SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — Malls everywhere are going through hard times, and the coronavirus pandemic has only accelerated the shift to online shopping.
To combat the trend and revitalize the purpose of a shopping center, the Town Council of Moorestown has approved changes that members hope will breathe new life into one of its own.
The council voted to greenlight a mixed-use space at the Moorestown Mall. Mayor Nicole Gillespie said the plan is to take advantage of the mall’s prime location.
“Cooper Health will be coming to that property and they’ll be taking over the building that was formerly occupied by Sears,” she said. “There’s also plans to build a hotel on that property. So we’re transitioning from the sort of old-school mall that was purely retail and dining to a much more mixed-use space that I really think can be a vibrant new center of our town.”
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There will also be 375 residences on-site, with 75 of them reserved for affordable housing.
“That should be attractive to a wide range of families, individual professionals, couples,” she added. The affordable housing “will be mixed in with market-rate housing, so they won’t be set aside. There will be no way to know who is in this designated affordable housing and who is not.”
Gillespie said the mall’s owner, Preit — which owns other malls in Cherry Hill, Willow Grove and Plymouth Meeting, as well as the Fashion District in Philadelphia — believes this can be a national model.
“This feels like the exact right thing to do,” she said.
The next step is getting the site plan approved, and Gillespie hopes construction can begin as soon as early 2022.