Natick Mall

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The Natick Mall, located in Natick, Massachusetts, was one of the first enclosed shopping malls in the United States, opening in 1966. It was a one-story building, which was anchored by a Sears at one end and a Filene's at the opposite end, and had a two strips of stores in between with a main corridor separating the two sides.

Over the years, the mall remained the same, and did not keep up with the changing market economy. As a result, the mall ended up losing customers in the late 1980s and early 1990s to other local malls that were newer and had more stores. Additionally, the mall was showing signs of physical deterioration. So in 1993, the existing mall was demolished and rebuilt as a larger, modern, two-story mall, with over 160 stores (compared to the original, which only had 17 stores prior to demolition) and 4 department store anchors (rebuilt Sears, Filene's, Lord & Taylor and Macy's, which opened in 1996 after the merger with Jordan Marsh). Currently a Natick Mall expansion project is underway to add more retail space, and two new anchors, Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom. Once completed, the newly expanded Natick Mall will have approximately 2.1 million square feet of gross leaseable area making it the twelfth largest mall in the United States, the fourth largest mall on the East Coast, and the largest mall in New England. Confirmed tenants of the expansion include a Legal Seafood's Test Kitchen, Zara, Martin + Osa, Louis Vuitton, Coach, The North Face, J. Crew, and Finale Dessert Co. Unconfirmed tenants include a P.F. Changs China Bistro and Burberry. In April 2006, the mall's original Macy's store was closed due to the merger between Federated/May and moved in the former Filene's location. Recent news reports have reported JC Penney will be moving into the former Macy's space.