TownMall of Westminster is an enclosed regional shopping center at 400 North Center Street in Westminster, Maryland. Westminster is the county seat of Carroll County, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Baltimore.
The mall sits on the Maryland Route 140 shopping corridor near Manchester Road. Big-box stores, strip centers, chain restaurants, professional offices, and large parking areas surround it.
The center draws shoppers from Westminster, Taneytown, Eldersburg, and nearby Maryland communities. Its five-mile trade area has nearly 45,000 residents, high household incomes, and a large daytime population.
The property opened on March 4, 1987, as Cranberry Mall. It has 629,000 square feet of retail space and remains Carroll County's only enclosed regional shopping center.
TownMall of Westminster Opened With Room to Roam
A shopper entering Cranberry Mall on March 4, 1987, stepped into a new Carroll County landmark with department stores at the edges and long indoor corridors between them.
Large parking fields surrounded the building, built for people arriving from Westminster, nearby Maryland towns, and communities across the regional trade area.
Shopco Advisory Group developed the property as an enclosed regional shopping center, not a neighborhood strip center.
Its first name, Cranberry Mall, came from the nearby Cranberry commercial district. The property later became TownMall of Westminster, tying the center more directly to the city.
The building had one main retail level. Early anchors included Leggett, Caldor, and Sears.
Sears occupied the space first tied to Hutzler's, which never opened there. Montgomery Ward joined in 1990.
Cranberry Mall Took Years to Reach Westminster
A major shopping-center concept for the Westminster site had been discussed as early as the early 1970s. The project stayed tangled for years in zoning, road, land-use, and financing problems.
The land and project moved forward in 1985 after a sale to the Shopco group.
Earlier versions involved possible tenants such as G.C. Murphy and Giant Food, but those proposals stalled in zoning, land-use, and financing problems before the 1985 sale reset the project.
The final version followed the department-store model that defined many regional malls of the late 1980s.
The site stood outside Westminster's historic downtown core, in the northern retail corridor where car access shaped daily use.
Maryland Route 140 carried about 60,000 vehicles per day, while Manchester Road carried about 23,000 vehicles per day.
The surrounding five-mile trade area had 44,800 people, an average household income of $101,000, and a daytime population of 29,800.
Big-box stores, strip retail centers, chain restaurants, offices, and other automobile-oriented businesses filled the corridor around it.
The Anchors Shifted, and the Mall Changed Names
After the long effort to build Cranberry Mall, the first group of anchors already showed that changes were coming.
Hutzler's had been connected to the project before the mall opened, but the store never opened there. Sears took that space instead and stayed at the mall for decades.
Montgomery Ward became an anchor in 1990, three years after the mall opened.
That gave the early mall the kind of department-store mix that once made enclosed shopping centers feel complete: Leggett, Caldor, Sears, and Montgomery Ward.
Leggett later became Belk when Leggett stores were converted into Belk stores. The Westminster location now operates as a Belk Outlet.
That outlet format opened on May 23, 2023, offering discounted merchandise from Belk stores, new designer items, and higher-end goods.
The move from Leggett to Belk to Belk Outlet shows how one long-running department-store space changed as the mall's retail model changed around it.
Around 2000, Cranberry Mall became TownMall of Westminster during a period of new ownership and repositioning after its sale to Strategic Resources.
Renovations followed and were finished around 2002. A $30 million mortgage helped support that period.
Caldor's Anchor Box Became Three Different Uses
No single space at TownMall of Westminster changed identity more often than the box Caldor left behind in 1999.
The space later became Maryland's first Steve & Barry's location, and after that chain collapsed nationally, the old Caldor space changed again.
By the 2010s, the box had been divided among Dick's Sporting Goods, gym use, and family entertainment. The change kept the space active without trying to recreate the old Caldor model.
Dick's Sporting Goods anchors the largest portion with sporting goods, footwear, and outdoor equipment.
THE GYM operates as a 24-hour fitness center with weights, classes, personal training, and strength programs. Fun & Fit Factory added a family entertainment use to the same former anchor area.
The old Caldor box became one of the mall's clearest examples of reuse after a traditional chain left.
Boscov's Filled the Montgomery Ward Vacancy
While the Caldor box fractured into several uses, the former Montgomery Ward space kept the department-store idea alive.
Montgomery Ward opened at the mall in 1990 and closed in 2001 as the chain collapsed.
Boscov's later took the space and became one of the mall's strongest remaining department-store anchors.
Boscov's operates on two levels at 400 North Center Street, with departments spanning home goods, apparel, beauty, and jewelry.
The 178,500-square-foot Boscov's replacement kept a traditional department-store presence inside the property after Montgomery Ward left.
By the early 2000s, TownMall of Westminster was no longer the new Cranberry Mall of 1987.
However, it still had a familiar enclosed-mall structure: anchors, interior corridors, inline shops, food, services, and wide parking fields.
Boscov's remains one of the clearest links between the mall's department-store past and its present-day tenant mix.
Sears Closed and the Empty Space Found New Uses
The early-2000s repositioning kept TownMall of Westminster moving, but Sears brought a different kind of vacancy.
Sears entered a closure round in October 2018 after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, and the Westminster store closed in early January 2019 after liquidation sales.
The closure removed one of the mall's longest-running anchors. It also left a large space that could not simply be filled by another full-line department store.
Former anchor boxes across the country were already becoming harder to replace, and TownMall faced the same question in Carroll County.
The old Sears area later became a flexible space for seasonal and community events. PEEPshow used the Center Court box across from Boscov's in 2024, 2025, and 2026.
The answer to the old Sears vacancy did not look like Sears.
PEEPshow Turned the Mall Into a Seasonal Draw
PEEPshow began in 2007 as an annual marshmallow-art exhibition and fundraiser for arts programming, scholarships, and free public programs.
Its later move into TownMall of Westminster gave the old Sears space a crowd again, but not the kind that once came for appliances, tools, and back-to-school sales.
The 17th annual PEEPshow ran from March 22 to April 1, 2024, with free admission and an online contest that raised $8,147.
The 18th annual PEEPshow ran from April 11 to April 21, 2025, with more than 21,000 visitors, 164 PEEP sculptures made with 36,105 PEEPs, and more than 40 entries purchased after the event.
The Grand Prize went to "Scram Peeps!" by Ava Piszczek and family, with more than 8,000 votes.
The 19th annual PEEPshow ran from March 27 to April 6, 2026, using the same Center Court area across from Boscov's.
It included 197 entries, with 191 marshmallow displays and six video submissions. More than 37,000 marshmallow chicks and bunnies went into the displays.
The event drew more than 20,000 in-person visitors, more than 178,000 in-person votes, and more than 5,300 online votes.
The Grand Prize went to "Giant Leap for Peeps" by Residents of Homewood Living Plum Creek, with 5,634 votes.
Classrooms, Games, Local Shops, and the Existing Movie Theater Filled the Space
As traditional retail faded, TownMall of Westminster started filling space in new ways. Some of those uses were not the kind of thing that earlier enclosed malls were built around.
During the COVID-19 disruption of in-person schooling in 2020, a gaming lounge in the mall became a virtual learning hub.
The Learning Ground Co-op used more than 30,000 square feet of space. Students arrived around 7:30 a.m., then prepared for virtual classes that began around 8:00 a.m.
Interest was stronger than the early estimate. The first expectation was about 70 students before opening, but more than 75 parent responses represented more than 100 children.
The program used pandemic-era safety measures such as distancing, temperature checks, parent volunteers, nightly cleaning, and local school and health guidance.
The mall also became more local through specialty tenants. Eternia Dreams sells vintage toys, comics, and pop-culture collectibles.
Hera's Nightmare carries horror art, oddities, and seasonal attractions. The existing movie theater continued as R/C Westminster Movies 9, with luxury recliners, reserved seating, and digital projection.
Westminster Planning Keeps the Mall in Play
Those newer uses have not removed the pressure around the property. TownMall of Westminster is now owned by Westminster Mall LLC and managed by The Woodmont Company.
The mall remains the only enclosed regional shopping center in Carroll County.
Its tenant mix includes Boscov's, Belk Outlet, Dick's Sporting Goods, R/C Westminster Movies 9, THE GYM, Fun & Fit Factory, and entertainment and event uses in large former anchor areas.
Smaller tenants have ranged across food, services, and specialty retail, including Asian Bistro, Villa Pizza, Auntie Anne's, Hair Cuttery, T-Mobile, Visionworks, GameStop, Bath & Body Works, Battleground, and Hackney Haunts.
Westminster's long-range planning treats the Route 140 corridor as a major retail area with commercial activity, traffic pressure, and development potential.
City and county planning discussions have placed the mall within larger questions about annexation, zoning, water and sewer service, transportation, housing, and future development applications.
The mall is still operating, still changing, and still part of Westminster's long-term planning map.
What the Mall Means Now
TownMall of Westminster no longer fits the simple picture of an 1980s enclosed mall carried by department stores and national chains.
It still has major retail anchors, but it also has a movie theater, fitness space, family entertainment, local specialty shops, seasonal attractions, and large community events inside former anchor areas.
No full demolition, final replacement plan, approved redevelopment schedule, or funded redevelopment start date has been confirmed.
The old mall did not stay the same. It did not disappear either.
Notable Milestones
Early 1970s - Major shopping center concept discussed for the Westminster site
1985 - Land and project moved forward after sale to Shopco group
March 4, 1987 - Cranberry Mall opened at 400 North Center Street
1990 - Montgomery Ward opened as a major anchor
1999 - Caldor closed
Around 2000 - Cranberry Mall became TownMall of Westminster
2001 - Montgomery Ward closed
2002 - Renovation work supported the mall's repositioning
2003 - Boscov's replaced the former Montgomery Ward space
2010s - Former Caldor and Steve & Barry's space split into new uses
October 2018 - Sears closure announced after Chapter 11 filing
January 2019 - Sears closed at TownMall of Westminster
2020 - Learning Ground Co-op used mall space for virtual schooling
May 23, 2023 - Belk Outlet opened in the former Belk department store space
March 22-April 1, 2024 - PEEPshow used the former Sears space
April 11-21, 2025 - PEEPshow drew more than 21,000 visitors
March 27-April 6, 2026 - PEEPshow drew more than 20,000 visitors and 197 entries
