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RIP to the Plymouth Meeting Mall, Hello to the Plymouth Meeting Town Center
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PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. (WPVI) — Major changes are coming to the Plymouth Meeting Mall in Montgomery County.
A local developer plans to transform the site into a mixed-use destination that will come with a new name: Plymouth Meeting Town Center.
The mall is under contract to be purchased in late February by Lubert Adler Partners, a Philadelphia-based firm that specializes in revitalizing properties. Developer Dean Adler told Action News, the mall is obsolete.
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It will see big changes, including the demolition of the current mall area between Boscov’s and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
“We take it down, and you know what we put in its place? A beacon of a new 500,000 square foot, two-level what I’ll call a youth sports center,” Adler said.
This was inevitable, just like every mall in this area not named King of Prussia. Plymouth Meeting held on longer than most, and had some strong anchors like Legoland and Boscov’s, but the inside was a shell of what it used to be back in the day and there usually weren’t a lot of people inside of it. There are a decent amount of stores outside of the mall, along Germantown Pike and bordering the property, like Whole Foods, but inside the mall itself was a hodge podge of shops just like Coventry, Neshaminy, Montgomery, etc.
This sounds similar to what’s happening out in Exton, with that mall being demolished and turned into a town square. But at More than the Curve, Kevin Tierney points out a few differences:
Adler shared (with channel 6) that the plan is to demolish the portion of the mall between the former Macy’s section (now Dick’s Sporting Goods, Michael’s, Burlington, etc) and Boscovs. Those two bookends of the mall are under separate ownership.
In its place would rise a two-story, 500,000-square-foot “youth sports center,” according to Adler. Action News then goes on to describe facets of the redevelopment as “glass towers, athletic fields, courtyards, restaurants, hotels, and other amenities.”
This isn’t what people traditionally think of as a town center. In Exton and King of Prussia, for example, you essentially have a series of smaller retail shops and restaurants, a gym, a couple of box stores, and apartments. There is often a sales pitch that it will offer a community gathering space. The one in King of Prussia completely failed at this.
Yeah, the KOP town center just sort of exists. It’s expensive condos and townhomes with some restaurants and stores. There’s a Nordstrom Rack, LA Fitness, PNC Bank, Mission BBQ, and a really small green space in the middle of it, but it feels plastic. I guess it depends on how they do this Plymouth Meeting joint, and what they put in. There’s a shopping center diagonal from that mall, over on Chemical Road, which gets a good amount of shoppers. And KOP isn’t too far from Plymouth Meeting to begin with, so there really wasn’t anything you’d be going to Plymouth Meeting for that you couldn’t find at KOP. In that sense, maybe doing this “youth sports center” and mixed-use thing makes sense.
The Action News article says “construction is expected to begin in 2027, with the new town center projected to open in 2028.“
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com