The new Springfield Town Center will feature a health club, a movie theater and a "restaurant row" of between eight and ten restaurants, according to Mike McClanahan, chief of staff for Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay (D).
"The project's under way," McClanahan said at a community meeting last week organized by the Lee District Association of Civic Associations. "Everyone's meeting with everyone."
In July, (with the exception of Macy's, Target and JCPenney) will close to allow for construction.
The renovation of Springfield Mall is Phase I of a four-part plan to transform the 80-acre site into Springfield Town Center, Fairfax County's Office of Revitalization and Reinvestment told Patch in March.
Phase II will consist of new buildings on the mall's perimeter, with ground-floor retail and upper-floor office space. Phase III will feature a stand-alone high-quality and high-density hotel and office space. Phase IV will complete the town center, with apartments and condominiums.
The mall's owner, New York-based Vornado Realty Trust, has a financial incentive to avoid construction delays, according to McClanahan. For every month that the mall is closed, McClanahan said, Vornado loses $1 million.
The mall property will open long before the rest of the Town Center, which may include office space and residential development, but entire project is expected to take around 10 years.
At the meeting, McClanahan said that the economic climate in Springfield was improving.
"The blight is gone for the most part," he said, citing the recently-opened .
In this article, it states clearly that Phase II, Phase III and iV are planned for high-density office space, hotel, apartments, and condos, and it does not much about stores, except for mentioning it as "ground-floor retail". So I'm just saying it would be good if they include some of the major shops and various services the other malls offer to make it complete. I agree, the whole place needs an overhaul to breathe new life into and briinging in a health club, movie theatre and restaurant row will certainly be a welcome and well needed addition. In its heyday, Springfield Mall used to be thriving, and it offered a vast array of services....specialty shops, high end dept. stores, restaurants, DMV, movie theatres, and it had a health club, too, which was always full. So that is what I am hoping to see renewed- not just stores and a new look, but a thriving, good mix of businesses for the community (not mostly offices, condos, apartments, etc., which will only add to the traffic jams and parking problems).