No pain, big gain
By TERRI AKMAN
Cherry Hill Sun
10/4/2007

Renovations to Cherry Hill Mall bringing new stores, including the largest Hollister store in the nation

There is a saying, “No pain, no gain,” but it seems that shoppers at the Cherry Mill Mall don’t seem to mind the pain of the renovations currently taking place there. Despite major construction in and around the mall, consumers continue to shop. Soon, visitors will enjoy the renovated space that will contain first-class stores and restaurants, including Nordstrom, Hollister Co., Crate and Barrel, The Container Store, Armani Exchange and Maggiano’s Little Italy Restaurant.

“The Crate and Barrel and The Container Store both will open the first week in November,” said Bob Wahlquist, senior regional manager for Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust. “It’s Crate and Barrel’s first store in South Jersey and Container Store’s first store in Metro Philadelphia. Both of them are major additions to the shopping center.”

The Cherry Hill Mall was one of the first enclosed malls in the country, opened in 1961. While it has been remodeled in the past, it is due a facelift, officials said. Currently, the old Strawbridge’s building is being demolished. The largest Hollister Co. store in the country will open a week or two before Thanksgiving, along with Armani Exchange. Nordstrom is slated to open in April 2009. The interior of the mall will be completely remodeled, beginning this January and ending by the 2008 holiday season. New lighting, floors and architectural treatments will completely transform the current look.“By April 2009, we will have a shopping center with three very dynamic anchor stores, Nordstrom, Penney’s and Macy’s, and they’ll be complemented by more than 200 small stores and restaurants.

“We’re attempting to give South Jersey the kind of retail that they’ve been asking for all along,” Wahlquist said.

Jeff Lucas, chairman of the Cherry Hill Business Partnership, is looking forward to seeing new stores coming into the area that haven’t been here previously.

“At first, we looked at the Cherry Hill Mall and Garden State Race Track as competing with each other, but now we’re seeing that they complement each other,” he said. “There will be people coming here from a greater distance to come these unique stores.”

Cherry Hill Mayor Bernie Platt recalls when the Cherry Hill Mall was a destination for bus trips from surrounding towns and believes it can draw people from other areas once again. He foresees the mall competing directly with King of Prussia.

“PREIT is looking at another large department store, which could be Saks, Bloomingdales or Neiman-Marcus to possibly complement Nordstrom’s,” Platt said. “That speaks loads for the kind of a community we are and will continue to be in the future. It reinvigorates Cherry Hill, that we will be, again, a destination place for shopping. Once the mall is developed and with the Race Track property, you’re going to see more than a billion dollars a year in retail sales.”