Rhode Island Mall

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Facts and statistics
Rhode Island Mall

Location	Warwick, Rhode Island, USA
Opening date	1968
No. of stores and services	approx. 10
No. of anchor tenants	3
Total retail floor area	579,499 square feet (53,837.2 m²) (GLA)^[1]
No. of floors	2

Rhode Island Mall is a two-story, enclosed shopping mall located in the city of Warwick, Rhode Island, USA. It opened in 1968 as the Midland Mall, as the first two-level mall in New England.^[2] Four years later, Warwick Mall was developed across the street. Although the two malls co-existed for several years, Rhode Island Mall began to lose stores once G. Fox, one of its anchor stores, closed in 1994.

Currently, Rhode Island Mall is a dead mall, and has been listed on Deadmalls.com.^[2]^[3] Its anchor stores currently include Kohl's, Wal-Mart, and Sears.

[edit] History

The Rhode Island Mall opened in 1968 as the Midland Mall, which was then the first two-level enclosed shopping mall in New England.^[2] The larger Warwick Mall opened to the north of the Midland Mall in 1972. The Midland Mall's long-time anchor stores were Sears and G. Fox, and the mall also hosted one junior anchor in a Cherry & Webb store on the first level.

The Midland Mall was extensively renovated and re-branded as the Rhode Island Mall in 1984; part of this renovation included a food court.

[edit] Current status

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; neither store opens into the mall concourse.

Many of the mall's vacant spaces have been purchased by Royal Ahold, owners of the Stop & Shop supermarket franchise; this purchase 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.^[2]