Landmark Cherry Hill Mall office building will be torn down and replaced with ‘experiential’ retail
A nine-story office building is coming down adjacent to the Cherry Hill Mall, and a two-story sports store with a turf field is proposed to take its place.
An office building that promised “every conceivable ultra-modern convenience” when it debuted behind the Cherry Hill Mall in 1968 is being torn down to make way for a sports-themed “experiential” retail complex.
An application before the township zoning board proposes replacing the nine-story One Cherry Hill building with a two-story, 120,000-square-foot sporting goods store. The store would also have a 10,300-square-foot outdoor “synthetic turf athletic field” connecting it with the mall.
“It’s a very exciting and creative use of the property ... and this proposed project will continue to make the mall a destination for our region,” Mayor David Fleisher said in a statement.
PREIT, the Philadelphia company that owns the mall, declined to comment. The Dick’s Sporting Goods chain, identified by the 42 Freeway website as the prospective tenant of the property, did not respond to requests for comment.
The website reported that a Dick’s House of Sport, including retail space and active indoor and outdoor recreational facilities, would be built on the site.
The application is scheduled for review by the Cherry Hill zoning board on Dec. 5. The proposed new use for the site is permitted, but redrawing of lot lines will require approval.
Reanimating spaces
Eric Flocco, executive vice president of Wolf Commercial Real Estate in Mount Laurel, was not familiar with the Cherry Hill proposal, but he described “experiential” retail as a viable format for repurposing vacant big box stores, as well as for new facilities to draw more potential shoppers to malls and other retail locations.
Stores that attract customers by offering active recreational opportunities are something “the Amazons of the world are unable to compete with,” Flocco said.
A few miles east on Route 38 from Cherry Hill Mall, an entertainment center called Parky’s, featuring a go-kart racing track and axe-throwing, has been proposed for a former Moorestown Mall department store.
And last February, Puttshack, a miniature golf course with cocktails, opened in a former clothing store on the 1600 block of Chestnut Street in Center City.
A pioneer of the retail revolution
The Cherry Hill Mall opened in 1961, immediately eclipsing Camden as South Jersey’s downtown and drawing customers from Philadelphia as well. It has been substantially renovated and expanded twice. It has weathered the consolidations and closings in the department store industry as well as dramatic changes in shopping culture.
While some other Philly regional malls have withered or closed — and as PREIT has emerged from bankruptcy with new owners — the Cherry Hill Mall remains the company’s showcase property, with three department stores and 1.3 million square feet of space.