Advertisement

Header Utility Menu

  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Events

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

  • Login

Virginia Business

Mobile Menu

  • Issues
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Advertisement

Header Primary Menu

  • Issues
    • January 2023
    • December 2022
    • November 2022
    • October 2022
    • September 2022
    • Issues Archive
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Home News Norfolk’s MacArthur Center may meet the wrecking ball

Norfolk’s MacArthur Center may meet the wrecking ball

City considers mall’s future

Published March 5, 2021 by Rich Griset

MacArthur Center mall was built in 1999. Photo courtesy Norfolk Convention & Visitors Bureau Offices

Downtown Norfolk’s MacArthur Center, a 140-store mall that opened in 1999, may have a future date with a wrecking ball.

According to a newsletter released March 2 by Norfolk’s economic development department, a complete teardown of the 1.1 million-square-foot structure is one of three possibilities envisioned for MacArthur Center’s future by the city, which does not own the mall. This option would build a new urban district with a street pattern that reopens Bank and Court streets to connect the Scope arena and Chrysler Hall with Norfolk’s Main Street and the Waterfront area.

Another option outlined for the 23-acre property would open up the ends of the mall, lighten up the exterior and place retail on the ground floor and offices above. A third possibility would “de-mall” the center, and reopen Market Street as a landscaped, pedestrian-friendly promenade with mixed-use buildings that included residential space. It would also line City Hall Avenue with micro retail and craft manufacturing, as well as small services and businesses.

The newsletter highlights a section of the city’s previously released Downtown Plan 2030, which is meant to guide Norfolk’s long-term development into the next decade. The newsletter credits MacArthur Center as being a catalyst for downtown development, generating more than $4 billion in retail sales and $157 million in tax revenue for Norfolk since it opened, but states that the shopping center must be redeveloped to ensure its future viability.

“The nature of retail has changed globally, and a 1,100,000-square-foot indoor shopping mall is no longer viable in downtown Norfolk,” the newsletter reads. “Since MacArthur Center opened 20 years ago, the number of competing department store chains has drastically diminished. Local/regional chains have virtually disappeared, and national chains have contracted the number of stores they operate.”

The newsletter states that a phased redevelopment will take place, focusing on the anchor space that once had Nordstrom as a tenant, then working to de-mall the building’s interior and reconnect the property to its surrounding street grid.

Jared Chalk, Norfolk’s director of economic development and executive director of the Norfolk EDA, says that MacArthur Center has been a successful development, but that the mall needs to be repositioned to ensure its future viability.

“At the time it was built, it really brought new people downtown. It changed the way in which people from the suburbs envisioned downtown, and created a walkable place in our core,” says Chalk. “The idea is really how to break open the mall and integrate it into Downtown Norfolk.”

Still, according to The Virginian-Pilot, the city doesn’t own the mall, and can’t control what happens to it. Norfolk owns the land the mall sits on, part of the mall, the mall’s parking structure and the anchor space that had Nordstrom as a tenant until mid-2019. The mall structure is owned by Starwood Property Trust, which the Pilot says defaulted on an interest-only loan worth $725 million in late 2019 that used MacArthur and three other malls as collateral. $681.6 million is still owed on that loan.

Chalk says Starwood is “a good partner. They recognize the need to add additional investment into the mall.”

Calls placed to Starwood Property Trust on Friday were not immediately returned.

Referencing the city’s efforts to redevelop its Military Circle Mall property as another example, Chalk says Norfolk is dedicated to revamping its assets.

“We’re not just going to continue to let a mall decline. We’re going to be aggressive in our steps to reposition it.”

 

Subscribe to Virginia Business.

Get our daily e-newsletter.

Related Stories

Virginia Business logo

Norfolk buys former Military Circle hotel for $2.4M

EDA now has control of the entire mall property.

Norfolk buys Military Circle Shopping Mall for $11M

The city plans to redevelop the area for mixed-use development

Virginia Business logo

Alabama company buys Little Creek Marketplace in Norfolk

Shopping center tenants include Verizon Wireless, Navy Federal Credit Union and Applebee’s.

Trending

Dollar Tree CEO resigning; former Dollar General CEO to replace him

Rivers Casino Portsmouth opens to big crowds

Framatome CEO retiring; CFO to be promoted

Va. bill aims to reduce mental health stigma for health care workers

Former EAB buildings in Henrico sell for $5.35M

Sponsored Stories

In the New Year, Aim for Better Cybersecurity

4 innovative ways to create capacity

WHERE IS THE SUPPLY CHAIN WHEN YOU NEED IT?

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

5 Benefits of Treasury Management Services from Atlantic Union Bank

Blazing trails in the digital landscape

Advertisement

Advertisement

Trending

Dollar Tree CEO resigning; former Dollar General CEO to replace him

Rivers Casino Portsmouth opens to big crowds

Framatome CEO retiring; CFO to be promoted

Va. bill aims to reduce mental health stigma for health care workers

Former EAB buildings in Henrico sell for $5.35M

Sponsored Stories

In the New Year, Aim for Better Cybersecurity

4 innovative ways to create capacity

WHERE IS THE SUPPLY CHAIN WHEN YOU NEED IT?

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

5 Benefits of Treasury Management Services from Atlantic Union Bank

Blazing trails in the digital landscape

Get Virginia Business directly on your tablet or in your mailbox!

Subscribe to Virginia Business

Advertisement

Advertisement

Footer Primary Menu

  • virginiabusiness.com
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Footer Secondary Menu

  • Industries
  • Regions
  • Reports
  • Company News
  • Events

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Sign Up

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy

Footer Utility Menu

Copyright © 2023 Virginia Business. All rights reserved.

Site Maintained by TechArk