Western Development Corporation The company started in 1967 as the
Western Development Corporation, founded by Herbert S. Miller and Richard L. Kramer. In the late '60s to the early '70s, Western developed the
Mazza Gallerie in a
joint venture with Mrs. Olga Mazza, the real estate subsidiary of
ExxonMobil, and
anchor store brand
Neiman Marcus. They also developed
strip malls and
office buildings in collaboration with the
Bloomfield Hills, Michigan-based
Taubman Company. In 1975, Western partnered with the Donohoe Construction Company for the development of what would be planned as a
mixed-use shopping park in
Downtown Washington, D.C.. They developed
Georgetown Park, which opened on September 27, 1981 and combined
retail with
residential and
office elements. Western's first mall to use the Landmark Mills template was
Potomac Mills in the
Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, which opened its first phase on September 19, 1985. Rather than relying on
department stores, the Mills concept would combine
off-price stores with
factory outlets. Later, in 1986, Western acquired a former
Treasury department store in
Rolling Meadows, Illinois, which permanently closed in 1981. The company redeveloped the vacant space into Algonquin Mills. In November 1996, under new CEO Lawrence C. Siegel, The Mills developed
Ontario Mills near
Los Angeles, which was the company's first mall designed abstractly and with a full oval "racetrack"-like design which followed into the rest of the company's built malls, including
Grapevine Mills in the
Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, which opened to the public on October 30, 1997, right when Halloween was about to start. In collaboration with
Taubman Centers,
Arizona Mills in
suburban Phoenix opened in November of that year. Originally planned as City Mills, the company debuted
The Block at Orange in late November 1998, as their first outdoor mall to not use the "Mills" name. Sawgrass Mills was expanded with the addition of The Oasis at Sawgrass Mills, which opened on April 15, 1999, featuring restaurants and
entertainment. In September 1999, The Mills Corporation opened its first mall to use sponsorships, being
NASCAR for
Concord Mills in
North Carolina, designed by the
St. Louis-based Kiku Obata & Company. This was followed by
Katy Mills in October of that year in
suburban Houston, making it their first time to develop another Mills mall in the same state (
Texas), as the previous one, Grapevine Mills, was also in Texas. The Mills Corporation used sponsors again with the development of
Arundel Mills in
Hanover, Maryland, a suburb of
Baltimore. Arundel Mills was designed to serve shoppers from both Baltimore and D.C., and became a tourist attraction, including the
Muvico Arundel Mills
Egyptian 24 megaplex theater (now
Cinemark Egyptian 24). The sponsors for Arundel Mills were
The Coca-Cola Company,
Toyota,
The Baltimore Sun,
Comcast, and
Discover Card. Additional sponsors included
Bank of America and the
University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center. Designed by the Baltimore-based
RTKL Associates and D'Agostino Izzo Quirk of
Somerville, Massachusetts, the architects and Mills took inspiration from
The Rouse Company for the development of Arundel Mills. The company wanted to try developing
power centers and strip malls adjacent to their main outlet malls to better serve the community, including people who are shopping for daily goods that do not need to go to the main mall. As a result, they opened
Concord Mills Marketplace in October 2001. Mills sold
naming rights to its planned Sugarloaf Mills Mall in
Metro Atlanta to
Discover Card; the mall opened in November 2001 as
Discover Mills. This was the first instance of a mall selling its own naming rights. In September 2002, The Mills acquired six regular retail malls including the failing
Forest Fair Mall (which it renamed Cincinnati Mills), and a nine mall portfolio, including former
Taubman Centers, like
Columbus City Center in order to redevelop and expanded to be more affordable centers. The company also expanded to Europe with the May 2003 opening of
Madrid Xanadú in Spain. The company opened
Arundel Mills Marketplace in 2003, which is across the street from Arundel Mills, and partnered with
PBS for the development of the
PBS Kids Backyard and its larger version, the
PBS Kids Neighborhood. The first mall to use this learn-and-play area was
St. Louis Mills, which opened on November 13, 2003. In addition to PBS, Discover Card and Coca-Cola, The Mills Corporation also formed partnerships with
Crayola,
ESPN, and
Gibson Guitar, as well as partnering with other mall developers, such as Stevinson Associates for
Colorado Mills, which opened one year prior to St. Louis Mills. The success of Madrid Xanadú prompted The Mills to embark on the $1 billion+
Meadowlands Xanadu megamall and entertainment complex, which began construction in September 2004, which was first planned as Meadowlands Mills (which was forced to be canceled in 2002 due to environmental concerns), but the project has caused numerous delays and cost the company financially. This resulted in the facility remaining unfinished for several years. In February 2004, The Mills Corporation relocated its headquarters from
Arlington, Virginia to
Chevy Chase, Maryland.
Cincinnati Mills had its grand reopening in August 2004. The mall was renovated and featured an updated paint job. It was the first Landmark Mills mall to have its neighborhoods named after letters instead of numbers, and the second to have two stories, the first being Algonquin Mills. In September 2004,
Gallery Place had its grand opening, developed by the main company, Western Development Corporation in collaboration with Akridge. It was a
mixed-use development in D.C. In November 2004,
Vaughan Mills was the first Landmark Mills mall developed in Canada, and continued its international success with the acquisition of the
St. Enoch Centre in Scotland and was offered to build a center in
Barcelona and Rome, Italy (which was eventually never developed). The Mills Corporation and
Ivanhoé Cambridge planned to develop several other Landmark Mills malls in Canada, being in
Montreal,
Calgary, and
Vancouver.
Galleria at Pittsburgh Mills had its grand opening in July 2005, developed in a
joint venture with
Zamias Services, Inc., the latter of which originally planned the project in 1981 as Frazer Heights Galleria. It was the first Landmark Mills mall to feature traditional anchors rather than outlet versions, including
Kaufmann's (later
Macy's),
JCPenney, and a
Sears Grand store. Starting in May 2006, the company was investigated by the
Securities & Exchange Commission for its financial problems. As a result, Mills sold all of its Canadian and international properties – including the rights to use the "Mills" name – to Ivanhoé Cambridge for $981 million ($1.1 billion in CAD) on August 15, 2006. This included the plans to develop the Landmark Mills malls in other parts of Canada, leading to the August 2009 opening of
CrossIron Mills in Calgary, the October 2016 opening of
Tsawwassen Mills in
Delta, British Columbia, and the proposed
Laval Mills in
Laval, Quebec (which was canceled in May 2011 for unknown reasons). The Colonnade Outlets opened at Sawgrass Mills in March 2006. Meadowlands Xanadu remained stalled for over a decade after Mills sold it to
Colony Capital Acquisitions LLC. The mall eventually opened in 2020 as
American Dream by
Triple Five Group, which is planning to develop
another mall in Miami of the same name, which has also been stalled and has yet to break ground as of April 2026. ==Acquisition by Simon Property Group==