Jackie Wilhelm has lived in North Wilmington her entire life. For most of that time, she has shopped at Concord Mall, which opened with great fanfare in 1969 and may be facing the wrecking ball after a long, painful decline.
On a recent afternoon, Wilhelm walked through the quiet mall after a trip to Boscov’s.
“I love Boscov’s because they have great deals,” she says. “There are always lots of shoppers, not like the rest of the mall.”
A formal application filed with New Castle County calls for demolishing 846,896 square feet of the 57-year-old shopping center and replacing it with a one-story 233,100-square-foot general retail building, a reduction of more than 70% in enclosed retail space.
The filing, Project #20260557, was submitted July 29 by Concord DE Holdings LLC for the 59-acre property on Route 202 just south of Naamans Road. The Minor Land Development Plan is listed as active in the county’s planning review system.
The proposal would retain Boscov’s and the former Sears space while razing the enclosed mall, including the current Macy’s and former Macy’s Home Store sites. Boscov’s operates under a land lease. The long-dark Sears anchor is owned by a Sears-related holding company, separate from Namdar Realty, clouding the future of that portion of the property.
A T-Mobile store on a pad in front of the mall would remain, as would Best Buy, Sprouts and Ulta in an adjacent retail center that is not part of the proposed demolition.
The contrast between the mall’s past and present is striking. The interior is clean and orderly, but its broad corridors are largely empty. Outside, the parking lot is pocked with potholes, and rose plantings near the entrance are choked with weeds.
The proposed redevelopment would give the property a radically different physical footprint, with new site infrastructure, an entry boulevard and parking improvements.
The address on the county application belongs to Abrams Realty and Development, a suburban Philadelphia firm that announced plans earlier this year to acquire Concord and redevelop it as a mixed-use community with housing, a fitness center, a grocery store and green space. The company said it intended to retain Boscov’s, a strategy Abrams employed in another mall redevelopment.
Representatives of Abrams and Namdar Realty, Concord’s Long Island-based owner, did not respond to requests for comment.
The two-story 174,172-square-foot Sears property is a complicated piece of the puzzle. Ownership rests with a Sears holding company, separate from Namdar’s ownership of the mall. A representative from KNLB, the real estate company representing Sears, was not immediately available for comment.
The filing is the latest in a series of attempts to reinvent Concord.
When it opened in March 1969, Concord Mall was New Castle County’s first enclosed shopping center, with 25 stores. During its heyday in the 1990s, it grew to more than 90 retailers, was 99% occupied and ranked among the top 15% of best-performing malls in the country.
Today, about 15 retailers remain inside, not counting Café Riviera, an Italian concept with a longtime presence at the mall, and several food-court vendors, including a recently remodeled Chick-fil-A that attracts lines of patrons.
The decline follows a now-familiar national pattern as e-commerce, changing shopping habits and the departure of traditional department-store anchors have hollowed out older enclosed malls.
Concord has attempted to reinvent itself before. Allied Property, which owned the mall for decades, announced plans in 2017 for a mixed-use redevelopment but ultimately abandoned the project. Allied acquired Concord for $80 million in 1998 and currently owns and operates more than 30 million square feet of commercial space, including the successful Christiana Fashion Center.
Namdar Realty took over Concord in 2020 as Sears was preparing to close. The company specializes in distressed retail properties and has sold moribund malls to a variety of buyers, including governments in search of office space. In December 2025, Concord was listed for sale for $30 million, but Namdar withdrew the listing, saying it had been posted in error.
Tom Dahlke, who became general manager when Namdar acquired Concord, tried an unconventional approach to mall retail, recruiting local independent merchants, including businesses displaced by the demolition of Tri-State Mall. He promoted Concord as a prospective site for a community theater. He also brought in nontraditional tenants, such as a catering and events center. Most either closed or relocated.
Dahlke is no longer with Concord. His replacement declined to provide her name or comment on future plans.
For the remaining merchants, the latest proposal intensifies the uncertainty that has been building as national retailers exit when their leases expire.
At KHEM Tech Phone Repair, Aman Kari was minding the store for his cousin, the owner. Brightly colored phone cases lined the back-lit shelves, a cheerful spot in an otherwise subdued concourse.
“We know about the demolition plan but don’t know the timeline,” Kari says.
For Wilhelm, walking the echoing corridor of Concord is a stroll down memory lane. She points to the shuttered beauty salon, where her daughter got her first job after graduating cosmetology school.
“Hallmark store, gone. Bath and Body Works, gone. Piazza, gone. They had the best pizza.”
When The Children’s Place closed in May, Wilhelm bought shoes and clothes for her granddaughter, 75% off.
“The Children’s Place is a Concord Mall original, here from Day One,” she says. “It’s sad that they’re gone.”
Other recent departures include the fashion-forward apparel seller H&M and Tex Mex Tequila, a full-service restaurant and bar. Macy’s continues to operate its anchor store but recently shuttered its two-story, 15,000-square-foot home goods store.
Outside the store is a marble arch that bears the logo of the defunct department store Strawbridge & Clothier, a former occupant of the space.
“Can you imagine taking that down? That is a lot of marble,” Wilhelm says.
The demolition application must undergo county review, including site-plan and traffic considerations and potentially public hearings. Approval is not guaranteed, and the ultimate redevelopment could change.
But the filing signals that Concord’s future is likely to look dramatically different from its past: less enclosed space, fewer stores and a much smaller retail footprint.
Dee Durham, the New Castle County Council representative for the mall’s district, is reviewing the filing and expects to have more information soon.
For Wilhelm, who has spent decades shopping the mall, the change feels personal.
“I really miss the way the mall used to be,” she says. “It was a beautiful place.”
