Brass Mill Center
Brass Mill Center logo
Exterior view of Brass Mill Center, April 2018
Map
LocationWaterbury, Connecticut, United States
Coordinates41°32′57″N 73°01′30″W / 41.549251°N 73.024986°W / 41.549251; -73.024986
Address495 Union Street
Opening dateSeptember 17th 1997
DeveloperGeneral Growth Properties[1]
ManagementTony Guerriero
OwnerKohan Retail Investment Group
No. of stores and services130
No. of anchor tenants3
Total retail floor area1,179,569 sq ft (109,586 m2)[2][3]
No. of floors2
Parking5800 spaces
Public transit accessBus interchange 422, 431
Websitebrassmillcenter.com
A corridor in the Brass Mill Center, decorated for the 2004 holiday shopping season

Brass Mill Center is a shopping mall located in Waterbury, Connecticut. The mall and its accompanying complex, the Brass Mill Commons, cost $160 million to build. At 1,180,000 square feet (110,000 m2), it is Connecticut's fifth largest mall, containing over 130 shops. It is located off Interstate 84 in Waterbury, Connecticut. The mall features the traditional retailers JCPenney, Burlington, and Shoppers World.

History

The Brass Mill Center opened on Wednesday September 17th, 1997. It comprises two floors, as well as a now closed partial third floor belonging to a 12-screen Regal Cinemas.[4]

Before construction began, 118,000 tons of contaminated soil and 63 vacant and deteriorated buildings were removed from the site. The construction of Brass Mill Center essentially replaced the older Naugatuck Valley Mall, built in 1969 and located on the city's northeast suburban side. In the process, the Filene's (originally a G. Fox & Co. store) and the Sears stores relocated to Brass Mill Center. Naugautuck Valley Mall was demolished in spring 1999. Lechmere was originally planned as the fourth anchor,[5] but it never opened due to parent company Montgomery Ward closing the chain in 1997, the same year the mall opened.[6]

Numerous former tenants include Shaw’s Supermarket, Steve & Barry's, Hometown Buffet and OfficeMax, which closed in 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2014 respectively.[7][8]

IHOP opened at the mall in December 2010.[9]

On January 12, 2011, Save-A-Lot would open in the former Shaw's.[10]

During the summer of 2017, Five Below and Ulta Beauty opened in the space formerly occupied by OfficeMax.

The dawn of the 2020's saw several storied traditional department store retailers update their brick-and-mortar formats after being encroached upon to a degree by several digital retailers in recent years.

On June 7, 2018, it was announced Sears would shutter as part of an ongoing decision to eliminate its brick-and-mortar format.[11]

On January 6, 2021, Macy's announced after a strategy had been implemented by them to solely focus on their highest achieving outposts that they had selected against staying on at the shopping center.[12]

On April 19, 2022, Kohan Retail Investment Group acquired Brass Mill Center for $44.9 million.[13]

On September 26, 2022, it was announced that Regal Cinemas would be ending its lease as a result of restructuring its established long-term debt due to the COVID-19 outbreak. Numerous theater chain operators are in the midst of early on discussions.[14]

References

  1. ^ KAUFFMAN, MATTHEW. "WATERBURY MALL'S DEBUT A CROWD PLEASER". courant.com. Retrieved 2021-01-07.
  2. ^ "Leasing Opportunities". Archived from the original on 2010-12-25. Retrieved 2010-12-10.
  3. ^ "Retail Space for Lease in Waterbury, CT | Brass Mill Center". www.brookfieldpropertiesretail.com. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
  4. ^ "Brass Mill Center opens". 1997-09-17. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  5. ^ Charles, Eleanor (March 19, 1995). "In the Region/Connecticut; Historic Brass Mill Giving Way to a Waterbury Mall" – via NYTimes.com.
  6. ^ "Record-Journal - Google News Archive Search". news.google.com.
  7. ^ "Hometown Buffet restaurant closed at Waterbury site". 2011-11-30. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  8. ^ "OfficeMax store is closing". 2014-10-08. Retrieved 2023-01-13.
  9. ^ "IHOP returns to Waterbury, in Brass Mill Center mall".
  10. ^ ((Cite web}|url=https://archives.rep-am.com/2011/01/12/save-a-lot-targeted-for-brass-mill-space-vacated-by-shaws/%7Ctitle=Save-A-Lot targeted for Brass Mill space vacated by Shaw's|date=2011-01-12|access-date=2023-01-13))
  11. ^ "Waterbury Sears closing". Archived from the original on 2018-07-01. Retrieved 2018-06-30.
  12. ^ Thomas, Lauren; Rattner, Nate (2021-01-06). "Macy's is closing dozens of stores this year. Here's the full list". CNBC. Retrieved 2021-01-07.
  13. ^ Puffer, Michael (April 20, 2022). "Waterbury mall and neighboring shopping center sells for $44.9M". Hartford Business Journal. Retrieved April 24, 2022.
  14. ^ "Regal Cinemas closes at Brass Mill Center in Waterbury". 2022-09-27. Retrieved 2023-01-13.

External links

Shopping malls in the New York metropolitan area
Shopping malls in Connecticut
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