Chapel Square Mall

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The Chapel Square Mall was a two level, 165,000 s.f. shopping mall in the downtown area of New Haven, Connecticut, designed by New York Architects, Lathrop Douglas.

Originally proposed as part of the Church Street Redevelopment Project in 1957, after many plans and alterations, it opened in 1967 as one of the first fully enclosed air-conditioned downtown malls in the United States. It was anchored by two adjacent department stores; the New Haven-based Edw. Malley Company, (1962-1981) (which was relocated here from where Chapel Square's office tower and Omni Hotel are now located), and a large branch of New York City-based, Macy's, (1964-1993) that were built at earlier stages in the development.

Despite ongoing criticism of the ravages of urban renewal and in particular, the effects it had on New Haven, the mall was successful in stemming some of downtown's earlier retail decline. (In fact, from the mid-1960s thorugh to the mid-1980s, when nearby Westfield Connecticut Post mall was greatly expanded, downtown New Haven remained the dominant regional retail draw.) However, like similar projects of that era, it began to show signs of needing an update and a renovation, starting in the early 1980s. In 1984, Chapel Square Mall and the office tower were sold to successful mall developer, The Rouse Company of Columbia, Maryland, who fully renovated Chapel Square by 1986, adding some new nationally-known shops, a branch of the upmarket Conran's home goods chain, and a large second-level food court that overlooked New Haven's town green. The improvements were short lived as a dramatic downturn in the economy, the failure to find a replacement tenant for the failed Edw. Malley Company location, the corporate bankruptcy and resulting closure of the Macy's store and demise of the Conran's chain took its toll on the mall's viability. In 1995, management of the mall went to the New Haven Chamber of Commerce.

In April 2002, the city of New Haven sold the mall and redevelopment rights to William, Jackson, Ewing, Inc of Baltimore, who was known for such successful urban retail and mixed-use projects such as Grand Central Terminal in NYC and Liberty Place Shops in Philadelphia. Frustrated by not being able to acquire the adjacent vacant Macy's building, which was viewed by the developer W.J.E. as necessary to making the project a large enough retail draw, allowed a partnering developer, David Nyborg of Philadelphia to take over the redevelopment. Reflecting developer Nyborg's strangth, the mall was converted into apartment complex in 2003-2004, with part of the roof removed to create an interior courtyard. Several spaces on the first floor were made into street-facing venues for retail and commercial use, but the limited retail offerings are a far cry from what was once the retail core of downtown.

[edit] Sources

• Agard-Jones, Vanessa - The Magical Mall of Make Believe - The New Journal, v29 #5, 18 Apr 1997
• Altschuler, David - Co-op close to moving into Chapel Square Mall
• Gillers, Gillian - Chapel Square to reopen soon - The Yale Herald, 6 Mar 2003
• Hazel, Debra - Fresh Start - ICSC Publications, Jul 2003
• James DeadMalls.com - 28 Jan 2006