Blue Hen Mall

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Blue Hen Mall, now called Blue Hen Corporate Center, sits on Bay Road in Dover, Delaware. It opened on August 15, 1968 and was built by the Jardel Company. Named after Delaware’s state bird, it was the area’s first enclosed mall and remained Dover’s only enclosed mall until the Dover Mall opened in 1982. The center covered about 479,533 square feet and had space for roughly 50 shops, with major anchors like JCPenney, Woolco, and Woolworth, plus a movie theater. A distinctive features included a four-sided blue hen clock in the center court and a mezzanine with offices above part of the first floor.

When the Dover Mall opened, Blue Hen Mall’s fortunes declined. Woolco closed in 1983 and became Roses. JCPenney moved to the new Dover Mall in 1993, and Woolworth closed in 1993–94. The on-site theater closed around 1985 and later became the Blue Hen Mall Concert Hall for a few years.

In 1995 the property was renamed Blue Hen Corporate Center and Mall. The large anchors were converted to offices and call centers: the JCPenney space became Aetna offices for about 300 workers, and the Roses space housed a NationsBank call center. The remaining retail space dwindled as the focus shifted from shopping to offices and medical use.

In 2006 Pettinaro Enterprises bought the property for $17.4 million and began renovations. The interior was later closed to the public during the 2020 pandemic, but the building’s structure remained. Bayhealth Medical Center moved in and, after a 2013 renovation, took over the former JCPenney/Aetna space for administrative and medical services.

Bayhealth bought the former JCPenney and Woolco/Roses spaces in 2022. The Woolco/Roses area was rebuilt and opened in 2024 for outpatient services. The final phase, Bayhealth at Blue Hen, opened in October 2024, providing pulmonology, endocrinology, occupational health, walk-in care, labs, physical and speech therapy, and more. The U.S. Veterans Affairs runs an outpatient clinic there, and Fresenius Kidney Care operates a dialysis center. Other tenants include the central Delaware offices of the U.S. Social Security Administration, the Delaware Department of Labor, and the WIC program. Parking remains available, with pad sites occupied by Firestone, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, and Wayback Burgers.