Auburn Mall (Alabama)


Auburn Mall is a regional shopping mall located in Auburn, Alabama, United States, and combines traditional mall shopping with village streetscape shopping. The mall has a gross leasable area of. The three main department stores, Belk, Dillard's, and Stein Mart are supplemented by more than 50 specialty stores. These stores include Ann Taylor Loft, JoS. A. Bank, Talbots, Chico's, and Hibbett Sports.

History

Auburn Mall was originally built in 1973 by Colonial Properties Trust as "Village Mall", with two anchor stores initially: Sears at the western end and Gayfers at the eastern end. Later the mall was expanded to include a third anchor and subsequently a fourth. In 1998 the mall's name changed to Colonial Mall Auburn-Opelika. In 2004, Auburn Mall underwent a major renovation and expansion. The expansion included new JCPenney and Dillard's buildings, Belk relocating to the market, and adding a streetscape to the front of the mall. The streetscape included retailers such as Ann Taylor Loft, Chico's, Coldwater Creek, Jos. A Bank, Lane Bryant and Talbots. The expansion also added 250+ jobs to the market. During the renovation Colonial made the decision to update the mall's name to Colonial University Village.
Since that time, Colonial University Village, along with five other Colonial properties, was purchased as part of a joint venture by Marelda Retail Development, LLC. In 2007 Jones Lang LaSalle became management and leasing contractor of Colonial University Village and the other properties. In 2014, the name of the mall was changed from Village Mall to Auburn Mall. Sears closed the store in December 2012. Stein Mart announced to take over the former Sears space in March 2017. On March 17, 2017, JCPenney announced to close their store this summer of 2017. It closed its doors on July 31, 2017. It is one of their 138 stores closing of JCPenney.