Stamford Town Center



If you are looking for a mall where you can do tons of shopping, head over to the Stamford Town Center! This is a 761,000-square-foot mall that has room for 130 businesses and is located in the center of Downtown Stamford. 

It first opened in 1982 as part of an urban renewal project in the city. When it opened, it had two anchors, which were Macy’s and J.C. Penney. While Macy’s is still there today, J.C. Penney moved out in 1994 and got replaced by a Filene’s. In 1983, Saks Fifth Avenue opened a store at the mall and became the third anchor there. 

The mall was successful for many years, getting many shoppers from New York City and other places around the world. It was also considered one of the country’s most successful malls in the 1990s, even with tough competition nearby. In 2006, the mall got a massive redevelopment, following the closing of Filene’s in 2005. This redevelopment saw the entire southern portion of the mall get demolished as a way of becoming more pedestrian-friendly and improving the streetscape. When the redevelopment was finished, it saw the opening of The Plaza, which featured space for six new restaurants and Connecticut’s largest Barnes & Noble. The Plaza officially opened on November 1, 2007, and featured Barnes & Noble, H&M, California Pizza Kitchen, Cosi, Kona Grill, and P.F. Chang’s, with other restaurants opening at later dates. This redevelopment helped the mall maintain its popularity for years.

Unfortunately, hard times fell on the mall a few years later. This started in early 2014, when one of the two anchors, Saks Fifth Avenue, closed its store, but it was replaced by Saks Off Fifth a year later. From there, the mall experienced many tenants closing their doors and new tenants taking their place. From 2014 to 2019, all the original restaurant tenants at The Plaza closed their doors, but new tenants opened in their place, with one of them being national restaurant chain The Cheesecake Factory. Unfortunately, things would only continue to get worse for the mall during the years 2019, 2020, and 2021. At this time, they lost almost all their stores, either due to companies filing for bankruptcy, the Covid pandemic forcing businesses to stay closed, or some businesses relocating to the newly opened and nearby SoNo Collection mall. In 2021, Saks Off Fifth closed its doors, making Macy’s the only anchor at the mall again. As a result, the future of the mall did not look promising. 

In 2020, one of the developers of the mall, Taubman Centers, sold the mall to furniture chain Safavieh, which has a store in Stamford. The goal of this purchase was to stabilize and revitalize the mall. Three years later, it’s clear that these changes are starting to take effect, as several new businesses have opened in the empty spaces. To help stand out from the competition at the SoNo Collection, they have decided to focus on getting new tenants with a focus on food and entertainment. Some of these new tenants include The Ballet School of Stamford, The Fun Palace, which has virtual reality games and playscapes, Soccer Fun Zone, where kids can enjoy more than 20 challenging and fun soccer games, Kiddo Land, which also has virtual reality games and playscapes, Art of Control, which is a Pilates studio, and a place called Vintage Museum, which features vintage clothing, a cereal bar, and its own half-pipe where you can skateboard. The mall is also planning to open a place called The Living Room, which is a hub that will have a lounge, café, theater, and gaming. Since April of this year, every space in The Plaza has been fully occupied since 2014, with several new restaurants opening, and the New York Comedy Club, which has featured several comedians that are also well-known celebrities. The biggest change at the mall is in the old Saks Off Fifth location, which has since become Pickleball America, which opened due to the increase in popularity of the sport in recent years. It opened on September 21 of this year and is also the largest indoor pickleball center in the US. It is currently operating in its first phase with 13 courts on the fourth floor of the mall, and its second phase is scheduled to start in January, which will add 14 courts to the fifth floor of the mall, which will have a total of 27 courts across 80,000 square feet. The complex will also host other athletic, entertainment, and social events. 

While I haven’t been to the mall since the pandemic started, I might want to go again to see my favorite stores, and to see what all these new businesses look like. And that’s what I think all of you reading should do as well. Head over to Stamford to go to a mall to see some classic stores and some interesting businesses!


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