Danbury Fair Mall

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Danbury Fair Mall
Interior of mall during 2007 holiday shopping season, showing new color scheme and decor

Location	Danbury, CT, USA
Coordinates	41°22′56″N, 73°28′39″W
Address	Backus Ave. & I-84
Opening date	October 28, 1986
Developer	Wilmorite Properties
Owner	The Macerich Company
No. of stores and services	200
No. of anchor tenants	7
Total retail floor area	1,292,578 square feet (116,332 m²)^[1]
No. of floors	2
Website	http://www.danburyfairmall.com/

The Danbury Fair Mall is the largest shopping mall in the U.S. state of Connecticut and is one of the largest malls in New England. ^[2] It is located off of Interstate 84 and U.S. Route 7 in the city of Danbury opposite the Danbury Municipal Airport.

1 History
2 Renovation
3 Anchors/Majors
4 References
5 External links

[edit] History

The Danbury Fair Mall was built by the Wilmorite Corporation. The mall was first opened on October 28, 1986 starting with two anchors, Sears and G. Fox (which became Filene's in 1993) (which is now closed). Followed by Macy's in October 1987, and JC Penney in March 1988. In 1991, Lord & Taylor and a parking garage were added. Since the mall first opened, it was owned by its original builders, the Wilmorite Corporation, up until 2005 when the mall was acquired by The Macerich Company.

The carousel in the food court, echoing the fairground site the mall was built on.

There are approximately 200 retailers and eateries in the two level mall, including the major department stores Macy's, Sears, Lord & Taylor and JCPenney. Filene's was in the mall until the 2006 Macy's merger. The store was 168,879 sq ft (15,689 m²). on two levels. The mall is especially popular with kids, partly due to the double decker carousel in the food court as well as many youth oriented events and activities the mall sponsors on a regular basis (such as "Family Fun Night"). Many of these events take place in the mall's center on the lower floor. This space changes throughout the year. The mall is often decorated during the holidays. For special events such as song and dance performances, the central area can be converted into a stage area. When this center area is not being used for other purposes, it is filled with water and features one large and several smaller fountains.

Entrance to the mall designed to evoke carousel.

[edit] Renovation

As of January 2007, the Danbury Fair Mall has begun the process of an interior renovation, which is expected to be completed in spring 2008. The mall will receive new lighting fixtures which will replace the original globe bulb lighting, new stone style floors which will replace the original tan, brown, and green tile floors, soft seating areas through-out the mall, new stained wood accents, and new paint. The two areas that will receive the most changes are the food court and the center court. A newly renovated food court will feature a slightly curved panoramic view of the restaurant choices, which will downscale the amount of restaurants from 16 to only 11. New Banquet seating will be featured in the food court. The center court will include the removal of the large scale fountains (which also use to be served as the event area), and will be replaced with a coffee bar, soft seating with tables, and a down-scaled water feature to reduce the noise level.