The Laurel Centre Mall was developed by Shopco Inc. and included two anchor stores, Montgomery Ward and JCPenney, with a third anchor, Hecht's, added in 1981. The Montgomery Ward store opened for business on April 16, 1969 as a stand-alone business. Montgomery Ward's entered a long-term lease for a $1.60/sf, which was to be offset by higher rates charged to satellite shops drawing on the anchor. It would be ten years until the JCPenney store opened in 1979, with the Laurel Centre expansion, creating a traditional enclosed mall. The Hecht Company moved its store from its previous location in the Laurel Shopping Center. In 1991, the mall received a $2 million face lift and update. Though it was small in comparison with most malls today, Laurel Mall had two levels and, when it opened, had modern innovations such as a slowly rotating two-story island in the middle of a fountain known as the "Carousel" with room for seven kiosks on the bottom and a stage on top. Time Out Tunnel arcade had a location near the main entrance on the second level. Other features at the mall were a glass-sided walkway over a roadway and parking lot and an enclosed bridge between JCPenney and Woolworth's at the Laurel Shopping Center. The food court "Inner Circle", later changed to "Circle Eatery", was located at the mall's south end. Here the mall split into a one level mezzanine section to accommodate Montgomery Ward, which had no second floor. Connecting it all were Maryland's shortest escalators at the time, one rising to a height of only 13 steps. A double-door elevator transported customers between the three levels and to a management office in the basement.