Landmark Mall redevelopment under discussion
Plans for the redevelopment of Landmark Mall, moribund for years, are back on the table. The City of Alexandria is “exploring a lot of different options” for revitalizing the shopping mall with the owner, Howard Hughes Corp., says Gwen Wright, chief of the development division in the City of Alexandria’s Department of Planning and Zoning.
Howard Hughes, based in Dallas, owns the central part of the mall, but not the Macy’s or Sears stores. The idea is to keep those two stores intact and do something creative with the center of the mall. Wright says the city has been talking with Howard Hughes about the possibility of creating a mixed-use, environmentally sustainable town center between the two department stores, like what’s been done with Pentagon Row or Bethesda Row. It’s way too early to have any kind of a concrete plan, though.
Any redevelopment at the mall would take advantage of new transit plans for the area, Wright says. Alexandria is planning a bus rapid-transit line along Beauregard Street and Van Dorn Street, possibly extending later to the Van Dorn Metro station, and possibly evolving to a streetcar line.
Alexandria had approved a redevelopment plan for Landmark Mall in 2009, but then the mall’s owner, General Growth Properties filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Howard Hughes was created in 2010 as a spinoff company.
3 responses to “Landmark Mall redevelopment under discussion”
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Obviously Around Annandale is writing from the perspective of government-employed urban planners. "Environmentally sustainable"? Really? What about "profitable". Without that, it can collect all the rain water it wants…it'll follow all its predecessors into bankruptcy.
Actually, that is demonstrably incorrect from the article as written. That sentence begins "Wright says…," a reference to Gwen Wright, an Alexandria city official interviewed for the story and first identified in the lead paragraph. As such, it appears to be an indirect quote, presented without quotation marks because the string of adjectives were used by Ms. Wright but not in that exact phrasing. That does not indicate that "Around Annandale is writing from the perspective of government-employed urban planners," it indicates that she's QUOTING a government-employed urban planner.
Fine, disagree with Alexandria's approach. But seriously, if you're going to be a pompous ass on a free blog, at least read and comment on the words as written without letting your worldview get in the way.
I remember when Landmark Mall was open air, similar to the town centers of today!