BURLINGTON SQUARE MALL: BURLINGTON, NC
Hank Jones's Commentary
Posted February 15, 2008 (user submitted)
Burlington Sqaure Mall is a 450,000 sq. ft enclosed mall in Burlington, NC that has gone through several name changes in recent years. Originally opened as Holly Hill Mall (in the 60's I think), it was renamed Colonial Mills Mall and now Burlington Square. Operated by Colonial, the mall under went a huge makeover and attracted several new stores in the early 2000's. It added American Eagle, Aeropostale, Books A Million, PacSun, GameStop, and a new Mexican restaurant. The mall already had tenants such as Victoria's Secret, Bath & Body Works, J C Penney, Belk, Sears, and Goody's. All was going well for the mall. The mall was purchased by Prime Retail when Colonial liquidated some of their properties.
In August 2007, Alamance Crossing opened a mile away. It is an upscale lifestyle center owned by CBL & Assoc. Since Alamance opened, with anchors of Dillards and Barnes & Noble, J C Penny and Belk have moved to the new center. Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works, as well as Ann Taylor, White House- Black Market, and Eddie Bauer have opened new stores there. The old mall is suffering from a decline in traffic. The food court consists of Chic-Fil-A.
At the moment, Foot Locker is in the process of closing. Sunglass Hut will leave 2/28. American Eagle and Aeropostale are in the "wait and see" mode. BBW and Vickie's plan on keeping both stores for now. The mall customer service manager just resigned, leaving that position, and the mall manager position open. The mall just painted a mural over the old Belk entrance, and added a pre-fab barn store to the parking lot.
The only busy store is the Starbucks in the parking lot. I wonder how long this shell of the oldest mall in NC can hang on before it becomes offices or big box.