Moorestown Mall

Moorestown Mall's skate park ended a 10-year ride this week to make way for a new 12-theater cineplex that will offer more sedentary thrills. Dan McCollister, owner of the Black Diamond Skatepark, said the wooden ramps and rails were being dismantled and placed in storage Monday until a new location could be found. Plans to relocate to Plymouth Meeting Mall fell through, he said, because the mall's owners, the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, decided it would be "too expensive to do the construction" needed for the custom space.

A $20 million to $25 million plan to enlarge the Moorestown Mall by more than 10 percent by adding an upscale department store was unanimously approved last night by the Planning Board. The plan, proposed by the Rouse Co., owner of the 35-year-old mall, calls for rebuilding the Strawbridge's department store and adding South Jersey's first Lord & Taylor. Weather permitting, the work would be completed by Nov. 1, said Michael Bowden, general manager of the mall. The improvements would increase the mall's size from about 980,000 square feet to about 1,070,000 square feet.

Moorestown Mall's owners would like to topple the town's 96-year-old ban on selling alcohol, saying the sale of liquor licenses would improve business and also help taxpayers. Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust Services (PREIT), which also operates the Cherry Hill Mall and other shopping centers in South Jersey and Pennsylvania, filed a petition Friday with the Moorestown Township clerk asking for a referendum on the issue. The company worked with a grass-roots group in town to gather signatures to get the question on November's ballot.

Executives who recently won the right to sell alcohol at Moorestown Mall after a years-long battle are jubilant, and the reason has everything to do with dollars and cents in a world of mall retailing where restaurants are now key to making money. The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, a Center City-based owner of mid-Atlantic shopping malls, including Cherry Hill, Plymouth Meeting, and Willow Grove Park, lobbied heavily for last week's referendum eliminating Moorestown's century-old ban on alcohol sales.

The Moorestown Mall is poised for the Christmas season. This week, work crews are rushing to complete a $10 million renovation of the mall in time for a celebration laser show next week. Lasers will fit right in with the new decor at the mall. In an effort to appeal to upscale shoppers, the mall has completely refashioned its 1960s interior. There are porcelain tile floors, mirrored storefronts, towering palm trees, skylights and neon accents. "It's just gorgeous," boasted Joy Antonoplos, marketing director of the mall.

In a move that caught industry watchers by surprise, the Rouse Co. yesterday said it will acquire the Moorestown Mall, leaving the mall's proposed expansion uncertain. The announcement came two months after the mall's management unveiled plans to turn the shopping complex, which has struggled over the years, into an upscale retail center with the addition of Lord & Taylor and possibly Nordstrom, and the expansion of three anchor stores. In a written statement that did not disclose the sale's cost, Rouse's CEO, Anthony W. Deering, said only that his Columbia, Md., company would evaluate the feasibility of the proposed expansion of Moorestown.

The lingering, bitter smell of smoke did not repel customers from Boscov's department store in the Moorestown Mall yesterday, as they took advantage of post-Christmas prices that included 50 percent off holiday merchandise. But even as Boscov's, John Wanamaker and Sears - the mall's anchor stores - did an active business three days after a massive fire ravaged the mall, proprietors of smaller stores were left literally standing in the cold - and they were not happy about it. "It's definitely discrimination against the smaller stores," said Joel Batchelor, 26, manager of Nature Food Centers near Wanamaker's.

For 36 years, since the day it opened as a cutting-edge concept in retailing, the Cherry Hill Mall has had the reputation of being South Jersey's premier shopping center. Now, an unlikely contender, the smaller Moorestown Mall, less than three miles away, appears poised to wrestle that title away. Moorestown Mall representatives have set the local mall industry abuzz with their announcement last week of a plan to reshape the 969,000-square-foot facility into an upscale center with the addition of Lord & Taylor and Nordstrom as its fourth and fifth anchors.

They seem like competitors, but the mall and the shopping center intend to be friends. When East Gate Square, a vast shopping center that in retailing jargon is called a power strip, formally opened last week behind the Moorestown Mall, officials from all sides hastened to predict that everybody would profit. "I definitely think it will be an asset to our shopping environment," said Jill Harper, director of marketing for the mall. The complex, which covers more than 520,000 square feet, is on Nixon Drive.

A $200 million splurge on Cherry Hill Mall during the depths of the last recession, when cash was poured into a full-blown renovation while many Americans were clinging to every last dime, appears to be paying off four years later, according to financial disclosures Tuesday by its owner, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. Sales per square foot at the mall reached an all-time high of $623 during the quarter that ended March 31, executives of Center City-based PREIT told investors, and a plan to refinance the property this summer could generate yet another payday for the crown retail jewel of Ronald Rubin's real estate empire by helping to pay down $2.3 billion in debt.

A $200 million splurge on Cherry Hill Mall during the depths of the last recession, when cash was poured into a full-blown renovation while many Americans were clinging to every last dime, appears to be paying off four years later, according to financial disclosures Tuesday by its owner, Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. Sales per square foot at the mall reached an all-time high of $623 during the quarter that ended March 31, executives of Center City-based PREIT told investors, and a plan to refinance the property this summer could generate yet another payday for the crown retail jewel of Ronald Rubin's real estate empire by helping to pay down $2.3 billion in debt.

Moorestown Mall's skate park ended a 10-year ride this week to make way for a new 12-theater cineplex that will offer more sedentary thrills. Dan McCollister, owner of the Black Diamond Skatepark, said the wooden ramps and rails were being dismantled and placed in storage Monday until a new location could be found. Plans to relocate to Plymouth Meeting Mall fell through, he said, because the mall's owners, the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, decided it would be "too expensive to do the construction" needed for the custom space.

The owners of an Italian eatery near Moorestown Mall are boiling mad over their inability to bid on a liquor license for immediate use in the formerly dry township. Ending a nearly century-old tradition, the Moorestown Township Council expects to auction its first licenses next month, after voters approved the sale of alcohol in the mall's restaurants. The owners of Al Dente, in a shopping center next door, could purchase a license for possible future use, but that would require a loosening of sales restrictions.

  The regulars at Black Diamond Skatepark in Moorestown, who ride their skateboards, BMX bikes, and scooters on the facility's maze of ramps and quarter-pipes, are bummed. Their popular Moorestown Mall hangout will be closed next month to make way for a 12-screen cineplex featuring RealD 3D projection, surround sound, and stadium seating. Some diehards have hinted on the skatepark's Facebook page that they may protest or "occupy" the theater when it opens next year.

Declining holiday sales at Sears and Kmart stores are prompting owner Sears Holdings Corp. to close 100 to 120 stores, the Illinois-based company announced Tuesday. The corporation did not say which locations would be eliminated or when, and a local owner of several area malls said no word had come down about what properties would be excised. The company is projecting the move will generate $140 million to $170 million in cash as a result of selling off inventory at the targeted locations, according to a filing with regulators.

The owner of Moorestown Mall announced Thursday it will build a 12-screen Regal movie theater slated to open in summer 2013 as part of a mall revitalization project. The 56,000-square-foot Regal Moorestown Mall Stadium 12 & Regal Premium Experience will be twice the size of the United Artists theater it will replace, said Philadelphia-based Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. The custom-built theater with digital projectors, surround sound, 2D and RealD 3D, and stadium seating will be the first of its kind in the region, according to Regal Entertainment Group.

Executives who recently won the right to sell alcohol at Moorestown Mall after a years-long battle are jubilant, and the reason has everything to do with dollars and cents in a world of mall retailing where restaurants are now key to making money. The Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, a Center City-based owner of mid-Atlantic shopping malls, including Cherry Hill, Plymouth Meeting, and Willow Grove Park, lobbied heavily for last week's referendum eliminating Moorestown's century-old ban on alcohol sales.

Tuesday night, after it became clear that Moorestown voters had overturned their town's 100-year-old ban on alcohol sales, key backers of the change toasted their hard-fought victory - out of town. "We went to a fine-dining establishment outside of our town and we all laughed about next year, when we will be able to go to a fine-dining establishment inside our town," said Seth Broder, a former councilman who led a taxpayer group's effort to go wet. Joining the celebration were officials of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which owns Moorestown Mall.