It’s been awhile since I did one of these mall blogs. But the choice for this month is easy. Burlington Center Mall has been in a state of decline for about a decade now.  It seems the end is now in sight. The Burlington County Times reports that the mall may now be in the process of shutting down for good. http://www.burlingtoncountytimes.com/news/20171201/2-nonprofits-asked-to-leave-burlington-mall-amid-potential-closing

Burlington Center opened in the Philadelphia suburb of Burlington Township, New Jersey in 1982 to great promise. It lies roughly halfway between Philly and Trenton in the I-295 and NJ Turnpike corridor. At the time it appeared well positioned to fill a retail gap in the region. It also sports a fountain sculpture made by the renowned Zenos Frudakis who has created many pieces of public art in recent decades. It’s kinda funny that the most frequent question isn’t what’s going to happen to the mall but what will happen to the elephant? 

For the first 20 plus years of existence the mall did well.  But other malls in Cherry Hill, Moorestown, and Lawrenceville received expansions and upgrades while Burlington stayed put. Burlington also developed a reputation for crime after a gang fight at the mall in 2007.  This took a toll on business until the landlord could no longer make the mortgage payments.  After being foreclosed upon, the mall was auctioned off to a group called Moonbeam Investments.  They drafted some grand plans for redeveloping the property into an indoor/outdoor hybrid center. But the plans were never formally presented to the township and were seemingly shelved. In the meantime the mall continued to bleed tenants. Today in December of 2017 there are only about five stores left. Also, the wing containing the elephant fountain was walled off to prepare for demolition which never got underway. Dan Bell’s video dates from 2015 and it’s much worse now. Even the Foot Locker shown in the next, more recent video is now gone.