Augusta Mall - History

History

When it first opened, its anchors were Rich's (now Macy's) and Davison's (now site of The Promenade), both out of Atlanta. It had 100 stores at that time. JCPenney moved into the mall in 1979 after deciding not to build at Regency Mall. Davison's, owned by Macy's since the 1920s, was rebranded as Macy's in 1986. Sears joined the mall in 1987 as part of a large expansion of Augusta Mall including other stores and a new food court. J.B. White was the last anchor to join the mall; it closed its Regency Mall location and joined in 1998. Many of the stores that opened were exclusive to the Augusta market such as Abercrombie & Fitch, Nine West, The Body Shop, Helzberg Diamonds, and Sbarro. Just as it joined, J.B. White immediately became Dillard's, after the J.B. White chain was sold.

After poor sales and loss of customers, a certain number of Macy's stores were to be closed in the late 1990s/early 2000s, the Macy's store at Augusta Mall was one of them, they closed in 2000. Federated Department Stores (which was the owner of both Rich's and Macy's) began transitioning its Rich's/Goldsmith's/Lazarus stores into the Macy's moniker, in hopes to revitalize the Macy's name and keep their stores simply under the Macy's or Bloomingdale's name (which is currently a successful change). Macy's came back to the mall into the Rich's location and became Rich's-Macy's in 2003. At the same time, the lower level of the original Davisons/Macy's building was converted into Macy's Furniture Showroom, the upper level was closed from the public. In 2006, Rich's-Macy's became Macy's after the company decided to change most of its stores to the "Macy's" moniker. Later that year, the Macy's Furniture Showroom was closed, and the entire abandoned upper level was demolished to make way for the new lifestyle center, The Promenade. Now, Dick's Sporting Goods sits in the original lower level location, which is now the only remains of the original Davison's/Macy's building. The Promenade lies directly above it where the original upper level of the building used to be.

The Augusta Promenade is the newest addition to the Augusta Mall, and is 180,000 sq ft (17,000 m2). Construction of the development started in the Summer of 2006, with a grand opening of November 8, 2007. It brought many upscale stores and restaurants new to the area, many that are new to Georgia outside of Atlanta. Some of these stores and restaurants include Williams-Sonoma, The Walking Company, Sephora, The Buckle, and P. F. Chang's China Bistro.