PROVIDENCE – Macy’s Inc. has no plans to shutter its three stores in the region. At least for now.
The department store chain has left its locations at Providence Place, Warwick Mall and Emerald Square Mall in North Attleborough off the list of closures planned for 2025.
Macy’s announced the closure of 66 other stores nationwide Thursday. The retailer said the move is part of its “Bold New Chapter” strategy meant to return Macy's to “sustainable, profitable sales growth.” The strategy includes closing about 150 underperforming stores over a three-year period and investing in 350 Macy’s locations through fiscal 2026.
Thursday's announcement comes after months of handwringing over the future of Macy's at Providence Place, where the department store is an anchor tenant leasing more than 200,000 square feet over three floors. At one point, a bond rating agency indicated that the Providence Place Macy’s was on the list of locations planned for closure.
To add to the distress, Providence Place entered receivership in late 2024 after the previous property owner Brookfield Properties was unable to repay $250 million of a $305 million loan.
Questions about Macy’s future in the mall continued swirling in November after news reports that the location had been listed as available by a commercial real estate agency. Details of the listing have remained unclear.
Attorneys W. Mark Russo and John Dorsey, who were appointed as the mall’s receivers on Nov. 1, previously said they worked closely with Macy’s management and said there are plans for the Providence location to stay open for the “immediate future.”
Russo has also said that Macy’s is “looking at longer-term plans for Providence Place.” Russo and Dorsey did not immediately respond to PBN’s request for comment Friday.
While the store at Warwick Mall never seemed to be in danger of closing, at least in 2025, because of its high traffic, news that the store at Emerald Square Mall would remain open in 2025 may give a lift to a retail center that has struggled with low vacancy rates in recent years. Sears, one of the mall’s original anchor tenants, pulled out in 2021 as part of a wave of nationwide chain closures, and the mall ownership hasn’t attracted another tenant.
Instead, three floors remain entirely empty, a specter of the shopping center’s glory days.
A spokesperson for Macy’s did not respond to PBN’s questions about whether the locations in Providence, Warwick and North Attleborough were still being considered for future closure.
Katie Castellani is a PBN staff writer. You may contact her at Castellani@PBN.com.
