Management for the downtown Silver Spring mall hopes to add offices above its retail space. Members of the urban advisory committee ask, “If you build it, will they come?”
The plan, presented to the committee Thursday afternoon, called for 160,000 square feet of office space to be built above the five-level mall (above). A vacant cinema on the mall’s top floor also would be converted to office space, said reps for the Georgelas Group, which manages the mall property.
Employees would enter the building on Colesville Road, and the building’s floors would taper before reaching the 160-foot maximum allowable height, the reps described.
“Ideally, we’d like to have a large tenant” to occupy the office space, Ted Georgelas, of the Georgelas Group, told the committee. The company has not yet discussed tenancy with anyone, he added.
Bob Middleton, an area resident and member of the committee, worried that the mall’s current roster of retailers might not attract office tenants. Most of the mall’s current tenants do not have a lease, explained Gary Stith, of the Silver Spring Regional Center.
However, Georgelas said foot traffic from office workers could act as a catalyst to attracting different retailers. “Our hope is that if they can overcome initial objections to the retail, we can then improve the shops in the mall,” he said.
The mall took a lot of heat from the Urban Land Institute, which studied downtown Silver Spring’s retail strategy in September. In a report, the nonprofit land-use organization called City Place functionally obsolete, with poor internal circulation and few windows along its historic facade.
“It is a barrier to revitalization,” said Laura Cole, on behalf of the institute. “It doesn’t represent Silver Spring and its buying potential.”
Georgelas admitted that urban malls have lost their popularity, but committed his company to protecting its $12 million investment.
“We want to continue to look at some of these things to improve our return on investment better than what we get now,” he told the committee.
Illustration courtesy of Morris and Ritchie Associates.
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Sell the damn thing to Westfield… I hate their logo, but at least they’re able to bring decent stores to crappy malls.
City Place is a big white elephant in the middle of downtown Silver Spring. I think the building should be converted to office space. The whole point of a new revitalized downtown core is to make shopping an “outdoor” experience. The day of massive-closed malls with a high number of tenants is over. ALL retail and restaurant units must have a street-side presence.
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. (Feb 22, 2007)
IHateYuppies wrote:
“The day of massive-closed malls with a high number of tenants is over.”
The mall’s property-management company and the Urban Land Institute have your back on this one.
“Urban vertical malls aren’t as popular as they once were,” Ted Georgelas, of the Georgelas Group, told the urban advisory committee last Thursday.
And despite the building’s historic facade, ULI’s Laura Cole said too much preservation can stunt development.
“There may be times when you have to let something go,” Cole said of City Place.
IHateYuppies says:
“City Place is a big white elephant in the middle of downtown Silver Spring. I think the building should be converted to office space. The whole point of a new revitalized downtown core is to make shopping an ‘outdoor’ experience. The day of massive-closed malls with a high number of tenants is over. ALL retail and restaurant units must have a street-side presence.”
If building/expanding indoor malls are the thing of the past, then why is there support for the massive Tyson’s Corner expansion and the completion (2000) of the Dulles Town Center indoor mall?
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. (Feb 24, 2007)
Editor says:
“The mall’s property-management company and the Urban Land Institute have your back on this one. / ‘Urban vertical malls aren’t as popular as they once were,’ Ted Georgelas, of the Georgelas Group, told the urban advisory committee last Thursday. / And despite the building’s historic facade, ULI’s Laura Cole said too much preservation can stunt development. / ‘There may be times when you have to let something go,’ Cole said of City Place.”
Removing the indoor mall makes no sense at all. With our bitter cold winters, there aren’t a lot of people wanting to shop outdoors when they can shop at a warm, upscale indoor mall such as Pentagon City Mall, Boston Commons, and Tysons Corner.
Editor’s note: This comment has been edited for content. (Feb 24, 2007)
I think they need better tenants and am surprised that with everything that has been done for Silver Spring and the fact that city place is adjacent to the town center, etc, etc, etc., I would have thought that City Place would have naturally atracted better tenants by now, just by default! It’s a shame. They were the first one’s to try to do something in Silver Spring and there they sit, with the perfect location, in the middle of the revitalization, that hasn’t helped them. I don’t think putting an big ugly and costly tower/top on it is going to help. I find nothing wrong with the layout or looks of the Building – it’s the Tenants! The tenants are the reason no one wants to go inside.
I think City Place’s day is coming. People are back in downtown Silver Spring, but all the space in the core area is occupied by restaurants. Get the right mix and City Place could be like White Flint or a lower cost Mazza Galleria. Punching some more windows in the facade wouldn’t be a bad idea though.
I honestly believe that City Place just needs a complete overhaul. It is even laid out odd. to get up a level you need to either take the elevator or walk across the whole mall to get from one escalator to another. This whole mall is just bad design.
I currently go to school in Tempe, AZ where im studying Urban Planning and Community Redevelopment. I’m moving back as soon as im done with my degree. The Revitilization of Downtown Silver Spring helped me choose this major because it has an influence on the entire community.
I really dont think that office space will do them any good especially if the stores within the mall don’t bring in any business. Your most expensive store in that mall is a Burlington Coat Factory. The mall looks old when it is really only 15 years old. The interior and exterior of City Place is horrendous. They say that this is a 15 million dollar investment…well in this case they should throw more money at it. They should redesign the mall and since many people dont want Silver Spring to be an area of chain stores. They should add boutiques in their mall such as the ones in Pentagon City, or M St. in Georgetown. A few boutiques are popping up around the area such as Pieces and American Apparel.
The main reason I go to downtown when I go home on breaks is to eat. Downtown Silver Spring has some of the best restaurants so maybe they should open up the top level and add restaurants with views of Silver Spring and also of DC. More entertainment could also be added such as putting bars in the mall or a bowling alley since the one that was previously in downtown is now a LA Fitness.
Since people in the area want more green space they could change the layout creating an outdoor feeling in an indoor mall. The big holes in each level could be covered and have the stores where the holes once were. While doing this opening up the walls and changing them to glass so you can have a feeling as if your outdoors when your really inside.
Just a couple thoughts from a college student.
Thanks for your comments, Niko.
You wrote:
The exterior of the building (specifically, the Hechts facade on Ellsworth and Fenton) has “historic preservation” status. That is, you can’t alter its appearance in any major way.
Any thoughts on how to work around this?
City Place is unworkable as a mall and unable to attract appropriate tenants. The Silver Spring Library continues to face an uncertain future. How about selling the land for the currently planned library and using the proceeds to purchase all or a very large portion of Mall for the library? This solution would add architectural interest and provide for a large facility that is easily accesible to the public.
[...] meeting. During the 9:00 a.m. session, it reviews plans for a proposed office tower above the City Place mall, and examines tweaks to the National Park Seminary condo [...]