- King of Prussia Mall
infobox shopping mall | http://kukoda.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/_lvrj_411_FSLO-1046890083-568411.jpg
shopping_mall_name = King of Prussia Mall
caption = The ceiling and a platform at the mall
location =King of Prussia in Upper Merion Township,Pennsylvania , USA
coordinates = Coord|40|5|18|N|75|23|25|W|type:landmark|region:US-PA|display=inline,title
opening_date = 1963
developer= The Kravco Co.
manager=Kravco Simon
owner = King of Prussia Associates, partnership includingKravco Simon
number_of_stores = 400+
number_of_anchors = 8
floor_area = 2,793,200 square feet (251,388 m²) [ [http://www.kravco.com/portfolio/regional.asp Kravco Simon Regional Center Portfolio] , accessedJuly 24 ,2006 ]
floors = 2
parking = Parking lot,Parking garage
website = http://www.kingofprussiamall.comThe King of Prussia Mall is the largestshopping mall on the East Coast of theUnited States , [ [http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/travel/visitors_guide/9732146.htm] ] and the largest shopping mall in the United States of America in terms of leasable retail space. [ [http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/economy/july-dec03/paradox_12-26.html Online NewsHour: Paradox of Choice - December 26, 2003 ] ] [http://www.easternct.edu/depts/amerst/MallsLarge.htm Largest Shopping Malls in the United States ] ]The two-building agglomeration is also arguably [http://www.icsc.org/srch/about/impactofshoppingcenters/TenLargest.pdf] America's largest shopping complex at one location. It is located in King of Prussia, an area within Upper Merion Township,
Pennsylvania , northwest ofPhiladelphia .History
The mall was originally developed by the Kravco company, which still owns it today (the company is now known as
Kravco Simon ). ThePlaza at King of Prussia , the oldest portion of the complex, opened in 1963 as a modest open-air shopping mall anchored byJCPenney , discount department storeE.J. Korvette , and an ACME supermarket. The Plaza prospered and by the late 1970s had become a partially enclosed super-regional mall anchored by department storesJCPenney ,Gimbels , andWanamaker's .Kravco recognized a demand for more upscale shopping in the northwest Philadelphia market in the late 1970s. The company embarked on a second mall,
The Court at King of Prussia , to be constructed across the street from The Plaza. The Court opened in 1981 as a fully enclosed mall anchored by department storesBamberger's (later in 1986 to becomeMacy's ),Bloomingdale's , andAbraham & Straus (A&S). In addition, Sears was added to The Plaza around this time, and until the early 1990s the Plaza sported such stores as Woolworth's, Herman's World of Sporting Goods, and a Lionel "Kiddie City" toy store. Before being redesigned, The Plaza also featured two 1980's stylevideo arcade s, each named Spaceport, and The RKO Plaza movie theater which, in an era before multiplexes, had only one extra large 70mm screen.By the early 1990s, demand for luxury goods had grown across the nation and many upscale retailers were in a growth mode.
Lord & Taylor ,Neiman Marcus , andNordstrom were all looking for new locations in the area, and Kravco didn't want any of them to land at a competing mall. The company's dilemma, though, was that The Court was on a small piece of land and couldn't expand, while The Plaza was too downscale for these stores. Kravco decided to embark on an ambitious campaign to almost completely rebuild The Plaza to make it just as attractive to upscale retailers as The Court and to begin marketing the two malls as a single entity (a pedestrian bridge and walkway connecting the malls was constructed around this time, though there have always been informal passageways from one to the other).The new Plaza is fully enclosed and has two levels throughout. Lord & Taylor opened its doors in the fall of 1995, while Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom opened theirs in the spring of 1996. Upscale stores at The Plaza are clustered in the southern end of the mall near Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom, while middle-market stores remain clustered in the northern end of the mall near JCPenney, Sears, and Macy's. The Court now contains a mix of upscale stores and middle-market stores.
The anchor line-up at both malls changed during the 1990s.
Stern's , which had replaced Gimbel's, left and JCPenney moved in to its old space. John Wanamaker was acquired byMay Department Stores , which rebranded all Wanamaker's asHecht's , their Baltimore-Washington regional nameplate.Abraham & Straus was consolidated with Macy's and Strawbridge & Clothier briefly took its place at The Court. Soon after, May acquired Strawbridge & Clothier, rebranded it as simply Strawbridge's, and merged it with Hecht's Philadelphia operations. The Hecht's (former John Wanamaker) at The Plaza became a Strawbridge's and the Strawbridge's (former Abraham & Straus) at The Court closed. The mall even featured an outlet of the popularNew York City toy companyF.A.O. Schwarz , complete with giant teddy bear, before hard financial times forced it to close in 2004.The growth of large-format specialty retailers in the 1990s led to the early 2000s conversion of the former Strawbridge's store at The Court into The Pavilion at King of Prussia, which might be considered the "third mall" at King of Prussia. The Pavilion consists of a small mall directly connected to The Court but is not owned by Kravco. Tenants at The Pavilion include
The Cheesecake Factory , Borders,H&M ,Urban Outfitters ,Five Below , and Morton's, The Steakhouse, to name a few.In 2006, the
Strawbridge's store was reflagged as a secondMacy's location. It was closed in 2007, and future status for the building is undetermined.King of Prussia today
The upscale mall, anchored by
Bloomingdale's ,Lord & Taylor ,Neiman Marcus ,Nordstrom ,JCPenney ,Macy's andSears and one vacant department store, has over 400 stores and restaurants. It is also the sole outpost in Philadelphia for a number of high-end stores includingStuart Weitzman ,Hugo Boss ,Betsey Johnson ,Movado ,Kate Spade ,Furla ,Molton Brown ,DKNY , Cartier,Anne Fontaine ,Burberry ,Hermès , andLouis Vuitton . King of Prussia frequently sees the addition of new luxury stores, most recently signingDavid Yurman , Boss Orange,Mont Blanc ,Ralph Lauren ,North Face ,Samsonite ,Thomas Pink andSalvatore Ferragamo .The average household income of shoppers is $70,000 a year.Fact|date=April 2007 Shoppers spend more than a billion dollars annually, giving the Plaza, excluding department stores, an average annual sales per square foot of $512, the Court an average of $470, although some of the luxury goods stores have averages over $4,000 per square foot.Fact|date=July 2007
The mall is a prominent tourist destination in the Philadelphia area, with an estimated 20-25% of visitors as tourists. Several nearby hotels offer mall tourist packages, which typically include mall gift cards. The mall employs over 6,000 people in the area.
Due to the mall's size, several stores rent more than one space. For example, the mall has three
Sunglass Hut International s, threeAuntie Anne's Pretzels, threeHallmark Cards shops, two Coach stores, twoThe Body Shop s, twoBath & Body Works , threeVictoria's Secret s, two H&M's twoStarbucks , twoGamestop stores, twoGeneral Nutrition Center stores, threeAT&T stores, and two Teavana stores.In addition to over 20 trendy, mid-range restaurants like
Cheesecake Factory andCalifornia Pizza Kitchen , the complex has three distinctfood court s, offering everything fromBurger King andChick-Fil-A to a cheesesteak shop and an upscale pizza market.The mall has several large stores located in the immediate vicinity, including a 16 screen
United Artists Theaters with anIMAX theater, [ [http://www.fandango.com/TheaterPage.aspx?location=19406&tid=AAOQP UA King Of Prussia Stadium 16 & IMAX Showtimes and Tickets ] ] a supermarket, aCostco Wholesale ,Toys "R" Us ,Best Buy , Nordstrom Rack,Crate and Barrel and several luxury and affordable hotels.Lockheed Martin also has offices nearby.Tennis stadium
The Philadelphia Freedoms tennis team of
World TeamTennis has announced that, beginning in the 2008, the King of Prussia Mall will be their home. A tennis stadium has been built across the parking lot from the Bloomingdale's anchor store.Future anchors
The malls website has some redevelopment plans listed [ [http://www.simon.com/mall/LeasingSheet/KingOfPrussia.pdf untitled ] ] , showing the vacant Strawbridge's building being replaced with a new JC Penney and a second, unnamed department store. They also show the existing JC Penney building being taken over by Target. No formal announcements have been made yet, so the development is most likely still in the proposal stages.
There are two sections to this mall, each located in its own double-level building:
*
Plaza at King of Prussia
*Court at King of Prussia , which includes the Pavilion at King of PrussiaAnchors
*
Bloomingdale's (convert|229484|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on)
*JCPenney (convert|171558|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on)
*Lord & Taylor (convert|120000|sqft|m2|-3|abbr=on)
*Macy's Court (convert|252243|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on)
*"Vacant formerStrawbridge's " (convert|193500|sqft|m2|-1|abbr=on)
*Neiman Marcus (convert|138775|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on)
*Nordstrom (convert|225000|sqft|m2|-2|abbr=on)
*Sears (convert|215252|sqft|m2|0|abbr=on)ee also
* List of the world's largest shopping malls
*List of largest shopping malls in the United States References
External links
* [http://www.kingofprussiamall.com/ King of Prussia Mall]
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