History
The land on which the mall sits was pasture land when Homart Development Company (the mall building subsidiary of Sears) purchased it in 1963. To accommodate the mall, a hill was leveled and the course of the Pawtuxet River was altered.
The Rhode Island Mall opened in October 1967 as the Midland Mall. With 60 shops, it was the first two-level fully enclosed mall in New England. Its anchors were Sears and Providence based Shepards department store. Homart sold the mall to MetLife in 1981 for $20 million.
It was officially renamed the "Rhode Island Mall" in March 1985.
In 1988, May Department Stores acquired Boston-based department store chain Filene's. May merged its previously owned G. Fox division into Filene's in 1993, and converted all of its stores, including the Rhode Island Mall location, to the Filene's name. Filene's closed their Rhode Island Mall location four years later, in favor of the existing store at Warwick Mall. After the closure of Filene's, nearly one-third of the mall (including both the former Filene's and the food court) was demolished for a two-level anchor, featuring Kohl's on one level and Wal-Mart on the other. When it became clear that neither store would open into the mall concourse, most of the remaining shops vacated, turning Rhode Island Mall into a dead mall.
Many of the mall's vacant spaces have been leased by Royal Ahold, owners of the Stop & Shop supermarket franchise; this lease has led to local speculation that Royal Ahold is attempting to keep the Wal-Mart from being converted to a Supercenter store with a full grocery section.
Read more about this topic: Rhode Island Mall
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