Conversion of malls to mixed-use centers gathers speed

New Urban News Article with images, 3/1/2008

Pennsylvania REIT is creating a town center at a New Jersey mall and forming a similar strategy in Orlando, Florida.

Last year General Growth Properties announced that it will gradually redevelop many of its shopping malls into mixed-use centers. Now the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust (PREIT), which operates 38 malls in the eastern half of the US, is embarking on much the same strategy, starting with its floundering 1,127,000 sq. ft. Echelon Mall in Voorhees Township, New Jersey.

More than 40 percent of Echelon, which opened in 1970, has been demolished in recent months and is being replaced by housing, stores, offices, and amenities — a mix of uses called Voorhees Town Center. The new Town Center will stand alongside the remaining 657,000 sq. ft. portion of Echelon, which has been renovated and will continue to operate as a conventional enclosed mall.

The overhaul of Echelon, in a Philadelphia suburb of 28,000, is the first of several transformations that PREIT is considering carrying out at its malls, which are scattered across a dozen states. The Philadelphia-based 48-year-old REIT, which used to have properties mainly in the Mid-Atlantic region, has expanded greatly in the past five years, acquiring many malls that need a makeover.