Stamford Town Center

Stamford Town Center is an urban shopping mall located in Downtown Stamford, Connecticut.
 The 761,000 sq. ft mall is the eighth largest in Connecticut, with 
space for about 130 stores and restaurants. It includes a 250,000 sq. ft
 Macy's and a 78,000 sq. ft Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH as anchors. The 1991 film, Scenes from a Mall, was partially filmed at this center.
== Construction ==
Built by F.D. Rich Co, and opened in 1982, the mall's site was part of the Landmark urban renewal project and had been the location of tenement
 structures that once lined Greyrock Place, the street which is its 
primary address. Saks Fifth Avenue opened its store in the mall on March
 12, 1983. A third anchor, a 160,000-square-foot (15,000 m2) Filene's closed in 2005 (before the merger of the May Department Stores and Federated Department Stores), as the store's sales were not up to par. This location originally opened as a JCPenney store, but was eventually shuttered and replaced by Filene's
 in 1996. The far south end of the mall which housed JCPenney and 
Filene's was demolished in 2006 and was replaced by a 
pedestrian-oriented exterior complex of retail stores and restaurants 
that directly connects to the mall. It opened on November 1, 2007 with a
 two-story Barnes & Noble Booksellers.
The construction of the mall and adjacent office towers had a 
profound effect on the face of downtown Stamford during the 1970s and 
1980s, and was profiled in a May 8, 1988 article in The New York Times headlined "A Town Sells Off Pieces of its Soul."
Stamford Town Center has four floors of shopping – floors 3, 4, 5
 and 7 – with The Food Court located on the 7th floor. The supporting 
parking structure has space for 4,000 cars and is situated in levels 
below and above the mall, thus forming a kind of mall and parking 
'sandwich'.
The mall was a significant part of Stamford's urban renewal 
efforts, and thus was not without controversy. The mall gutted the heart
 of Stamford's traditional Main Street retailing and business district, 
and is widely perceived to be a large fortress-like structure, that even
 today appears hugely out of scale to the remaining cityscape. Another 
perception of its design is that it was built to primarily cater to 
auto-oriented visitors and it was made difficult to enter from the 
street as a pedestrian. Most pedestrian routes from the street involve 
going through the mall's anchor stores or through the other (primarily 
office) buildings of Landmark Square and Atlantic Street. The redevelopment of the former Filene's/JCPenney location has alleviated some of these original design characteristics.
== Levels of success ==
From its opening, the mall was very popular and drew shoppers and 
tourists from as far as the New York City boroughs and even 
internationally. The redevelopment of the former Filene's anchor has added pedestrian-friendly retail space and provides a better streetscape. In November 2007, Stamford Town Center opened four new restaurants; California Pizza Kitchen, Così, Kona Grill, and P.F. Chang's China Bistro. The Capital Grille opened on February 25, 2008. Barnes & Noble Booksellers opened their largest Connecticut store in this new space. In 2016, P.F. Chang's shut down and was replaced by The Cheesecake Factory in early 2017.
== Decline ==
In 2013, Saks Fifth Avenue announced that this location would close in 2014. In 2015, it was replaced by Saks OFF 5TH.
On January 5, 2015, a women fell seven stories to her death. Police investigated that the women's death was possibly a suicide. After the incident, the mall closed ahead of the schedule, except Macy's.
Over the past seven years, things started to very bad with Stamford Town Center, and many businesses closed or relocated The SoNo Collection, a mall that reopened 2019, and a huge competitor to Stamford Town Center. 
Gymboree, Charlotte Russe, Ann Taylor, J.Crew, Papyrus, Apple, Clarks, the last UNIQLO in the Connecticut, Chico's, H&M, Pandora, Cellairis, Pottery Barn, Williams-Sonoma, FYE, Kona Grill, California Pizza Kitchen, and RadioShack are some of the stores that either closed, or relocated to the SoNo Collection.
On October 14, 2019, Stamford Town Center was put up for sale.
On November 23, 2019, Charlotte Russe announced that it would reopen 100 stores, including the Stamford Town Center store.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many retailers have left or relocated to SoNo Collection. Abercrombie & Fitch, GameStop, GNC, Justice, American Eagle, Talbots, Zane, and Godiva have all left the mall.
On October 23, 2020, Stamford Town Center's owner, Taubman Centers, sold the mall to Connecticut-furniture chain, Safavieh.
== The Plaza ==
The Plaza is a pedestrian-friendly complex of restaurants and merchants that are new to Connecticut and the region.
The Plaza offers valet parking and easy access to parking level 1
 from Tresser Boulevard. There is also a new entrance that was built to 
ease accessibility to the main mall. Other mall and parking levels are 
accessible by two all-glass elevators that access Levels 1, S*/M* for 
the Plaza, and the mall levels (4–5), and levels 6–Rooftop (10). Barnes 
& Noble is accessible from Level 4 and from the Plaza. H&M is 
accessible from only Level 5 of the mall.
The initial opening of the Plaza (which included Barnes & 
Noble, H&M, California Pizza Kitchen, Così, Kona Grill, and P.F. 
Chang's) occurred on November 1, 2007. Mitchell's Fish Market opened on 
December 8, 2007, closed in 2014, while the Capital Grille opened on 
February 25, 2008. Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que had planned to open in this new space, but pulled out of the project. P.F. Chang's China Bistro closed in April 2016, while The Cheesecake Factory
 opened in October 2016 after renovating P.F. Chang's former space. The 
Così location closed in October 2016 as part of the company's Chapter 11
 reorganization. Kona Grill closed in April 2019 as part of the company's Chapter 11 reorganization. Plan B Burger Bar closed in March 2020, while The Cheesecake Factory closed August 2020.
=== Tenants ===
* The Capital Grille
* Pieology
* Peter Chang
== Anchors ==
* Macy's (250,000 sq ft) – opened in 1982
* Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH (78,000 sq ft) – opened in 2015
=== Former anchors ===
* JCPenney (160,000 sq ft) – opened in 1982, closed in 1994
* Filene's (160,000 sq ft) – opened in 1994, closed in 2005, demolished in 2006
* Saks Fifth Avenue (78,000 sq ft) – opened in 1983, closed in 2014, reopened as Saks Fifth Avenue OFF 5TH in 2015
Category:Shopping Malls
Category:Malls in the United States
Category:Malls in Connecticut
Category:Malls that opened in 1982
Category:Taubman Malls