Dick’s Sporting Goods to close Meriden Mall store next month

The Meriden Mall, which has been plagued with vacancies, is about to lose another one of its remaining anchor tenants.

Dick’s Sporting Goods has announced it will be closing its store at the mall April 20. The closure was announced publicly in signs located next to the entrance of the mall store. The Pennsylvania-based chain currently has 12 locations in Connecticut and opened the Meriden store in the mall after Lord & Taylor announced it was closing its anchor store there in mid-2003.

Officials with the mall and Dick’s Sporting Goods were not immediately available on Thursday to comment on the closing. City officials were also not available for comment on the closing announcement on Thursday.

The store closure will leave the Meriden Mall with just one anchor store, Boscov’s department store. Macy’s, JCPenney and Sears are among other department stores that have closed in recent years at the mall.

The largest portion of the mall is owned by Namdar Realty Group, the Great Neck, N.Y.-based commercial real estate investment company best known for acquiring financially distressed shopping malls at bargain prices. Namdar paid $12.5 million for the Meriden Mall, which they purchased from Unibail-RodamcoWestfield in the second quarter of 2020, when the retail center was known as Westfield Meriden.

Two of the mall’s former anchor stores have different owners. Yale New Haven Health owns the former Macy’s store, and an Illinois-based limited liability company, TF Meriden LLC, controls the former Sears location. Yale New Haven Health has had plans to redevelop the former store into a two-level medical facility, but it has not yet fully moved forward.

The mall, which is located at 470 Lewis Ave., began 2024 with 38 store vacancies based on the retail center’s current configuration,The mall’s food court, located on the second level, had six vacancies and only four operating vendors at the beginning of the year,

Fashion retailer Charlotte Russe announced plans to close its Meriden store earlier this year.

Photos by Luther Turmelle/Hearst Connecticut Media The entrance to Dick’s Sporting Goods at the Meriden Mall. The store will closed on April 20.

Signs greet shoppers at the Dick’s Sporting Goods in the Meriden Mall with news of the store closing.