Albany Mall rises from a cow pasture
In October 1972, Albany approved developer Aaron Aronov's plan to build a shopping center at Stuart Avenue and Dawson Road. The site was a cow pasture.
Groundbreaking followed on August 20, 1974, starting the shift from open land to an enclosed retail complex. Aronov led Aronov Realty and had experience developing large shopping properties across the South.
He was a founding member of the International Council of Shopping Centers and had developed more than 15 million square feet of retail space in fifteen states.
In 1954, his company developed Normandale Mall in Montgomery, Alabama's first planned regional shopping center.
The Albany Mall plan called for an enclosed, single-level building under 500,000 square feet at opening, with long interior corridors and four anchor positions.
It was designed to serve as the only enclosed regional shopping center in Southwest Georgia's trade area.
By the opening, the project offered a climate-controlled interior, a large surface parking field, and a new retail center at the Dawson Road corridor.
The August 1976 opening rewires Albany
Albany Mall opened on August 4, 1976, with a bicentennial theme. The opening was treated as a civic event. The original anchors were Gayfers, Belk-Hagens, Rosenberg's, and Sears.
Belk-Hagens and Sears relocated from downtown Albany to the mall. The move shifted retail activity away from the Pine Avenue shopping district and toward the Dawson Road corridor.
Before the mall opened, Pine Avenue and the surrounding downtown blocks drew the main shopping crowds.
Steven Johnston, whose family's Johnston Men's Shop operated downtown from 1947, described the pre-mall Christmas season as packed with people.
After the mall opened, downtown traffic dropped quickly. Within a year, he said, Pine Avenue could be empty on a weekday afternoon.
Downtown projects were later pursued to support the city center. Those efforts included construction of a 10,240-seat civic center and the Flint RiverQuarium, a $30 million freshwater aquarium that opened in 2004.
As Dawson Road grew, the mall remained the main shopping spot in the area. Its large parking lot and enclosed, air-conditioned space kept shoppers coming.
JCPenney arrives in the mall's golden years
By the late 1980s, Albany Mall was in a period of steady traffic and expansion. In 1987, Aronov Realty received approval for a major addition to the mall.
The project added a new wing to the enclosed, single-level complex and set a new anchor at the end of that wing.
The anchor was JCPenney. The company relocated its Albany store from the Midtown Shopping Center at Brooks Plaza off West Broad Avenue.
The move ended a long, continuous operation at that earlier location. JCPenney opened in the new wing in 1988.
After the store opened, the mall's overall footprint increased to about 680,000 square feet. The addition extended the interior corridor system and shifted part of the mall's center of activity toward the new wing.
During the same period, the Belk store at Albany Mall was renovated. The renovation updated the anchor alongside the expansion and kept the mall's major tenants in place as the building grew.
Rosenberg's exits, Dillard's takes Gayfers
In 1990, Rosenberg's closed at Albany Mall, breaking up the mall's original anchor lineup. The space went dark at the end of its corridor, leaving a vacant junior anchor.
In 1991, Mansour's took over the former Rosenberg's space. The store expanded out of its inline location and into the larger junior anchor footprint.
The change kept an anchor tenant in place and put a filled storefront back.
As the 1990s continued, the mall's department store names began to shift. In 1998, Gayfers was converted to Dillard's.
The exterior position and the role in the mall stayed the same, but the store name and corporate ownership changed, along with the merchandise decisions that came with it.
The conversion marked a clear transition from the original regional department store identity to a national chain anchor.
Chains, bookstores, and the 2000s reset
In 2000, Old Navy opened at Albany Mall. The store took space near Sears that had previously been occupied by KB Toys.
The addition brought a national apparel chain into a tenant mix that was still centered on traditional department store anchors.
In 2001, Mansour's closed, creating a large vacancy in the mall's anchor lineup.
In April 2004, Books-A-Million relocated from its Old Dawson Road location to the former Mansour's space. The move placed the bookstore in a large-format footprint inside the mall.
The interior was laid out for long aisles and large shelving runs, and the store operated as a destination tenant that did not follow the department store model.
The relocation also consolidated the bookstore's presence in the Dawson Road retail corridor by moving it closer to the region's primary enclosed shopping center.
In 2011, JCPenney received a comprehensive renovation. The work updated the store within the existing single-level structure.
During the same period, Albany Mall continued routine leasing and upkeep across its interior storefronts and common areas as shopping patterns and competition changed beyond the property.
Sears closes, the site clears for redevelopment
Sears closed at Albany Mall in 2017 as part of the chain's nationwide wave of closures.
The Sears building contained about 100,000 square feet and sat on a large parcel at the edge of the mall property. After the closure, the building remained vacant for four years.
The storefront stayed dark and unused while the rest of the enclosed mall continued operating around its remaining anchors.
In 2021, the Sears building was demolished after sitting vacant for several years.
Local owners and redevelopment backers described the demolition as a practical step to remove a long-empty structure and clear the way for new investment rather than leave a dark, unused building on the property.
After the demolition, the central portion of the former Sears parcel was sold to a hotelier who owns the adjacent Hampton Inn and Suites.
Plans were announced for a dual-brand Hilton hotel to break ground on the site, shifting part of the former retail footprint toward hospitality use.
Also in 2021, Albany Mall entered foreclosure and became lender-owned. Ownership was fragmented among KeyBank, anchor store owners, and Indusa Investments.
In November 2021, Spinoso Real Estate Group assumed management of the mall.
The firm brought long-term experience managing enclosed malls and reported a portfolio of 88 properties since 2010. During the same period, tenant turnover continued inside the building.
Shawarma Shack Restaurant took over the former Chick-fil-A space, and Queen Cakes replaced The Great American Cookie Shop.
Trade area numbers and the working city
By 2025, Albany Mall's anchor list looked both familiar and fragile: Belk, JCPenney, Dillard's, and Old Navy. Books-A-Million left that year, turning its large space back into an empty shell.
The building holds 872,000 square feet under one roof, a single-level enclosed layout with interior storefronts and food-court space.
It sits on Dawson Road (US Hwy 82), shadowed to the east by Publix and Target and next to Albany Square. About 106,700 people live within ten miles, with an average household income of around $69,700.
Nearby employers keep the area moving: the Marine Corps Logistics Base and Phoebe Putney Memorial Hospital, with roughly 4,000 employees each, Procter and Gamble, with about 600, Albany State University, with about 6,000 students and 1,000 employees, and Albany Technical College, with about 3,500 students.
Phoebe Putney has added a $40 million living and learning center for nurses with $65,000 starting salaries, and a $140 million Emergency and Trauma Center projected to have a $400 million economic impact.
Academy Sports, SPLOST, and new uses
New construction has moved onto the Albany Mall site.
On August 27, 2024, the Albany City Commission approved an Academy Sports + Outdoors project described as an $11 million, 55,000-square-foot store for the south corner of the mall parking lot.
Developers said they hoped to break ground in October. By April 30, 2025, construction was underway on Dawson Road in front of the mall, tied to about sixty jobs and a planned October 1 opening date.
The official public opening was October 20, 2025, followed by a grand opening weekend on October 24-26, 2025, featuring deals and giveaways.
Up 2 U Entertainment opened as a new activity tenant at the Albany Mall site at 2601 Dawson Road, Suite H-2. By May 2025, the business appeared in local business listings.
The venue offers axe throwing along with add-on activities such as a rage room, spin art, and splatter or paint-style sessions.
Public funding has also been directed toward work near the mall. On December 23, 2025, the Dougherty County Commission approved a public-private deal to move forward with an entertainment complex near Albany Mall.
The city and county planned about $2.9 million in SPLOST funding for the project, with $1.7 million from the county and $1.2 million from the city.
The site was described as the southeast side of the former mall property, where the old Sears building once stood.
Plans for what comes next differ.
Some local officials have promoted tax incentives to attract retailers and have described ideas such as breezeways leading into the mall and a one-stop mix that could include an upscale grocery store or new restaurants.
Some local investors and redevelopment advocates have pushed a broader reworking of the site, emphasizing "Amazon-proof" uses such as experiential retail, entertainment, hospitality, and services that are not easily replaced by online shopping.
