Military Circle Mall - Mall executives said last month, they expected half of the stores to move out by the end of December. As for the tenants who are still inside the mall, they have until February 15 to move out.
Back in November, Norfolk City Manager Chip Filer said city leaders are in initial discussions with Pharrell Williams and his group on their proposal to redevelop Military Circle Mall. But there's been no official announcement on the confirmed future of the site, just yet
Military Circle Mall
"It's really detailed economics and I'm not an economist but different trends, different layouts of styles of shopping, the way people are shopping... the Internet started to grow in the 2000s, so online shopping," Byrd said.
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the sea "The EDA board unanimously decided to move forward with the demolition of the current mall to prepare the site for future redevelopment. The site will be converted to passive open space while ongoing discussions occur regarding the future of the Military Circle corridor," stated Jared Chalk, Director of Economic Development."
Three different proposals, from musician Pharrell Williams, NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith and local developer Bruce Thompson, were submitted to the city in hopes of winning the redevelopment bid. Two, from Williams and Smith, have proposed arenas.
Jemele Hills, a manager at a cigar shop near the mall, says he's not looking forward to the economic impact of the mall closing and how it will impact his business and other small businesses nearby.
Current tenants will now have until the end of 2022 to relocate. Jared Chalk, the director of the Norfolk Department of Economic Development, says meetings will be held in the coming weeks to answer concerns, and the goal is to relocate them all to other areas of the city.
"Sometimes when those things leave or when those things pivot and change, it changes how the community interacts with the mall. So it did have its ebbs and flows over the years and in its heyday, it was bustling like other malls were.
And then we did, unfortunately, see a decline in the mall," Byrd said. "I feel sad. I'm from New York and moved here 20 years ago. Since then, I've been coming to this mall. This is the main mall I come to, I shop and bring my kids here," Antoine Williams
, a shopper said. The mall, which opened back in 1970, has just one anchor store left, and Ross Dress For Less whose lease hasn't expired yet. The Ross however is expected to remain, along with the Sentara Healthcare/Optima Health location in the former JCPenney.
That space was bought from the development authority in 2020. dr. Chip Filer, Norfolk's City Manager confirmed in a statement to News 3 in November that the city and Wellness Circle LLC, a group linked to Pharrell, are negotiating deal terms of redeveloping the site of Military Circle Mall.
"It may affect the business because we need a lot of people to come. When a lot of people come to shop at the mall, we have customers come into our shop so it will probably affect the store," Hills said.
"There are people who have been there a long time there are people who were raised in this community and remember when the mall opened so it does have that historic nostalgia that we'd definitely like to honor," Byrd said.
"I knew it was a long time coming. I grew up with this mall... this and McArthur [Center] so I mean... it held on until I guess it couldn't hold on any longer," mall shopper Bria Long said. "We used to come to the
theater here all the time so, you know, good memories.”
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