The Shoppes at Buckland Hills
| The Shoppes at Buckland Hills | |
|---|---|
 One of the mall's main entrances before it was painted black. | |
 | |
| Former names | The Pavilions at Buckland Hills, Buckland Hills Mall |
| General information | |
| Opened | March 1990 or November 13, 1990 |
The Shoppes at Buckland Hills, formerly known as Buckland Hills Mall and The Pavilions at Buckland Hills, is a shopping mall located in Manchester, Connecticut and is currently owned by GGP Inc.
The mall opened in March 1990 or November 13, 1990[1] as "The Pavilions at Buckland Hills".
The area of land was purchased from the Red Rock Golf Course. The I-84 corridor encompassing the towns of Manchester and(eventually) South Windsor began a transformation that continues today.
This transformation, which began with the "The Pavilions at Buckland Hills" project was conceived and brought to life through the vision developer John Finguerra had for the once unassuming and little visited towns of Manchester and South Windsor.
The success of the mall upon opening in 1990 was a surprise to many, as was the sudden development of much the surrounding area.
Mr. Finguerra, with his late business partner, Richard Ripps, began to dream up this vision for the area in 1972.[2]
Mr. Finguerra worked for J.C. Penney, which has a 2 million sq ft warehouse once used for their now defunct catalog business in the immediate vicinity. It was this familiarity with the landscape that left him with the conviction that the area was perfectly poised for a Regional Mall. Situated atop an elevated location, overlooking the valley, it was the perfect place to build a mall that was surrounded by what would become, with the help of the State, an Interstate Intersection perfect enough to support the traffic to the mall and future developments in the corridor.[3] A multimillion-dollar renovation and expansion of the shopping center was completed in October 2003, and its name changed to "The Shoppes at Buckland Hills" after a short time as the "Buckland Hills Mall".[4][citation needed]
The main building has an area of 1,180,000 square feet (110,000 m2) on two floors. However, the name "Buckland Hills Mall"' can informally refer to the mall plus the cluster of surrounding retail stores, hotels, and restaurants on the hill, totaling nearly 6,000,000 square feet (560,000 m2) or 1/4 square mile.[citation needed]
There are approximately 145 shops and eateries in the mall, as well as five anchor stores, including: Macy's, J.C. Penney, Dick's Sporting Goods, Sears and Barnes & Noble. In 2006, Newbury Comics opened its first Connecticut store inside the mall.[citation needed]
The Shoppes at Buckland Hills is located off I-84, near the intersection of I-291.
Anchor stores
 |
- Barnes & Noble (24,836 ft²)
- Dick's Sporting Goods (80,000 ft²)
- H & M (19,729 ft²)
- JCPenney (123,807 ft²)
- Macy's Mens, Children's, Juniors and Furniture (105,000 ft²)
- Macy's Women's and Home (150,000 ft²)
- Sears (141,467 ft²)
References
- ^ "The Shoppes at Buckland Hills". Malls.Com. Retrieved 2017-04-16.
- ^ http://hbweb.sx2.atl.publicus.com/article/20110307/PRINTEDITION/303079995
- ^ http://hbweb.sx2.atl.publicus.com/article/20110307/PRINTEDITION/303079996
- ^ "The Shoppes at Buckland Hills - Projects - Birdair, Inc". www.birdair.com. Retrieved 2017-04-16.