The small town of Skowhegan Maine mostly had small stores located downtown until Kennebec Village Shopping Center opened in 1978. The strip plaza was then anchored by Kmart. The store was later joined by Cottle's Shop'n save supermarket in 1979. There were also two or three smaller tenants in the plaza.
The plaza was thriving for many years because not only it had a large discount store, it also had the largest grocery store in town. Across the street was a gas station, Burger King, Dunkin' Donuts and a small hardware store so the area was the busiest retail district. Also across the street but slightly further south was the other shopping plaza in town the Skowhegan Village at first anchores by W.T.Grant, then JCPenney and eventually Ames.
Kmart in Skowhegan
Not much changed at the plaza until 1995 when a lawn sign was installed on the property with the new mid-1990's Kmart logo and with a phrase: «Coming Soon». That Kmart store was a small Kmart format and was neglected over the years. It sat under the radar and never was renovated. It still had the old turquoise logo outside, a vintage color scheme inside and old brown counters, round chrome racks and other tired fixtures.
Inside the former Kmart
The store never was renovated and it closed in 1996 along with 14 other stores in the U.S.. Ames closed in Skowhegan nearly at the same time. Shortly after the closing of Kmart, Shop'n save moved away to a newly-built plaza anchored by Walmart further south on Madison Avenue near McDonald's.
Eventually, Sherwin-Willliams left the Kennebec Village which became almost entirely vacant. The former Kmart store remained vacant for ten years. In December 2005, the property was sold to a Massachusetts developer who proposed to divide the former supermarket into several small stores. A glimpse of hope finally came when Dollar Tree announced it would open there.
Dollar Tree opened in part the former Shop'n save space. In 2007, Tractor Supply opened a store in roughly half of the vacant Kmart. Olympia Sports opened a store in 2007 as well. In 2009, a clothing store called Label Shopper opened leaving only two vacant spots in the plaza. Truly, an unbelievable rebirth for this shopping center!
The former Kmart store reopened as a Tractor Supply
