Stamford Town Center

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Stamford Town Center is an urban shopping mall in downtown Stamford, Connecticut. The 853,000 s.f. mall has space for about 130 stores and restaurants and includes a 250,000 square foot Macy's and a 78,000 square foot Saks Fifth Avenue as anchors. Built by F.D. Rich Co, and opened in 1982, the mall's site was part of the Landmark urban renewal project and previously was the location of tenement structures that once lined Greyrock Place, the street which is its primary address. A third anchor, a 160,000 square foot 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 J.C.Penney store, but was eventually shuttered and replaced by Filene's in 1996. The building was demolished in 2006 and is to be replaced by a pedestrian-oriented exterior complex of retail stores and restaurants that directly connects to the mall. It is scheduled to open in fall 2007.

The construction of the mall and adjacent office towers had a profound effect on the face of downtown Stamford during the 1970's and 1980's, 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 many of the restaurants 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 remining 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 Square. It is hoped that the redevelopment of the former Filene's/ J.C.Penney location will alleviate some of these original design characteristics and show a more inviting image to the street[1].

[edit] 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. However in recent years, due to increased competition from nearby Greenwich, Connecticut's downtown shopping district and newer malls in White Plains, New York, the mall's owner Taubman Centers, Inc., has struggled to keep the mall fully occupied. The redevelopment of the former Filene's anchor will address some critics' original concerns, and will add pedestrian-friendly retail space while providing a better streetscape. Among its announced tenants, Barnes and Noble plans to open their largest Connecticut store in this new space.

[edit] Trivia

The Stamford Town Center was the setting for the Woody Allen film, Scenes from a Mall and is a frequent shooting location for the television show Ham on the Street.