One of the first mall-to-town-center conversions turns 10
Ten years ago this month, a significant event occurred in the history of retail real estate.
A sputtering regional mall in Fairfax County, Va., currently the fifth richest county in the nation according to U.S. News & World Report, was reborn as a “town center” with outside entry to stores and an array of high-quality food and beverage brands.
Springfield Mall, one of the largest in Virginia, was chock-full of visitors in the 1980s, among them Prince Charles and Lady Diana on one historic shopping trip. But its brilliant history began to wane in the ensuing decades after a series of violent episodes played out on its turf.
Vornado Realty bought the property in 2006 and initiated a wholesale renovation to revive it. In 2015, PREIT acquired and it and made further changes. Thus was born Springfield Town Center.
“The project was torn right down with the exception of the anchors and some of the shell remaining,” said PREIT’s VP of leasing Sean Linehan. “We re-made the whole front of the mall into a food and beverage center, all with patios. The idea at the time was to make the upgraded restaurant row another anchor at the mall.”
It worked. Today, Springfield Town Center, which sits near the intersection of I-95, I-395, and I-495, draws visitors from as far away as Baltimore. Linehan reports that the center has experienced steady year-over-year traffic growth, raising dwell time on the property to an average of 83 minutes. People arrive from up to three hours away, said Linehan, to visit its Lego Discovery Center.
A decade after its creation, Springfield Town Center continues to make improvements. PREIT has initiated the first phase of a renovation that will add green space and pedestrian walkways connecting connect to multifamily housing being added to the property.
“PREIT was really on the forefront of modern mall renovation. Cherry Hill Mall outside of Philadelphia already had the upgraded food-and-beverage row going before we did it at Springfield,“ Linehan said. “Back when the mall arrived, everybody thought that the mall would ruin the downtown. Now what we’re doing with malls is recreating downtowns.”
