Owings Mills Mall To Be Demolished To Make Way For A Town Center
OWINGS MILLS, Md. (WJZ)-- Owings Mills Mall is getting a makeover. Thursday, Baltimore County leaders announced plans to revive the mall, starting with a demolition.
Monique Griego has more on the plan.
Empty parking lots and abandoned stores.
"It's pretty deserted," shopper Orlando Holley said.
Over the years, Owings Mills Mall went from booming to bust. Residents like Brian Deleonardo watched as customers left and retailers followed.
"As you walk through the mall, there's large portions where there's no shops or just no activity at all," he said. "Because of that, it gives you feeling that it's a dying mall."
But the mall is now getting a breath of life. Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz announced plans to demolish most of the mall to turn it into a town center.
"Now, we're seen a de-malling where we're taking away the indoor concept and allow walkability between stores," he said.
Kamenentz brought in two powerhouse retail developers to make it happen.
Kamenetz thinks this mall failed because it wasn't able to compete with nearby shopping centers that went from indoor to outdoor. He believes this project will bring those customers back.
"It will have the same foot print as those other malls and I think the people will come," Holley said.
Project leaders are still working on a final design and list of retailers but say they plan to break ground in the spring 2013. Customers can't wait.
"People won't drive the 20 minutes to another mall because they'll have the same product in their own backyard, and I think everybody is looking forward to that," Deleonardo said.
Project leaders say they plan on keeping some of the current department stores and a movie theatre and will incorporate them into a new design. The town center is expected to open in mid to late 2014.
The project is expected to cost $65 million to $75 million. None of that will come from the county. It will be funded by the two developers.
