Plymouth Meeting Mall

So here I am at the Plymouth Meeting Mall in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania. And yes, that is a giant Lego giraffe. There's a reason that's here, and you'll see why shortly. I t It's a very nice-looking mall. But unfortunately, it doesn't really have a whole lot to offer nowadays, other than aesthetics. T And that's because in 2017, it was downsized to make way for Legoland, as you can see, on that sign to the left. And that's why that giraffe statue is out there. There's only two places in here. Although to be fair, there are a few other places to eat in the mall, and outside the mall on the out parcels. The Plymouth Meeting Mall opened its doors in 1966, making it the t Foscoves here is the mall's only traditional anchor store left. It opened in 1996. Originally, it was the Lit Brothers, w Then it became Hesse's from 1979 to 1993. Lit Brothers held their grand opening on October 10, 1966, with an Olympics theme. CEO J. P. Hansen lit a torch to mark the official opening of the store. Ironically, just a few years later, this part of the mall would be cons About a t However, the Lit Brothers was not damaged, and luckily, no one was killed. Here's what I call one of the old-fas And unfortunately, it's closing. It's one of the few FYEs I'm aware of in this area that is still Most of them are the little hot topic type stores. I From what I read, it was added sometime in either 1983 or 84. It was originally closer to the Hesse'slash Boscoves, but it was moved to its current location in 1996. One t In 2016, it had an occupancy rate of 91%, not including the anchors. By 2019, that n And today, it's pretty clearly lower than that. I don't have an exact figure, unfortunately. If I had to guess, I would say it's at least 35% to 40% vacant, if not more. Here's one of those bungee j There's one of those at the Franklin Mills Mall, but I've never seen it open. There were quite a few stores here that still had their signs up but weren't open when I was here, so I'm not sure w T Very strange. Getting back to the mall's The mall suffered another setback in the late 70s after Lit Brothers closed. The building sat vacant for over two years, and as a result, there was a sharp decline in business in that wing of the mall. The mall underwent its first renovation between 1983 and 1984. 16 new stores opened up, and Also, in 1985, the first Ikea in the United States opened up on t It was here until 2003 when it moved to Concha Hawken, not too far from here. I was very disappointed to see that the fountain was turned off. T Last time I was here, it was drained altogether, though. At least the Dave & Busters here was originally Woolworths from the mall's opening until 1997. And up here were Dix's, that was originally Strawbridge & Clot Then Macy's closed in 2017, and after that the building was subdivided into a n Two of them are accessible from the inside of the mall. Dix on the first floor, and Burlington on the second floor. And then there's also an Edge Fitness, Michaels, and Miller's Ale House. All of those are only accessible from the outside of the mall. And all of these places opened in the fall of 2019. Now luckily the Strawbridge & Clot They used to have t Once, I'm glad that there used to be one on the first floor too, but sadly that one's gone. Coming up there's a very long string of vacancies on the right here. Being in late 1996, the mall underwent a $50 million renovation, w The mall was officially rededicated on December 10, 1998. On December 18, 1998, a new General Cinema movie theater opened up out in the parking lot. That is still here today, but it's now AMC, w Then in 1999, the food court, w Those trees are a really nice touch, I then you got some other plants around the mall too, w In 2007, the old Ikea was demolished to make way for a new outdoor lifestyle center. The lifestyle center opened on May 1, 2009. Its first stores were Lofts, Coldwater Creek, C Bank. Then Whole Foods Market opened on January 12, 2010, with a 350-space parking garage under it. I guess the lifestyle center was meant to revitalize the mall and bring in more shoppers. The only store in there that I was ever in was the Whole Foods, and that was recently busy when I was there. One And here you got a pretzel place and a dairy queen. So as you can see, there are more eateries in the mall other than just the little food court on the first floor. And from what I understand, there actually used to be a staircase that led up to t Here is still in business. So the right here used to bertuc Most of those, at least in t It'still pretty intact in there. It's almost I guess they probably did. It seems It's not super dark, but it's noticeably darker than most of the mall, because there's no skylight directly above it. Here's the C I bet that place is usually the busiest eatery in the mall, though, when it is open. One of the t When they're going to Legoland, I would t However, 2017 was also the year that Macy's closed, and I would have to t It was built with two anchors, and it's always only had two anchor spaces, so losing one of the two definitely is not good. But they were able to fill up that Macy'space wit T Burlington and Dix and Michaels. Chairs aren't your typical mall businesses, but Priet seems to try to bring in non-traditional mall businesses to fill vacant spaces. They did the same their Macy's was replaced by Michaels 5 Below, Sierra & Homesense, and also the Sears there was replaced by a healthcare center. I do believe that Priet is trying to keep Plymouth Meeting Mall alive. However, it's just never going to be that successful anymore in t We're only about a 15 minute drive away from the King of Prussia Mall, the fourth largest mall in the country, w There's really no reason why anyone would come here over there. I would have to t Nobody's going to drive 45 minutes or an hour to come here just to go shopping. There's really not Now here's the Lifestyle Center, which There weren'too many people walking around out here when I was here, but maybe there were more people in the stores. I don't know, I didn't actually check any of them. And all the way down at the end you see that's the Whole Foods, w Priet actually sold the Whole Foods in 2023 to Agree Realty for $27 million. Priet has been going through some financial issues over the last few years. They declared bankruptcy in 2023, but they ended up emerging from it in 2024. However, they have had to sell some of their assets. They're currently looking to sell the Xtend Square Mall, but I don't And I wouldn't be surprised if they end up trying to sell they've invested heavily into their better performing malls, namely Cherry And that's definitely paid off for them. But Another thing they want to do to revitalize the property is build apartments They're also seeking approval to build 275 apartments in the parking lot of the Plymouth Towns However, t So, is Plymouth Meeting Mall a dead mall? It's a tough question to answer. Personally, I would say no. It's not quite there yet, but it's definitely getting there. It's kind of Clearly struggling, overshadowed by another much larger and much more successful mall nearby. Morristown Mall has the Cherry Hill Mall right down the street, and this one is, But I t After that, though, it's hard to say. And since we're back in the food court on our way out, here's a few pictures of what it used to look As you can see, there were restaurants on the right side. There were tables and chairs in here. And it looks And here's an empty vending mac Now there's just a few more t You see that office building over there that was built in 1969? And these doors over here lead to a church. It's called the Church on the Mall, and it's been here since 1972, so almost as long as the mall itself. When I first got here, I came in t It was just the church. And I ass And then t I'm not actually sure if you can still go in here. I didn't even try opening the door, but there's just some random trash bags lying around, so I wonder if they just use t Well that's the Plymouth Meeting Mall. Very nice mall. Unfortunately, it's definitely seen better days, but hopefully it'll be able to hang in here for a w And maybe next time I come, the fountain will actually be turned on.