Developer to 'de-mall' Hunt Valley Mall; Wegman's to anchor new

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), May 23, 2003 by Heather Coppley

Perfect. Three years of hard work was about to pay off for NAI KLNB's Tom Maddux who had found a piece of property located at the crossroads of two heavily traveled roadways, ringed by pricey neighborhoods and of sufficient size to accommodate a 130,000-square- foot Wegmans grocery store.

But alas, the Baltimore County community groups came out in force to object. Traffic jams, they cried.

Then the county refused to talk about rezoning the area, known as Texas Station, from manufacturing to retail. Manufacturing, they said, would keep the money in the county.

The Rochester, N.Y., chain, desiring to establish a first presence in Maryland, was left in limbo -- again.

Maddux was back at square one, searching for a supersized- location in the midst of a five-mile radius of customers that would be one of the two or three sites Wegmans Food Markets plans to develop during the year.

At the same time Wegmans was turning up empty-handed in its search for a piece of land for its store, Baltimore City developer Erwin L. Greenberg Commercial Corp., which had just relocated to county, was looking for a new challenge. Their paths were about to cross.

Greenberg, with 35 years of experience and $6 million in projects to its credit, picked up the ailing Hunt Valley Mall, whose last owner, Starwood Ceruzzi, had just rolled up unrealized blueprints for a radical redesign, tucked them under its arm and beat a path back to its Connecticut headquarters.

And while Wegmans had passed on Hunt Valley once, its interest was renewed by the ownership.

"In our business timing is everything," Maddux said.

Now, the question is: Can Wegmans save the Hunt Valley retail outlet which is about to be de-malled by Greenberg?

DeadMall

Hunt Valley -- which is Maryland's single entry on the DeadMalls.com Web site-- has never been a crowd-pleaser.

Baltimore County Executive James T. Smith says it was an unwelcome intrusion when it was first built more than two decades ago in 1981.

"They resented the development of the mall and they did not patronize it," Smith said.

The Urban Rural Demarcation Line was drafted to protect the rural space in the northern half of the county from suburban sprawl. Hunt Valley was the last place to build retail that would serve the sector of the county stretching north to the Pennsylvania border.

However, it was not clear that a mall was needed even there. So with all the controversy surrounding the mall in the first place, it didn't need the setback in 1992 of losing a major department store anchor -- Macy's.

There evolved a lopsided love-hate relationship between the communities and the mall. "You have this sentiment of 'I don't want you there but I don't want to see you as a failure either,'" Smith said.

Still, the contempt for the place seemed to overcome the shoppers, who obviously chose elsewhere to spend their money. The core of the mall was soon emptied despite the attractions of Sears, Wal-Mart, Burlington Coat Factory, DSW Shoe Warehouse and Dick's Sporting Goods, which have their own entrances from the parking lot.

Death Valley Mall -- that's the moniker attached to the shopping outlet, and what eventually won it a spot on DeadMalls.com, where visitors worldwide are given a glimpse of the mall's empty interiors, non-functioning fountain and the pothole-ridden "moonscape" parking lot.

De-malling of Hunt Valley

Despite the vacancies and bad rep, Erwin L. Greenberg, founder and CEO of the development company, thinks all the mall needs is some TLC.

"It is a sleeping giant waiting to be awakened and nurtured," he said.

The firm's last project combined retail, restaurants, office space and senior living on 71 acres built to resemble a self-contained town. The Anne Arundel County Village at Waugh Chapel -- with its manufactured Main Street concept and grocery store anchor -- is feeding plans for Hunt Valley's future.

The developer decided to rid Hunt Valley of its "dead mall" reputation by removing the mall itself.

The project as planned by Greenberg replaces the mall in name and in physical imprint with a "Towne Centre." That means removing the roof and now-empty hallways in favor of open sky and wide brick sidewalks. In commercial real estate this approach is called de- malling.

Baltimore County Economic Development Director David Iannucci said de-malling is a trend that has turned the history of shopping centers on its head.

"I remember when they first put a roof on it and that was the big thing," he said of enclosed malls.

Iannucci said the time of enclosed malls is past and the open town- style shopping center concept is the new model for success.

He points to The Avenue in White Marsh as a prime example of the new trend.

"It was all vibrant with people trying to recreate the main streets we destroyed with Wal-Marts," he said.

According to Maddux, Greenberg's de-malling plan was the critical factor in Wegmans decision to go with a location it had previously found uninspiring.

"There won't be a mall anymore. I think that's the most significant thing," he said.