Blue Hen Mall

The Blue Hen Mall (now the Blue Hen Corporate Center) is a defunct shopping mall on Bay Road in Dover, Delaware. The mall opened in August 1968, and was the main mall in the Dover area until the Dover Mall opened in 1982, leading to its decline. In the 1990s, the mall was converted into a corporate center.

History

The Blue Hen Mall opened in the late 1960s, at which time it was the only enclosed mall in Delaware. The opening of the retail hub shifted several businesses away from downtown Dover, including JCPenney, which became an anchor store at the mall.^[3] Woolco also anchored the shopping center. This store was shuttered in early 1983. It soon reopened as a Roses variety store. At its height, Blue Hen Mall housed over 50 shops.^[4]

Sears was interested in relocating to the Blue Hen Mall from downtown Dover, but could not agree with management in where to place the store in shopping center. As a result, Sears decided to relocate, along with other department stores, to the new Dover Mall which opened in 1982. Following the opening of the Dover Mall, many stores relocated from the Blue Hen Mall, turning it into a dead mall.^[3] At this time, the Blue Hen Mall was owned by Jardel Company, Inc. and Penn Mutual.^[5] JCPenney relocated to the Dover Mall in 1993 and Roses closed in 1995.^[4]

In the 1990s, the Blue Hen Mall was converted into the Blue Hen Corporate Center, with the retail space becoming office space.^[3][6] A Bank of America call center and an Aetna office facility served as the anchors of the corporate center. The Bank of America call center eventually closed and Aetna left the Blue Hen Corporate Center in 2009.^[3] In 2008, the property was sold by Blue Hen Venture LLC to Pettinaro Enterprises LLC for $17.4 million.^[2] Currently, the Blue Hen Corporate Center has several office vacancies.^[3]

References