The Shops at Chestnut Hill


The Shops at Chestnut Hill is a two-level enclosed shopping mall, located in the Chestnut Hill section of Newton, Massachusetts on Boylston Street. It is managed by Simon Property Group, who owns 94.4% of it, and is anchored by Bloomingdale's in two locations, with the Women's store located at the west end and the Men's Home & Furnishing store anchoring the east end. These are the only Bloomingdale's locations in Massachusetts.

History

The Shops at Chestnut Hill, formerly known as The Mall at Chestnut Hill, was built into the side of a hill in 1974 and as such had ground level access on both of its two floors. A Bloomingdale's Home Furnishings store had opened at the site in 1973, while the two-story mall itself and a Filene's store opened in 1974. The Filene's had relocated from a neighboring 1950s-era location in the Chestnut Hill Shopping Center. Filene's expanded in size to in 1980 with the addition of a third floor, while the mall's Bloomingdale's home store added its own third floor and was reconfigured to include a men's department to complement a women's store it had opened across the street in 1978 at the Chestnut Hill Shopping Center.
In 1998 locally based S.R. Weiner & Associates assumed a long-term lease on the mall property from developer C&R Realty. In December 2001 S.R. Weiner in its turn assigned management as well as sold part of its leasehold in the mall to Rodamco North America, N.V. A few months later, with the break-up of Rodamco, Simon Property Group acquired management and an interest in the mall's leasehold.
The mall's structure and anchors remained essentially intact from 1980 until 2005, when May Department Stores was acquired by Federated Department Stores. In March 2006, Federated closed the Filene's store and spent the better part of the year renovating the space. In November 2006 Bloomingdale's relocated its Women's store from the adjacent Chestnut Hill Shopping Center to the former Filene's, thereby giving The Mall at Chestnut Hill a Bloomingdale's at both the east and west ends.
The mall was renovated in the fall of 2006 to coincide with the opening of the expanded Bloomingdale's. In addition to adding more chairs and sitting areas, a large handicapped-accessible elevator was installed in the central atrium close to the main, Route 9, entrance.
The Apple Store location moved from its original location into a much larger one, re-openeing on March 26, 2016, sporting the newest Apple store design language.
The first Massachusetts location of Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana opened in December 2015 on the second level at the main entrance. A Simon-operated Starbucks opened Summer 2016 nearby, at the same entrance.