Despite the fact that the Echelon mall is roughly half empty and suffered another blow in the food court losing the Philly cheesteak place recently there is still hope.
One of Tucker's Worlds inside sources seem to think big changes are on the way. Although ground will not be broken for the new Wal-Mart till after the new year, and the store isn't slated to open till 2006 it will have an impact on the mall. Some stores will be hurt some won't be hurt.
Anyway the feeling is that PERIT is going to try to turn things around. Despite the fact that the Wal-Mart will not be actually connected to the actual mall it is undeniable that their will be an increase in traffic at Echelon. The mall just has to capitalize on it.
My source said that according to PERIT that almost every empty space in the Echelon Mall is spoken for to be filled in this rebuidling process. Although, its unclear when that will actually start. Even the old double level Sears building will be split into two different stores.
It is also unclear to what kind of stores are coming into the mall, and if they will be higher end stores or not. Nothing is likely to change till after the holiday season.
I was there recently when they had a Halloween event and the mall was mobbed. Perhaps PERIT this off. There is still not date for the destuction of J C Pennys yet. If these rumors are true the dark days of Echeleon could be coming to an end soon. 2005, will certainly be a make or break year for the aging mall.
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9 comments:
I would rather see my childhood mall burn to ash than be infested with a WalMart.
Did you hear they want to put 3 Wal-marts in Deptford. Yes...3..three...3! I read an article and was like...that has to be wrong....but saw it on the news twice since then. Maybe they are figuring they can't build them all but one of the spots has to get approved. The town of Deptford is trying to block a Wal mart from going up across from the mall in Deptford.
Voorhees is getting one..Glendora is getting one. Looks like Wal-Mart has its intentions to litter the South Jersey landscape hard core. I cant imagine how many are in the works that I dont even know about.
As I said before, Wal-Mart will end up being nothing more than a Band-Aid, staving off demolotion for another year or two, but little more. If there were even one major road cruising right past the mall there might be hope, but all the surrounding roads are shit, and you need to take other shitty roads just to get to those! It's only a matter of time—measured in single-digit years—until it goes bye-bye. I hope I'm wrong for nostalgia's sake.
As for Wal-Mart's infestation, it's pretty awful. I live in Collingswood and am getting bookended by them. One is being built in Cherry Hill by Toys-R-Us and another is going up in Audubon. It's the ugly face of American mega-commerce carpet-bombing south Jersey.
Thats two that I didn't even know about. Its going to be insane. I guess it was only a matter of time, and now we can really understand what people were bitching about. The story is just in the early stages right now. I think most people are totally unaware of the pending WALMART BLITZ.
I don't by that weak roads to the mall. I really don't. If people can get to the Cinemark and the Ritz movie theater in droves then they can get to the mall. People can get right off the train and go there.
We shall see, but what effect will Wal-mart have one Boscovs, Suncoast, and Strawbridges?
I wonder where else Wal-marts are going to appear...Vineland? Cape May? ...I wish I could find a list, because I imagine its going to be an insane amount of locations. Right now there is only two that I know of that are open. The one by Liza will become a Super Wal-Mart soon. How on Earth they could possibly carry even more stuff..baffles me.
If people can get to the Cinemark and the Ritz movie theater in droves then they can get to the mall.What's missing from your argument is the fact that the theaters you mention are far superior to the AMC and most other theaters in the area. The Echelon Mall is superior to no mall anywhere, quite frankly. I happily drive right past the Loew's in Cherry Hill to get to the Cinemark and the Ritz because they're much better theaters. There's no such incentive to drive past the Cherry Hill or Moorestown malls just to go to Echelon. None. Even the nostalgic value is fading as it continues to lose any resemblance to the mall of my youth.
Another strike against Echelon is that it's the only mall in the area without a robust retail perimeter. Moorestown has Eastgate Plaza on one side and K-Mart on the other. Cherry Hill has the Plaza and Loew's. Deptford has, well, the rest of Deptford. Echelon has a school, library, senior citizen homes, a YMCA and doctor's offices. Not much of a draw. Not even Wal-Mart is enough to secure the mall's future, since they're springing up all around the area. If that were the only one in a five mile radius, maybe. But as we all know, it's only one of far too many that are popping up.
PERIT certainly has its hands full with this mall. I do hope that they make a go of it and that is succeeds beyond my dire expectations. I just have a hard time seeing it happen. They'd need to make it spectacularly unique in order to overcome the road problem. You're right; people do go out of their way to get to those theaters, but only because those theaters are great. Until the Echelon Mall becomes truly great again, people like me will continue to drive past it on the way to other average malls.
Well my point is people say why bother trying to make it great again, or it will never be great again, because great or not people will drive around in circles in Voorhees without a clue how to get there.
If people go to the Ritz know the just have to make ONE TURN to get there and hear about it, and know there is stuff to do and places to shop there they will go there.
OH, THEY WILL COME RAY! Ray, people will come Ray. They'll come to the mall for reasons they can't even fathom. They'll turn into the parking lot not knowing for sure why they're doing it. They'll arrive at the doors as innocent as children, longing for the past.
OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH People will come Ray.
If they build it. They will come.
Well my point is people say why bother trying to make it great again, or it will never be great again, because great or not people will drive around in circles in Voorhees without a clue how to get there.I trust you realize that that was not my point. It's not that it's hard to get to, so much as it's not worth getting to. A mall is a mall is a mall. All across the country malls are basically the same. PERIT would need to do something extraordinary to make it worth getting to again—and Wal-Mart is far from extraordinary.
People will come Ray. If they build it. They will come.LOL! My point exactly! What's funny, though, is that even if they do build it into something great, it still won't be the same mall as that of our respective youths. But as long as it doesn't continue its decay, I guess that's a good thing.
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