Philadelphia Mills

Philadelphia Mills (formerly Franklin Mills) is an enclosed shopping mall located in Northeast Philadelphia, bordering Bensalem in Bucks County and 15 miles (24 km) outside Center City.^[2] Formerly named for Benjamin Franklin, the mall houses 200 stores, a movie theatre, two food courts, and seven theme restaurants^[3] and was visited by an estimated 18 million people in 2006.^[4]

Opened in 1989, Franklin Mills was the second built and formerly owned by the Mills Corporation and is now managed by the Simon Property Group.^[5] Along with King of Prussia Mall, Simon has control of Pennsylvania's two largest malls.

On September 16, 2014, Simon Property Group renamed the mall from Franklin Mills to Philadelphia Mills. The mall is currently receiving an interior upgrade as of October, 2015. The exterior renovations have mostly been complete.^[6]

Location

The Philadelphia Mills site was formerly home to Liberty Bell Park Racetrack.^[7] It is located approximately one mile west of Interstate 95, at the intersection of Woodhaven Road (Pennsylvania State Route 63) and Knights Road.

In August 2006, unconfirmed rumors circulated that the mall was being closed and sold for residential redevelopment.^[8] As of 2014, no such changes have occurred.

Branding and design

Interior view of Philadelphia Mills

Philadelphia Mills mall is designed in the shape of a thunderbolt in commemoration of Benjamin Franklin's kite-and-key experiment. The mall's former logo from when it was called Franklin Mills included a red kite with a lighting bolt on the right side and the string ending on the letter "A" of "FRANKLIN". The mall is separated by its four Neighborhoods: Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green, and has six main entries including its neighborhood color entries, plus Aqua at the Grand Court and the Orange entry in its Green Neighborhood near the former Steve & Barry's. There are also entries at either side of the AMC 14 theater for moviegoers after mall hours.

The mall is the first Mills mall to have two food courts. "Cafe Court" is at Red Neighborhood 1 and is anchored by GAP. "Cafe Freedom" is a larger food court at Green Neighborhood 4, and as of early 2016, "Cafe Freedom" was renamed as "Dining Pavilion" and has undergone renovations . The mall once had graphics, usually hanging from the ceiling, but in the later years, they were removed. The mall also previously had two video courts, one was removed in the 2000s, and the other one which was removed in August 2014.^[9]From the mall's opening until 2012, a sculpture of Benjamin Franklin's Face was located at the Grand Court between Neighborhoods Blue & Yellow. Almost all main mall entries have a graphic at its entry. Throughout the mall, there are several sets of projection TVs hanging from the ceiling known as "Mills TV", showing video loops of music videos and advertisements, as of the early 2010s however, They were eventually replaced by double-faced Daktronics led boards. ^[10]

The 1,600,000-square-foot (150,000 m²) mall consists primarily of factory outlet stores.^[3] As of November 2011, the surviving major anchor tenants include Marshalls and Burlington Coat Factory. When the mall first opened in 1989 the original anchors were J. C. Penney; Sears; Ports of the World, a discount apparel, housewares and giftware chain of Boscov's Department Stores, Reading, Pa.; Reading China and Glass, a housewares chain also based in Reading; and Phar-Mor, Youngstown, Ohio, a deep discount drug chain.^[11][12] Over time, the Ports was re-branded as Boscov's, and was later replaced by Steve & Barry's, before the location became vacant, Reading China & Glass closed and its building was split between Marshalls and Office Max, Sears leaves the mall for the first time and was replaced by General Cinema, itself acquired by AMC Theatres. Office Max later leaves the mall, and Sears returns, taking the Office Max space. Original stores remaining in the mall include Bed, Bath and Beyond & Modell's, which have been joined by Forever 21, Last Call, H&M, & Off 5th, among others. As of November 29, 2011, 3 of the mall's 5 main anchors are vacant. On December 15, 2011, it was announced that J.C. Penney would be returning to the mall as a department store, in its original location, the outlet store had been closed as part of a nationwide realignment by the retailer of all its outlet stores.^[13]

Mall anchors

• JCPenney Catalog Outlet opened 1989, closed 2011
• Sears Catalog Outlet opened 1989
• Ports of the World opened 1989, later renamed to its parent company's name Boscov's
• Reading China and Glass, opened 1989, closed 1990 ^[14]
• Phar-Mor, opened 1989, closed 2002
• AMC Theatres, opened 1998 as General Cinema on former Sears Catalog Outlet site, renamed to AMC in 2002
• Office Max, took 1/3 of old Reading China & Glass building
• Marshalls, took 2/3 of old Reading China & Glass building
• Burlington Coat Factory, opened in former 49th Street Galleria building
• Walmart, opened 9/24/2014 on the site of the former Ports Of The World/Boscov's/Steve & Barry's site
• Sears Outlet, took the old OfficeMax site
• JCPenney, opened March 2, 2012 in its original Outlet Store location

Mall entrances

During the mall's tenure as Franklin Mills, each entrance has a tall, pyramid-like tower with a kite in the middle, anchor store names listed on each side arch (became fully colored in recent years) and a graphic hanging at the middle arch of each entrance, as listed below. For the remodeling into Philadelphia Mills, the former entrances were closed, starting with the orange entrance and their former pyramid-like facades torn down with their modern entrances built in their place. For Philadelphia Mills, the towers are replaced with a modern structure with the entrance color in the middle bar, along with improved lighting and landscaping.

Orange entrance from when mall was called Franklin Mills

• Red: Liberty Bell (Entrance replaced as of Late 2014)
• Blue: a cloud with a Lightning Bolt
• Aqua: (Entrance replaced as of Late 2014), new entrance is green.
• Yellow: a key with string (a nod to Franklin's lightning experiment)
• Orange: an ink cup for its feather pens (Entrance replaced as of Summer 2014)
• Green: a bald eagle (its entry no longer has a kite), removed as of early 2014.
• AMC 14 entries on both sides of the theater, accessible after mall hours

Adjacent stand-alone stores

Stand-alone stores adjacent to the main mall include:

• Walmart (closed 9/23/2014; previously a Bradlees), Dick's Sporting Goods, and Raymour & Flanigan Furniture, all located in the former Carrefour store
• Sam's Club
• Pathmark Sav-A-Center supermarket (whose site was formerly a Super Fresh Super Store, Closed September 2015)
• Toys "R" Us
• LA Fitness (gym)
• Various fast-food restaurants, including McDonald's, Wendy's, KFC, and Arby's

In September 2013, the former site of Boscov's was torn down, and an Walmart supercenter location opened 9/24/2014 on the site.

In addition, there is a neighboring strip mall called Franklin Marketplace (formerly the Home & Design Center), which includes:

• Big Lots (previously Hechinger)
• Dollar Tree
• Harbor Freight Tools
• Brightwood Career Institute Higher-education campus
• Bethel, The Church @ Franklin Mills, a non-denominational church (located in the former General Cinema Franklin Mills 10 Theatre)

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Philadelphia Mills.

• Philadelphia Mills
• Simon Property Group