Springfield Mall to Close All but Anchor Stores
Major renovations scheduled to begin in July will leave only the anchor stores intact.
Springfield Mall will close all stores except the anchor department stores come July, according to tenants at the mall.
Macy's, Target and JCPenney will remain open as New York-based Vornado Realty Trust begins a two-year renovation of the property.
Shopper Mary Yastishock said she remembered Princess Diana’s 1985 visit to Springfield Mall. “It’s changed so much since then,” she said. "For two decades, coming here has been like watching a neighborhood die.”
Her college-aged daughter Alex agreed. “I remember coming as a child to visit Santa and ride the carousel, then as a teen to the movie theaters,” she said. “This used to be a really happening place.”
“Now we come to see which stores have closed,” said Mary. “It seems forever they’ve been saying it will be renovated. It should have happened by now. At this point, I’ll be surprised when it does.”
A sign in the window at W. J. Colt & Co. Outfitters says the store is moving to 2832 Door Avenue in Fairfax. “We’ve been told the mall is closing in July, so we’re moving to our other location in June,” said a store manager who asked not to be named. “I don’t know if we’ll come back when the mall reopens,” she said.
Virage Salon owner Fadi Akl said he was surprised to hear the mall was closing in July. “Originally we were told they were going to close just half at a time,” he said. “If they do close the entire mall this summer, I’ll move to my other location in Fairfax,” he said.
Springfield Mall to Become 'Town Center'
The renovation of Springfield Mall is Phase I of a four-part plan to transform the 80-acre site into Springfield Town Center, according to Fairfax County's Office of Revitalization and Reinvestment. The Board of Supervisors approved rezoning of the property in July 2009, to permit redevelopment of the mall into a mixed-use retail, office and residential town center.
Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay confirmed he’s heard from several tenants of Vornado’s plans. “It’s very positive news that the mall is finally moving forward. We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” he said.
Phase II will consist of new buildings on the mall's perimeter, with ground-floor retail and upper-floor office space.
Phase III will feature a stand-alone high-quality and high-density hotel and office space.
Phase IV will complete the town center, with apartments and condominiums.
The time frame for completion of Springfield Town Center is estimated at 10 years, and it may not be completed in the order the phases are numbered. "It's a very complicated project, and it's all highly dependent on what's going on with the local economy," said McKay.
Ciera Pryor was a first time visitor to the mall this week. “I was shocked when I walked in here,” she said. “My first thought was they need to close this place, there’s nothing here. But now it makes sense that it’s going to be renovated,” she said.
RJ
8:47 am on Thursday, March 8, 2012
About time!
Carrie
9:32 am on Thursday, March 8, 2012
While I agree - it's about time - I also wonder whether it will over-populate the area and make the mixing bowl even more overwhelmed with traffic. Redevelopment is good but adding more condo's and apartments isn't always a good thing for the real estate and small business markets.
Tony Tribby
2:05 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
Or, perhaps adding more condos and apartments could mean more people living near the future Town Center, so that the shops there can be more supported by walk-in business instead of cars? It's all in the details, but it could go either way.
Jackie
10:07 am on Thursday, March 8, 2012
I also agree that its about time - I wonder if this is really the best plan for the future. Just like the new government building on 395, I'm not sure the area can handle the traffic.
Karen Deck
11:51 am on Thursday, March 8, 2012
Is the DMV in the mall closing too?
K Lee
1:02 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
The DMV in the Mall has been closed for a long time. There used to be a Springfield Interchange store next door to the DMV, that closed a while back too. Interesting place, had updates on highway projects, free maps, t-shirts, free trinket giveaways (like calendars, rulers, etc), and all kinds of free travel brochures and booklets on local and out-of-state places. I read in the Post that it cost $66 mil to keep this store open. Maybe that's why it closed up too.
Terry
1:18 am on Thursday, April 5, 2012
There is a DMV in Gunston Plaza now.
BDogg
12:10 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
Kind of like remodeling the dining room of the Titanic.
Sally Spangler
12:33 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
I investigated Sringfield Mall when it first open - and that was when my daughter was an infant. She will be 50 this summer. That was the best mall. The first reiteration was so-so and got worse. This new iteration? Not sure. The original trouble with the mall was that the floors seem to bounce a bit. I think they took out part of the center of the floor in certain places so that you could see down to the first floor. Then the merchants were not as good as the first set. Crime started to happen. I do so hope they will do more than make an oversized 10 cent store. An upbeat hotel? Why ? Too many expensive places with shoddy inards for much money. Living and office space? At what cost to the occupiers? Is Vornado looking to make a killing on their costs to the people or an honest profit? What is honesty these days?
Sally Spangler
12:36 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
NUTS Vornado gets rich and the users/occupiers get robbed.
RJ
5:12 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012
Sort answer: Yes Vornado is interested in making money. The occupiers knew for years that this was going to happen. If they can not adapt, then they deserve to go out of business. Capitalism is a contact sport.
Allison Pike
1:05 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
I stopped shopping there years ago. Fair Oaks is so convienent to the Fairfax County Parkway and has ten times the parking and stores.
Mike Stanton
1:28 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
Where will the Barber Shop outside JC Penny's on the 2nd floor move to? For the last couple of years that was my main reason to go into the main part of the mall.
Rita Zimmerman
2:49 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
I was there with my sons this past Saturday and they have a sign posted about the shop closing in June and that they will be relocating to an as yet unidentified location. They have a tablet for customers to leave their contact information to receive updates.
Lee
1:55 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
I liked the mall because it was indoors, now all the shopping pleases are outdoors with the exception of Land mark mall, but that is dying too.
Tyler Fink
3:01 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
The whole reason behind outdoor malls is that the stores don't have to pay extra money to the mall for temperature control and maintenace involved. It is however a missed luxury of malls.
Yelena
10:29 am on Friday, March 9, 2012
When I was younger Landmark Mall was an outdoor mall. It was first experience with that.
RJ
5:14 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012
Indoor malls are dead, People (those with money) prefer the town center concepts. I read somewhere that an indoor mall hasn't been built in the US in the last 5 years.
Mark S. Galligan
2:29 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
We moved to Kings Park in 1966 when Braddock Road was a two lane pot holed road and Kings Park West was being built. 68 dad went to Vietnam and we moved when he came back. I ended up graduating H.S. at Ft Hood Tx. went to college and then moved to Ft. Lauderdale for 25 yrs. My sister and brother-in-law moved up her when he was a LTC.nephew graduated Lake Braddock. We moved back 8yrs ago and now my daughter is a senior and son a freshman at L.B. About 4 years ago we went to the Sprinfield Mall to see a movie at night and I told my family that was the last time we were going there. Such a creepy skuzy element was "ganging" out there we decided to go to Tysons or FairOaks from now on. I am glad they are going to clean up that eyesore. I still have some good memories of A&W and Orange Julius though.
Justin Smith
7:09 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
I hope the new one has a Ferrels and that it sells dots of candy on rolls of paper and great vanilla cokes! I further hope it will have a show where I can buy heavy metal t-shirts AND ninja weapons at the same time (any former 80s metal kid within 50 miles knows "Hong Kong")! And I would definitely like a massive arcade with an entrance near a baseball card shop and the other near a place to buy Orange smoothies 20 years before anyone knew what a smoothie was! What an era!
But the place has been like a zombie movie for 10 years so I'm really glad something is happening again. Maybe I won't be afraid to take my kids. That would be a nice feature. lol
The actual description of the new place sounds a lot like Fairfax Corner which is a very nice place to shop, see a movie, or eat....probably to work or live too but I don't have anyone I know in there so I couldn't say for sure.
Yelena
10:33 am on Friday, March 9, 2012
Don't forget about the place that made "mixed ice cream" YEARS before Cold Stone Creamery got the idea. That used to be our post-finals/last day or school treat. Oh! It also needs a Hot Shoppe and a Garfinckel's!
flownder
7:38 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
Hong kong! The memories.
Evelyn
11:20 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
This is dumb. There are already about 7 hotels within walking distance of the mall. There are condos surrounding the mall! And there is already an outdoor shopping center also around it. The mall was good how it was. They should have just renovated it to look nicer and got more security. Now they are just going to waste more money.
Sally Spangler
10:17 am on Friday, March 9, 2012
Evelyn - I fully agree with you - Vornado's only thought is how much money they will make from this over-done piece of junk they will put up. It may be facinating at first but after that, be a nothing and a blight on the land and sky line.
RJ
5:17 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012
You are crazy. With BRAC and the Metro, this is prime location for Hotels. Most of the new hotels in the area are at capacity! Plus with the potential of the FBI being located across the pkwy, This area is going to explode with development. The DC area is suffering from a huge lack of Hotel space.
Free2beme
11:23 pm on Thursday, March 8, 2012
I was in that mall just two weeks ago wondering when construction or demolition was going to start. I will be the first to admit, I have a soft spot for Springfield mall. Hope it doesn't turn into a Bowie or Reston town center.
Yelena
10:39 am on Friday, March 9, 2012
Continuing on the memories of youth, I still consider the back part with the Macy's as "the new part". I have a fondness in my heart for the Springfield Mall of years past but I can see how it has changed for the worse. I haven't been there in years, mostly because I live in DC now. I only hope that whatever is built there makes me proud to say that I once spent countless hours there in my youth (and worked there one summer in college).
Rick sanabria
12:37 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012
Wow, I have been out of the area for over 20 yrs. I remember shopping at Britches great outdoors and getting ice cream at Ferral's !! Good times.
Lillian Hatch
1:06 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012
Whoever said that there child who was an infant when the place opened is an imbecile. The mall opened in early 70s with Penneys and I remember that and am in my mid 40s. They must be thinking of Tyson's. But question really is does there need to be a mall there? No. A town center? No. There is about to be one in Merrifield and Kingstown is not far away. It is a total waste.
sewfab
12:05 pm on Saturday, March 10, 2012
I agree. It was the early 70's because my boyfriend and I use to park (neck) there before there was a mall there. Lol!
Shelagh Talbot-Sinclair
7:19 pm on Friday, March 9, 2012
I have lived in the area close to Springfield Mall for 23 years and used to go there to shop. Back then the big crime was auto theft from the parking lot. A few years later the regular mall type store closed, the mall got "ganged up" and the violence started. Dollar stores and other tacky stores moved in. Then the murders and carjackings began. Don't seen gangs any more because most of the stores closed and there just isn't enough "cover" anymore from shoppers. As an area resident I'm thrilled that the area is finally getting a makeover.
DMH
3:28 pm on Thursday, May 31, 2012
DaVincci's Restaurant opened in Springfield Mall sometime in the early 90s. I don't think it was ever opened one day. What was that all about?