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Granite Run Mall awaits wrecking ball Monday, March 9, 2015
By Bette Alburger
Correspondent
MIDDLETOWN >> When Granite Run Mall opened in 1974 on the site of a former stone quarry on West Baltimore Pike, it was considered to be the shining star in the retail firmament of fast-growing western Delaware County.
But the golden days of Granite Run are long gone. In fact, the badly neglected, financially distressed mall has increasingly been unable to attract shoppers and tenants. Now a mere shadow of its former self, with only about 30 occupied stores out of 125 retail spaces — and the remaining stores to close as leases expire — the mall is awaiting the wrecking ball.
“We’re hoping to start the demolition prior to the end of the year,” said Michael P. Markman, president of BET Investments. The Horsham-based real estate development firm purchased the 58-acre property in September 2013 for $24 million.
Together with business partner Bruce Toll, Markman plans to transform the mall into a walkable, upscale town center designed around an outdoor courtyard. He said the project probably would take two years from start to finish, and would take place in stages. The initial phase would be gutting the mall’s interior.
Only two of the mall’s two anchor stores would remain: 174,717-square-foot Boscov’s (which replaced Gimbels and Sterns in the mid 1980s) and 175,320-square-foot Sears. The 150,792-square-foot J.C. Penney store originally was to remain as part of the redevelopment proposal. However, according to Sarah Holland, J.C. Penney manager of media relations and corporate affairs, the store will close on or around April 4.
The demolished J.C. Penney building will make way for a multiscreen movie complex and additional retail space. Boscov’s and Sears will be incorporated into the redevelopment plan that calls for a mix of retail, residential, restaurant and entertainment uses.
Key components of the plan are two four-story luxury apartment buildings. At the same time as the mall tear-down, construction would begin on the first 175-unit apartment building targeted for the site of the former Chi-Chi’s restaurant fronting Route 352. Construction of the second apartment building on the Oriole Avenue side of the mall property, where an AMC movie theater currently sits, would not get underway until the first apartment building is leased at a threshold satisfactory to Middletown council.
In presentations to council, Markman has emphasized that the residential use will drive the retail/restaurant/entertainment use.
“We are hoping to be back in front of the township by May,” he said.
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