Berkshire Mall (Pennsylvania)

Berkshire Mall

North entrance to Berkshire Mall
Location	Wyomissing, Pennsylvania
Address	1665 State Hill Road, Wyomissing, PA 19610
Opening date	February 10, 1970
Developer	Goodman Company
Management	Allied Properties
Owner	Allied Properties
No. of anchor tenants	3
Total retail floor area	910,000 square feet (85,000 m2)
Parking	Parking lot
Public transit access	BARTA bus: 15, 16
Website	http://www.berkshiremall.com

The Berkshire Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in Wyomissing, Pennsylvania, a suburb to the west of Reading in Berks County. The Berkshire Mall is accessible from US 222/US 422 (Warren Street Bypass) at the Paper Mill Road interchange or the State Hill Road interchange. The main entrances to the mall are located along Woodland Road or State Hill Road. The mall first opened in February 1970.

Planning for the mall began in the late 1960s. Sears was announced to be the first major planned tenant in November 1967, to replace its nearby Shillington location which had opened in 1956. Construction got underway in 1968, with an "official" kickoff in November of that year. The mall opened in February 1970, and was the first enclosed shopping mall to open in eastern Pennsylvania outside of the Philadelphia area.

The mall's name is taken from the source of the name of Berks County, an abbreviation of the English royal county Berkshire. The old fountain in the center of the mall had been choreographed by local Reading company "Symphonic Fountains". An upper level food court, The Terrace Cafe, held its grand opening December 7-10, 1989. It replaced a Victorian themed mini-mall known simply as "Lamp Post Lane".

The original owner and developer of the mall was the Goodman Company, which sold the property to Equitable Real Estate Management in 1985. In July 2002, the mall was acquired by Allied Properties.

On the night of November 2, 2009, a fire broke out in a display window of the Victoria's Secret store. Before firefighters could arrive, the sprinkler system activated in the store and the adjacent hallway. The store suffered smoke and water damage; everyone was evacuated safely without any reported injuries. On April 14, 2010, there was a fire inside of Boscov's. A worker was flown to Lehigh Valley Hospital for severe burns to the face. Firefighters had controlled the fire in 30 minutes.