Exton Square Mall will close next week

Chester County’s only enclosed mall will soon shut its doors for good.

After five decades as a retail hub, the nearly 1-million-square-foot Exton Square Mall is set to close Tuesday, June 30, according to mall owner Abrams Realty & Development. The Elkins Park-based company has been mired in a legal dispute with local officials over its redevelopment.

Once a bustling destination that sparked a commercial boom in Exton, the complex has been languishing for years with a desolate interior and only a handful of stores.

Peter Abrams said his firm had no choice but to shutter the mall.

“Operating the interior of the property has become untenable due to deteriorating conditions and rising utility costs,” he said in a statement.

The Boscov’s, Main Line Health offices, and Round 1 entertainment venue will remain open.

Brian Dunn, chair of the West Whiteland Township Board of Supervisors, declined to comment on the mall’s closure, citing the ongoing litigation.

» READ MORE: Philly-area malls aren't dead yet. But they are changing.

Abrams, who bought the mall from PREIT for more than $34 million, wants to transform the site into a mixed-use complex with hundreds of townhouses, rental apartments, a 55+ community, and a town center with shops, restaurants, medical offices, and green space.

Last year, John Weller, West Whiteland’s director of planning and zoning, called the proposed redevelopment of the 75-acre site a “generation-defining project for the township.”

This fall, despite the planning commission’s recommendation, Dunn and fellow Township Supervisor Rajesh Kumbhardare rejected Abrams’ proposal over sewer, traffic, and density concerns. Abrams then sued the supervisors in an attempt to reverse their decision, saying the plan meets the township’s zoning requirements.

» READ MORE: What should a dead mall become? In Exton, the debate continues.

Litigation between Abrams and the supervisors was ongoing as of Wednesday, according to the company, which wants to complete the project by 2028.

The Exton Square Mall opened in 1973 with more than 100 stores, including a Strawbridge & Clothier.

The mall’s construction would prove a harbinger of Exton’s commercialization. “Developers seem bent on heaving this lazy rural area into the mainstream of metropolitan Philadelphia,” The Inquirer reported in 1973.

In the 1990s, the Exton Bypass made the area easier to access from the city and other suburbs. And by the 2000s, more retail complexes, including the Main Street at Exton town center, had opened near Exton Square Mall, which also underwent an expansion.

The community has seen a subsequent rise in residential development, with millennials and baby boomers fueling demand for high-end, low-maintenance living. In the past five years, about 3,000 luxury apartments and townhouses have been built in the 13-square-mile township, supervisor Kumbhardare said this fall, and each new complex is at least 90% occupied.

The residential developments include the Point at Exton apartments, which were constructed on a four-acre parcel of former Exton Square Mall property. The complex is across the street from a Whole Foods that opened in the mall’s former Kmart in 2017.

Abrams has said his proposed town center would connect to those apartments and the Whole Foods with pedestrian walkways.

The developer plans to demolish the enclosed mall, one of several local shopping centers that has become the subject of sad social-media videos that mourn dead malls.

On Tuesday, as word spread about the mall’s closing date, one user posted a video on Facebook with the caption: “It’s official. They’re tearing down the Exton Square Mall, and with it, my entire childhood.”

“They can tear the building down, but they can’t take away the memories of buying graphic tees at Wet Seal and CD shopping at FYE. RIP.”