Macy’s, Saks Fifth Avenue close at Triangle Town Center, mall future uncertain

Macy’s pulled out of Triangle Town Center and shut its doors Sunday, while Saks Fifth Avenue also closed, leaving one of Raleigh’s best-known malls with two large empty anchor spaces and no clear answer yet on what comes next. Merchandise at Macy’s was marked down as much as 80% as the store wound down operations, a visible sign of how fast the retail shift has moved inside the 70-acre property off Capital Boulevard and Interstate 540.

The losses matter because anchor stores help drive the rest of a mall. When they leave, smaller tenants can lose foot traffic, and the pressure rises on ownership to find a new use for big, hard-to-fill spaces. Triangle Town Center opened Aug. 14, 2002, and was originally anchored by Hudson Belk, Sears, Dillard’s and Hecht’s. Saks arrived in 2004 as North Carolina’s first Saks, making the latest closures especially symbolic for a center that has already cycled through seven owners.

Summit Properties said vacant anchors can be repurposed for uses that fit current demand better than another department store, including entertainment, paddle sports or smaller users. That suggests the long-term direction for Triangle Town Center may be shifting away from the old enclosed-mall model and toward something more mixed and activity-driven, if a redevelopment plan takes shape.

The closures also landed after a shooting at the mall on April 17 that Raleigh police said involved three 17-year-olds and a 20-year-old mall employee near the food court. The Wake County Bureau of Forensic Services finished processing the scene, detectives released it, and the case is headed to the Wake County district attorney’s office and juvenile court counselor for possible charges. For some shoppers, that incident made the mall feel less like a routine stop and more like a place to avoid.

The broader retail backdrop is just as unsettled. Macy’s is closing 14 stores in 2026 as part of its “Bold New Chapter” turnaround strategy, and Saks Global filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in January 2026. At the same time, Visit Raleigh says Wake County drew 19 million visitors in 2024 and recorded $3.4 billion in spending, underscoring why shopping centers still matter in the region’s visitor economy. Visit Raleigh also said many consumers now prefer mixed-use destinations such as Fenton and North Hills, leaving Triangle Town Center to compete in a market that increasingly rewards places where people shop, eat and linger all in one trip.