The Mall of New Hampshire adds a loop
The Mall of New Hampshire opened in 1977 on South Willow Street in Manchester, New Hampshire, near Interstate 293 and Interstate 93.
It was the first large-scale enclosed mall in the state, bigger than the earlier Nashua, Bedford, and Royal Ridge malls, and its corridors formed a T. Sears, Filene's, and Lechmere were its main anchors.
Where the other early malls later took their corridors out, this one added more. The late-1990s expansion rearranged the anchors as well as the hallways.
Sears grew, Filene's moved into a new two-level building, and JCPenney rose on the cleared site of the old Filene's.
The added wing closed the original T into a loop, while the food court was redone.
Lechmere shut in 1997 when the chain was liquidated; Best Buy and Kitchen Etc. later divided its box.
The anchors went on changing without ending the indoor format. Filene's became Macy's in 2006.
Sears announced its closing in August 2018 and was gone by the end of that November.
Its building was then split, with Dick's Sporting Goods taking 46,000 square feet and Dave & Buster's 35,000.
In 2021 through 2023, after the Sears closing and the pandemic, occupancy ran in the mid-80 percent range.
The Mall of New Hampshire is an indoor, climate-controlled regional mall, with Macy's, JCPenney, Best Buy, Dick's, Dave & Buster's, and Apple among more than 115 stores along its corridors.
Of the five, it is the only one where shoppers still walk from store to store indoors.
Nashua Mall, the first enclosed mall in New Hampshire, lost its corridor in 2003.
Royal Ridge Mall becomes an open-air center
Royal Ridge Mall opened in 1974 on Daniel Webster Highway in southern Nashua, New Hampshire.
It was a small, community-size enclosed mall, far smaller than the regional malls built after it.
Purity Supreme and Marshalls were among its first large tenants, and Ames later took the north end.
The mall drew public events as well: in 1977 it was advertised as the site of a Nashua coin and stamp show.
By 1994, with the much bigger Pheasant Lane trading to the south, Sports Authority was open at Royal Ridge next to Marshalls and Ames.
During that decade the enclosed corridor was taken out, and the property was reworked as a strip center under the name Royal Ridge Center, with more work on the buildings around 2000.
The former Ames space was later divided, with PetSmart among the large tenants that moved in.
Splitting big spaces became the center's habit.
Sports Authority closed in 2016 and left another large vacancy, and by 2018 the owner had divided that space between HomeGoods and Sierra Trading Post.
In December 2024 Nordstrom announced a 30,000-square-foot Nordstrom Rack for Royal Ridge Center, and the store opened in April 2025, more than half a century after the mall's first shoppers arrived.
Royal Ridge Center covers about 220,000 square feet, and every door opens to the parking lot.
Shaw's, Nordstrom Rack, PetSmart, HomeGoods, and Sierra trade there.
So does Marshalls, one of the mall's first large tenants, which has stayed through both the enclosed years and the open-air ones.
Newington Mall becomes The Crossings
The Newington site was a shopping stop before it was a mall.
In October 1966 J.M. Fields opened a 60,000-square-foot discount store between Gosling Road and the Spaulding Turnpike.
By 1973 Montgomery Ward had added a 92,000-square-foot store with an auto center, and in May of that year ground was broken for an enclosed mall to join the two.
Newington Mall in Newington, New Hampshire, was formally dedicated as an enclosed regional mall on August 15, 1974, with the governor on hand for an opening program that included the Granite State Highlanders Pipe Band and Scottish dancers.
A Porteous, Mitchell & Braun department store opened that September, a Shaw's supermarket arrived in 1975, and in 1977 Montgomery Ward got a four-screen cinema as its neighbor.
Finished, the mall held 61 stores and services.
In 1983 Fox Run Mall opened right next door with Sears, Filene's, JCPenney, and Jordan Marsh among more than 80 stores.
The two malls stayed open beside each other for years, but through the late 1980s and early 1990s Newington Mall's tenant base kept thinning.
Shaw's moved out, Porteous closed in 1992, and more of the corridor went dark. By 1993, during a recession, the mall had been foreclosed on.
In the mid-1990s the enclosed stores between the two big buildings were cleared out, and the site became an open-air center, The Crossings.
Montgomery Ward closed in 1997. Its building later came down, and Best Buy and Barnes & Noble were built where it stood.
Fox Run Mall closed on January 31, 2026, and demolition began that year.
On October 26, 2026, the Newington Planning Board conditionally approved a 167,000-square-foot Costco for the former Fox Run Mall site.
Next door, The Crossings covers about 510,000 square feet and is open for business, with Trader Joe's, Best Buy, Kohl's, and Regal Cinemas among its tenants.
Nashua Mall turns into a power center
The project that became Nashua Mall was announced in August 1967 for a site near the Everett Turnpike and the Broad Street corridor.
What opened there was Nashua Mall, the state's first enclosed shopping mall: a single-level dumbbell with Woolco at one end and Almy's at the other.
By October 1969 the mall was open and advertising its hours, 10 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Saturday, along with parking for thousands of cars.
It did not stay the only one in town for long.
Royal Ridge Mall opened on Daniel Webster Highway in 1974, and in 1986 Pheasant Lane Mall followed, much bigger and nearer the Massachusetts border.
With them and the plazas along Amherst Street and Daniel Webster Highway, Nashua grew into a tax-free shopping destination for the region, and Nashua Mall, the oldest of them, sat north of the city's main southern cluster.
In 2003 the indoor mall was rebuilt and enlarged into a regional power center, with its biggest tenants facing outward.
Kohl's became the largest of them, ahead of Burlington Coat Factory and Christmas Tree Shops, while Home Depot owned its own pad beside the complex.
An L.L.Bean outlet joined in 2004, and in May of that year about 91 percent of the space was occupied.
By October 2013 the center was fully leased.
The property has since split into several parcels, marketed and managed by different companies under names that include Nashua Mall, Nashua Mall Plaza, and Coliseum Plaza.
Kohl's, Burlington, Urban Air, and David's Bridal are among its tenants.
Several large spaces stand empty, and units from 3,000 to 100,000 square feet are on the market.
Bedford Mall gives up its corridor for Kohl's
The highways came to Bedford, New Hampshire, in quick order.
The Everett Turnpike reached the town in 1955, Interstate 293 was finished through it in 1960, and a year later Route 101 was moved to a new crossing of the Merrimack River.
Between 1960 and 1970 the population climbed from 3,636 to about 5,900.
South River Road, once a quiet rural stretch, became a shopping corridor, and Jordan Marsh had already opened a big suburban store there by the time the first phase of Bedford Mall, an enclosed shopping mall, went up in 1967.
Over the next decades the property came to depend on its large stores more than on its corridor.
By the early 2000s its main tenants were big stores facing the parking lot: Marshalls, Bob's Stores, Staples, and Linens 'n Things, with Hoyts Cinemas on the property.
In February 2009 the mall's management announced a plan to tear down the enclosed section and rebuild around a new Kohl's, reworking the big-store spaces that would stay.
The recession delayed the project until 2010.
By the time the redevelopment was finished in 2012, new buildings made up more than half the center and the corridor was gone.
The Fresh Market, Starbucks, Chipotle, and Pet Supplies Plus opened along with the new Kohl's, while Marshalls, Staples, and Bob's carried over from the old mall.
The rebuilt center kept changing. Bob's later moved out, and by December 2018 the owner was planning changes to its space.
Homesense and Sierra took on the role of junior anchors, and World Market opened in late 2024.
The property is now Shoppes at Bedford, an open-air center where Kohl's, Marshalls, Homesense, World Market, and Staples trade side by side.
Only a few small storefronts stand empty.
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