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Welcome To The Most Depressing Commercial Real Estate Disaster In America
Vince Veneziani | Dec. 22, 2009, 9:08 AM | 89,478 | 26
Back in 1992, I remember going to the Echelon Mall in Voorhees, New Jersey.
It was a five minute drive from my home in Cherry Hill and I always looked forward to it.
The mall had every imaginable store you could think of, several fountains, rides and games for kids, a movie theater, and even a gigantic arena-sized arcade called Exhilarama.
<iframe src="http://www.businessinsider.com/embed?id=4b2fe79500000000006366de&width=400&height=430" width="400" height="430" border="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Those were the 1990s. Those were the days.
Today, the Echelon Mall is now called the Voorhees Town Center and even a name change can't aid a dying beast.
Someone, somewhere thought it'd be a good idea to bulldoze half the mall, put up condos and housing, and give the mall a more "exclusive" feel. The problem is: who wants to live at a mall?
Only two "anchor stores" remain at the mall, the food court is half vacant, and there are literally no stores of quality in the mall aside from a GameStop, Victoria's Secret, and Verizon Wireless.
What began as a revitalization project for a dying mall was cut short by a lack of credit and funding for constructing the project. Tons of big box stores and condos were supposed to go up around the newly re-designed mall but alas, nothing has come to fruition.
Scanning the terrain, you'll quickly realize why commercial real estate is such an epic disaster.
Vince Veneziani | Dec. 22, 2009, 9:08 AM | 89,478 | 26
Back in 1992, I remember going to the Echelon Mall in Voorhees, New Jersey.
It was a five minute drive from my home in Cherry Hill and I always looked forward to it.
The mall had every imaginable store you could think of, several fountains, rides and games for kids, a movie theater, and even a gigantic arena-sized arcade called Exhilarama.
<iframe src="http://www.businessinsider.com/embed?id=4b2fe79500000000006366de&width=400&height=430" width="400" height="430" border="0" frameborder="0"></iframe>
Those were the 1990s. Those were the days.
Today, the Echelon Mall is now called the Voorhees Town Center and even a name change can't aid a dying beast.
Someone, somewhere thought it'd be a good idea to bulldoze half the mall, put up condos and housing, and give the mall a more "exclusive" feel. The problem is: who wants to live at a mall?
Only two "anchor stores" remain at the mall, the food court is half vacant, and there are literally no stores of quality in the mall aside from a GameStop, Victoria's Secret, and Verizon Wireless.
What began as a revitalization project for a dying mall was cut short by a lack of credit and funding for constructing the project. Tons of big box stores and condos were supposed to go up around the newly re-designed mall but alas, nothing has come to fruition.
Scanning the terrain, you'll quickly realize why commercial real estate is such an epic disaster.
