King Of Prussia Mall

Sixteen years after it was first eyed as a prime spot for Wegmans to plant stakes in the Philadelphia area, a onetime golf course near King of Prussia mall opened to the public this week as home to the latest regional megastore in the chain, whose customers share a cultlike devotion. The parking lot at the Village at Valley Forge was jam-packed Monday, much as it had been when the store first opened Sunday, as hordes of the curious and the ravenous motored up to the 123,000-square-foot supermarket, visible from Route 422 and a stone's throw from the East Coast's largest shopping mall.

Flooding from torrential downpours forced closures today at one of the East Coast's biggest shopping zones, King of Prussia Mall, as retailers scrambled to vacuum water off carpets and fix damaged computers. Only one department store - Lord & Taylor - at the massive complex shut down after overnight flooding reached sections of the Lower Level of The Plaza, one of the large compounds of stores at the popular mall. The food court, which took on the most water after the swelling of nearby Abrams Run stream, was expected to be closed all day, while other retailers managed to open as cleanup advanced through the afternoon, said mall marketing manager Kathy Smith.

Upper Merion police and Montgomery County bomb squad officials ordered a brief evacuation of the Court at King of Prussia on Wednesday as they investigated a suspicious device found in a flower pot. Chief Ron Fonock said a hollowed-out hand grenade similar those used in military training was recovered from a flower pot on the first level about 1:30 p.m. Fonock said the device contained no explosive material. The center was reopened to customers at 3:10 p.m. - Bonnie L. Cook  

As construction workers try to fill two large sinkholes that have developed along North Gulph Road, officials said they are concerned about still more underground cavities that could threaten a bridge near the busy King of Prussia mall. The northbound lanes of North Gulph Road have been closed since Saturday as workers try to fill the holes and shore up the road. The road will reopen by tomorrow, said Gene Blaum, a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. Construction workers are drilling 35 holes and then filling them with concrete and grout to stabilize the road, which is built over layers of limestone that easily dissolves in water, creating cavities, said Charles Metzger, another PennDot spokesman.

The torrential rains that flooded the King of Prussia Mall nearly two months ago dampened holiday spirits yesterday, but only among a specific subgroup of Black Friday shoppers - premium-ice-cream consumers. It's true. The Häagen-Dazs store has yet to reopen. But that was the exception. Nearly all of the 100 stores affected by the rain, including dozens of locations to treat your sweet tooth, were open and prepared for yesterday's onslaught of bleary-eyed bargain hunters. "It's so over," Kathy Smith, the mall's marketing manager, said of the Sept.

For months, the local real estate industry has been waiting for the wave of Japanese investment - which has swept much of the country in recent years - to reach Philadelphia. But for one reason or another, the area was overlooked. Until now. Nippon Life Insurance Co, the largest insurance company in Japan, has bought into one of the region's most visible - and visited - properties, The Court and The Plaza at King of Prussia. Nippon issued a statement saying that it had "refinanced" the mall, owned by its developer, Kravco Co. Neither company would release terms of the deal, although a spokesman for Nippon said Kravco will remain the technical owner.

Violence erupted at a King of Prussia construction site Wednesday, and today, police are seeking the public's help to apprehend some bat-wielding assailants. Upper Merion Township police gave this account: Officers responded at 7:10 a.m. Wednesday to the King of Prussia Plaza area of Mall Boulevard for reports that union protestors were blocking the entranceway to the new Toys R Us building site. While en route, an assault was reported in the mall parking lot. Upon arrival, police found two construction trucks with their rear windows completely shattered, and one victim bleeding from the head.

Morris A. Kravitz, 88, a pioneer in shopping center construction who developed the King of Prussia mall and was deeply involved in city philanthropies, died Sunday at Lankenau Hospital. During a career spanning more than 65 years, Mr. Kravitz had been involved in building and operating offices in Center City, apartments on the Main Line and family homes on Long Island. But it was in shopping center development that he made his mark. At a time when the suburbs were burgeoning with housing development, Mr. Kravitz saw a need to bring the stores to where people were moving.

While the Plaza at King of Prussia undergoes $125 million in renovations that will add 135 new stores, several old tenants are being squeezed out. Some businesses have found other locations, but a few were forced to close their doors, including the Sidewalk Deli, Michelfelder's deli and the Sticky Bun bakery. The owners of the Sidewalk Deli and Michelfelder's were unavailable for comment on the changes at the Plaza. But Arthur Warr, owner of the Sticky Bun, said that his rent was to have been doubled and that he was going to have to pay an up-front fee. He did specify those costs.

John R. Ahle wanted to rise more quickly in retailing, and, after changing companies, he made it to one of the top jobs in his field at age 33. Ahle was named recently as general manager of the Court at King of Prussia, the million-square-foot mall on Route 202. Ahle had worked for the Kmart Corp. as an assistant manager in six stores in five years in Pennsylvania and New Jersey before making his change. "I decided to branch out and become more involved in real estate," he said.

Sixteen years after it was first eyed as a prime spot for Wegmans to plant stakes in the Philadelphia area, a onetime golf course near King of Prussia mall opened to the public this week as home to the latest regional megastore in the chain, whose customers share a cultlike devotion. The parking lot at the Village at Valley Forge was jam-packed Monday, much as it had been when the store first opened Sunday, as hordes of the curious and the ravenous motored up to the 123,000-square-foot supermarket, visible from Route 422 and a stone's throw from the East Coast's largest shopping mall.

Upper Merion police and Montgomery County bomb squad officials ordered a brief evacuation of the Court at King of Prussia on Wednesday as they investigated a suspicious device found in a flower pot. Chief Ron Fonock said a hollowed-out hand grenade similar those used in military training was recovered from a flower pot on the first level about 1:30 p.m. Fonock said the device contained no explosive material. The center was reopened to customers at 3:10 p.m. - Bonnie L. Cook  

A section of the King of Prussia Mall was evacuated this afternoon as police investigated an apparent hand grenade found in a flower pot. A hollowed-out grenade similar to those used in military training was recovered from the first level of the Court at King of Prussia, said Upper Merion Chief Ron Fonock. A mall security officer found the device, Fonock said, which spurred an evacuation of shoppers and store personnel from about a quarter of the Court of King of Prussia which faces Route 202. The device contained no explosive material and was not live, or dangerous, Fonock said.

Just months after acquiring majority ownership of the King of Prussia mall, real estate behemoth Simon Property Group Inc. is set to announce plans Tuesday for a new wing of stores and restaurants that would turn the East Coast's largest shopping mall into an even more formidable retailing powerhouse. Particulars of the plan, obtained exclusively by The Inquirer, center on the construction of a 140,000- square-foot indoor corridor to connect the Court with the Plaza at the 2.6-million-square-foot mall.

Montgomery County and state highway officials on Friday opened a new off-ramp from the westbound Schuylkill Expressway to South Gulph and South Henderson roads in Upper Merion Township, completing a new interchange designed to reduce local traffic congestion. A new on-ramp to the westbound Schuylkill (I-76) at that location pened in May. The new interchange, Exit 329, will give motorists an additional way to reach - or avoid - the busy King of Prussia Mall area. The new signs for the exit read "King of Prussia" and "Norristown.

The idea of "charging it" at the King of Prussia mall - one of the largest and swankest shopping meccas in the nation - is about to take on a whole new meaning. On Friday, the mall is unveiling two electric vehicle charging stations. While customers are shopping inside, their electric car batteries can get topped off outside. Painted an attention-getting green, the stations are on the upper parking deck outside Nordstrom's. For now, customers may charge for free. But at some point, the San Diego company that manages the devices, 350Green, will start charging for the charge.

This palm-sized peeler has three rotating blades, so with a flick of your wrist, you can julienne carrots or create fancy zucchini ribbons that would make a culinary school instructor proud.   - Ashley Primis Joseph Joseph Rotary Peeler, $12 at Sur La Table, the Promenade, 500 Route 73 S., Marlton, 856-797-0098, and King of Prussia Mall, 484-612-0040, josephjoseph.com.

The torrential rains that flooded the King of Prussia Mall nearly two months ago dampened holiday spirits yesterday, but only among a specific subgroup of Black Friday shoppers - premium-ice-cream consumers. It's true. The Häagen-Dazs store has yet to reopen. But that was the exception. Nearly all of the 100 stores affected by the rain, including dozens of locations to treat your sweet tooth, were open and prepared for yesterday's onslaught of bleary-eyed bargain hunters. "It's so over," Kathy Smith, the mall's marketing manager, said of the Sept.

In the hands of shopper Danielle Verdes, the iPhone was an intelligence-gathering tool, part of the strategy for a four-person special-ops mission at King of Prussia mall. Verdes and cousin Megan Charitonchick exchanged text-message reconnaissance that gave their small band of Black Friday guerrillas - out in force, along with millions of Americans - a tactical advantage over others amid the long lines and chaos. As the last transmission came across, Verdes and her mother, Joyce McQuaid, rushed to the 40-deep cashier line at Banana Republic, handed a credit card and their 40 percent-off clothes to Charitonchick - "our little gopher" - and waited for her to complete the maneuver.

If this is a rally in jest, why are so many people so serious about it? Comedy Central comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are staging their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the National Mall in Washington beginning at noon Saturday. It started seemingly in fun, as a satirical poke at Fox News pundit Glenn Beck, whose Restoring Honor rally near the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28 drew from 87,000 to 1,600,000 people, depending on how wacked-out your estimate was. But many locals who plan to go to Washington Saturday - in carpools, chartered buses, packed trains - aren't laughing.