MIDLAND MALL was the sixth retail hub built by the Chicago-based Homart Development Company The mall site, once part of the Knight Estate, was adjacent to an interchange with Interstate 95 and the future route of Interstate 295, which was under construction. Designed by mall architect Victor Gruen, MIDLAND was the first 2-level shopping center in New England. In its original state, it spanned approximately 492,000 leasable square feet.
At this time, there were thirty operational stores and services. There would eventually be over sixty. Charter tenants included Docktor Pet Center, Orange Julius, The Country Store, Thom McAn Shoes and Spencer Gifts. There was also a 200-seat Town Hall Community Room on the Lower Level.
MIDLAND MALL had a unique vertical transportation system. Instead of the usual escalator, there was an inclined "Speedwalk Speedramp" which worked much like the moving sidewalks of today. It operated at a 15 degree angle, connecting the two levels of the complex. The shopping concourse was decorated with colorful foliage. There were sparkling water features, a "sunlight roof" and Grand Staircase. Speakers throughout the area provided pleasant background music.
The mall's prominence as the area's only major shopping facility was short. In early 1968, plans for a larger, fully-enclosed center were announced. This would be built directly northeast of MIDLAND MALL, across the Pawtuxet River and Interstate 295 freeway. WARWICK MALL was dedicated in July 1970. The sibling centers coexisted for many years. However, WARWICK MALL eventually gained a competitive edge.
Newer and larger malls in the region drained commerce from the smaller and older MIDLAND. These included LINCOLN MALL (1975) {15 miles north, in Town of Lincoln, Rhode Island}, EMERALD SQUARE MALL (1989) {16.9 miles northeast, in Town of North Attleborough, Massachusetts} and PROVIDENCE PLACE (1999) {8.8 miles northeast, in downtown Providence}.
The Lockwood-Freeman Theaters
Midland Cinema showed its first feature on December 16, 1969. The single screen venue, which had been installed in the old
Community Room, was shuttered on May 13, 1984. Meanwhile, Homart Development had sold MIDLAND MALL, to the New York City-based Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, in February 1981. The new owner started an indoor-outdoor renovation on April 23, 1984.
During this 4 million dollar project, an area at the southeast corner of the Upper Level was reconfigured as the
Greenhouse Cafes Food Court. The
Speedramp in the central concourse was replaced by a glass-enclosed elevator and set of escalators. New mall entrances were built and Sears' store was also remodeled. The renovated mall was re-dedicated on November 14, 1984. Its name was changed to RHODE ISLAND MALL on March 17, 1985.
Anchor rebrandings began after the Shepard Company was shuttered, in September 1973. The store was expanded and re-opened, as a Hartford-based G. Fox, on October 4, 1977. On January 30, 1993, this store was rebranded by Boston-based Filene's ["fiy-leenz"]. However, the presence of another Filene's, in the adjacent WARWICK MALL, caused the RHODE ISLAND MALL location to close in July 1997. By this time, the retail hub was in a downward spiral. By March 1998, twenty store spaces -out of a total of sixty-nine- were vacant.
The abandoned Filene's was demolished, along with one third of the mall structure, in May 2000. A vertically-stacked anchor box was built. A (120,800 square foot) Wal-Mart, occupying a Lower Level, opened on November 15, 2001. Kohl's, occupying an (87,200 square foot) Upper Level, debuted on October 10, 2002. These new stores did not connect with the enclosed shopping concourse.
RHODE ISLAND MALL was acquired by Munich, Germany-based GLL Real Estate Partners in September 2004. Management of the 579,500 square foot complex was awarded to the Woburn, Massachusetts-based Eastern Development, Limited Liability Company.
Cut off from the two new destination stores on its east end, RHODE ISLAND MALL foundered. By late 2010, the center had only four operational inline stores. It was said that the Stop & Shop supermarket chain had leased all vacant mall space so that the existing Wal-Mart could not be expanded into a SuperCenter (providing unwanted competition to any Stop & Shop stores in the vicinity).
The final nail the RHODE ISLAND MALL coffin came in March 2011, when Sears permanently closed off its mall entrance. On April 30, 2011, all inline stores in the mall were shuttered. The exterior-entranced Sears, Wal-Mart and Kohl's stores remained in business.
The virtually vacant shopping hub was sold in November 2012; the buyer being a joint venture of Concord, Massachusetts' Winstanley Enterprises and New York City's Surrey Equities. In 2013, they announced a plan to redevelop the complex. It would be given a face lift, with most inline stores gutted and refashioned into big box-sized spaces. A second plan, announced in 2014, would have simply refurbished the existing structure and renamed it OUTLETS @ RHODE ISLAND MALL.
Unfortunately, two outlet-type retail centers were already in operation in neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut. WRENTHAM VILLAGE PREMIUM OUTLETS {22.9 miles northeast, in the Town of Wrentham} had debuted in October 1997. TANGER OUTLET FOXWOODS {32.9 miles southwest, on the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation} was dedicated in May 2015.
It was decided to abandon the proposed RHODE ISLAND MALL redevelopment and just sell the virtually vacant facility. In November 2015, a joint venture of Baltimore's MCB Real Estate and Rye, New York's Acadia Realty Trust closed on the property. They drew up a plan to reconfigure the interior mall section as a bi-level, open-air complex of five big box stores. The reconfigured shopping center would be known as 650 BALD HILL (ROAD), its physical address.
Gutting of the mall section between Sears and WalMart-Kohl's got underway in late 2015, with a (55,000 square foot) Burlington opening for business on September 23, 2016. By late 2017, an (18,700 square foot) Planet Fitness and (61,000 square foot) Dick's Sporting Goods were in operation. The Sears Auto Center had also closed and been repurposed as a BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse and four inline stores.
The Sears store, itself, was shuttered in September 2017. It was divided into three spaces. New York State-based Raymour & Flanigan Furniture & Matresses occupied the store's lower floor. The upper was reconfigured as a Plano, Texas-based At Home (home decor superstore). 650 BALD HILL now encompassed approximately 590,700 leasable square feet. By the early 2020s, the complex had been renamed MIDLAND COMMONS.
Sources:
The Providence Journal
The Rhode Island Pendulum (East Greenwich, Rhode Island)
The Southeast Missourian (Cape Girardeau, Missouri)
The Day (New London, Connecticut)
http://www.warwickhistory.com
http://www.labelscar.com / "Caldor"
https://www.warwickri.gov
http://www.winent.com / Winstanley Enterprises (website in Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
http://www.mcbrealestate.com
http://www.surreyequities.com / Surrey Equities (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
https://www.acadiarealty.com / Acadia Realty Trust (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
https://www.acadiarealty.com / Acadia Realty Trust
https://eastern-re.com / Eastern Retail Properties (website on Internet Archive Wayback Machine)
FAIR USE OF MIDLAND MALL IMAGE:
The photograph from the Rhode Island Office of the Secretary of State helps illustrate a key moment in the shopping mall's history that is described in the article. The image is not replaceable with free-use or public-domain images. The use of the image does not limit the copyright owners' rights to distribute the image in any way. The image is being used for non-profit, informational purposes only and its use is not believed to detract from the original image in any way.
