BIDDEFORD GATEWAY CENTER

• Address: Route 111

• City: Biddeford ME

• Opening date: 2001

This shopping center opened in 2001. It’s a large property that really has only three buildings: two large stores and a restaurant. It started with Home Depot. Then rumors were that Linens’n Things and Old Navy could come to the Gateway. The pylon sign had five blank spaces to fill shortly after the opening of Home Depot. 

Eventually, instead of a building meant to hold multiple mid-size stores, an 88,000 sq.ft. Kohl’s department store was built in 2004. It was the first Kohl’s to open in Maine but a Kohl’s also opened in Westbrook on the same day. Applebee's opened shortly after Kohl's. As you can see in the picture below, there are still two remaining blank spaces on the pylon sign of the Biddeford Gateway Center. 

In a surprising turn of events in 2014, the Kohl's building had to be demolished because of land settling problems that started around 2006-2007. The completely new store was built smaller at 66,000 sq.ft.