Neshaminy Mall Closes Oct. 31 as Owners Plan Open-Air Main Street
BENSALEM — The main interior of Neshaminy Mall will close Oct. 31, ending 58 years as Bucks County’s first major shopping center and starting the clock on one of the region’s largest mall-to-mixed-use conversions.
Paramount Realty and Edgewood Properties, which bought the 1.1-million-square-foot property in the summer of 2024 for a reported $27.5 million, plan to demolish most of the enclosed mall and replace it with an open-air main street of outward-facing stores and restaurants plus a four-story residential tower, according to marketing materials reported by Bisnow.
Bensalem Mayor Joseph DiGirolamo confirmed the timeline and called the closure bittersweet. “It’s very bittersweet,” DiGirolamo told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “But, the mall has been going downhill for the last few years.” He said demolition could begin by December.
Not everything is coming down. Boscov’s, which has anchored the mall since 1995, the AMC-24 theater, Barnes & Noble and the Jean Madeline Aveda Institute will all stay open, operating independently of the enclosed corridors around them. Boscov’s assured customers on Facebook that its Neshaminy store is here to stay.
The mayor has pushed for housing on the roughly 100-acre site near Route 1 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike, arguing apartments or townhomes should be part of whatever replaces the mall. Fewer than two dozen tenants remained in the complex when the closure was announced.
One caution for anyone following the renderings online. Paramount’s chief executive told local media that a concept plan circulating on social media is outdated and that very little of it is still accurate, with an updated plan expected soon. No formal redevelopment plan had been filed with Bensalem Township as of this week, and the Bucks County Redevelopment Authority is expected to assist with demolition.
The mall opened in August 1968 with Strawbridge & Clothier and Sears as its original anchors. Macy’s left in 2017 and Sears in 2018, part of the nationwide department-store retreat that has pushed dozens of enclosed malls toward mixed-use reinvention.