Windham Mall turnover brings new life to shopping center
Courtesy / Jay Wise
Windham Mall's new tenants include Starbucks and Chipotle, shown here.
A little turnover at Windham Mall has started a big wave of new tenants, bringing eight new businesses to the shopping center over the past 16 months.
The 325,000-square-foot plaza, home to anchor tenants Hannaford, Home Depot and Renys, has seen an influx of new businesses, starting with Portland Pie Co., which opened in 2020.
“We had some turnover on some pad sites. We were able to attract great new tenants. Portland Pie took over the old Friendly’s building and that really started a chain reaction,” said Jay Wise of WRE, who is a partner with the center’s ownership group based in Ohio. “We were able to sign Jersey Mike’s and T-Mobile and it moved quickly from there.”
Portland Pie gutted and renovated the Friendly’s site. Meanwhile, the former Pizza Hut location got torn down and rebuilt as the site for a Starbucks and Chipotle. Starbucks will be opening imminently and Chipotle will open by mid-December, Wise said.
Other new tenants include Sherman’s Maine Coast Book Shop, which opened in October, business firm Enve Analytics, as well as a parkour gym called Movement Lab, which will be opening in December, Wise said.
The new, multiyear leases mean that Windham Mall, located at 795 Roosevelt Trail, is now 100% occupied, Wise said.
“Windham’s always been very busy, but lacking the choices. Windham could add five or six new restaurants and they’d be busy. Gorham and Windham have always been faster-growing towns. People see that it’s busy and want to be part of it,” Wise said. “Windham’s got a lot going on.”
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Any bets that the big franchise restaurants will fail while the locals remain solid. Mainers, in places like Windham, really support their local businesses who often are former classmates, or teammates or neighbors or relatives. It brings to mind the old image of the vacant McDonald's at the top of the hill as your come into Greenville.
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