hope moved into the space formerly occupied by Sears and became the mall's newest anchor store. Soon after that, they left the mall, leaving a huge empty space, both in the mall, and in the hopes of survival. In 1997, the mall decided to turn the empty space into a civic and convention center named the Valley Expo Center. The center's first event was an all-night rave. Appartently, most adult Methuenites were unaware of what a rave actually was and when the news reports surfaced after the event, the community was outraged. The center held a couple other events, mostly trade shows, and soon fizzled out. The only business left at the mall at this time was an Applebee's with an exterior entrance. The owners at this time were looking to completely demolish the building and build something new. Applebee's, however, did not want to leave. Their lease wasn't up, and being the only sit-down restaurant in the area, they were actually making money. Without any other options, the mall owners demolished the rest of the mall, leaving just the space occupied by Applebee's. After a long court battle[1], Applebee's finally did leave. Applebees initially declined to open in one of the new freestanding restaraunts on the site, but eventually built a new freestanding restaurant about a block away in 2005.
[edit] Demolition
When the Methuen Mall finally closed, the city of Methuen took a huge financial hit, seeing property tax revenue fall from USD$60 million annually to USD$18 million annually for the site alone.[2] In 1990, the land was redeveloped by The Wilder Companies into the first of their branded shopping centers named The Loop after the loop made by the highways that surround it. The new shopping center has no real anchor stores, but is highlighted by a Stop & Shop, Home Depot, Borders, and Loews Theatres, not to mention about two dozen smaller businesses.
[edit] External links
- Deadmalls.com write up on the mall
- The Loop Shopping Center
- The Wilder Companies
- Write-up on court case between Methuen Mall owners and Applebee's
