Cary Towne Center

Cary Towne Center was an indoor shopping mall in Cary, North Carolina. It was anchored by Belk, Dillard's, Macy's, JCPenney, and Sears. It opened as Cary Village Mall in 1979, and was expanded and renamed in 1991. It closed in 2021, and was demolished in 2022.

Originally planned in 1972, the mall was first proposed as the adjacent Cary Village Mall and Cary Village Square projects, part of a $25 million Village Center by local developers Seby Jones (who built Crabtree Mall and J.W. York (who built Cameron Village). Village Center was to be a 78-acre (320,000 m²), 75 store project including 3 office buildings as well as a (never built) motel. Cary Village Center fills the intersection between Maynard Road (a loop around central Cary), Walnut Street, and Cary Towne Boulevard (originally Western Boulevard Extension), the latter two of which continue to nearby freeways. The enclosed mall was built on the eastern part of the site, with office buildings at the center and two open-air retail pavilions on the north, separated by Cary Towne Boulevard.

The request to rezone the area to allow construction of the mall drew much controversy from nearby residents calling themselves "Citizens for the Better Direction of Cary" who worried about increased traffic as well as the property's proximity to Cary High School, Henry Adams School, and East Cary School. The group hired an attorney and pressured the town council to closely monitor the development causing York to complain that everything had to be approved "10 times".

Cary Village Mall opened on February 21, 1979, with 325,000 square feet (30,200 m²) of retail space anchored by Ivey's (purchased by Dillard's in 1990) and Hudson Belk (now Belk) as well as outbuildings occupied by Big Star Markets (later Harris Teeter). The mall's design was a modified pinwheel with four wings, three either parallel to or facing the three streets around it, and a fourth facing to the rear of the mall where additional land remained for future expansion. At the center of the pinwheel was a sunken, triangular food court. A large Southern Red Oak tree on the expansion land became an unofficial mascot of the mall, and was retained on a raised terrace at the considerable expense even after the mall parking area grew around it. The tree died a few years later and its terrace was removed and the location added to the parking lot.

In 1988, the mall applied for a zoning change for a major expansion, perhaps spurred by proposals for a "mega-mall" at Crossroads Plaza emerged only a mile away. In 1991, the mall completed its expansion to 1.1 million square feet and was renamed Cary Towne Center by then-owners Richard E. Jacobs Group.

The new mall included a food court adjacent to the oak tree, a Center Court with palm trees, and three new anchors: Thalhimers, JCPenney, and Sears. In 1992, Dillard's opened a new, larger store adjacent to its original building, which became inline shops. That same year, Thalhimer's became Hecht's in 1992, which became Macy's in 2006.

In 1995, Barnes & Noble officially opened across the street from Cary Towne Center.

In 2001, the mall was sold to CBL & Associates Properties as part of a portfolio of 21 properties in nine states.