Testifying before the township planning board, PREIT development director Nancy Kilpatrick would only say that the mall was courting a retail fashion tenant, but not which one.
By Matt Skoufalos | October 17, 2016
The Cherry Hill Mall is likely getting a new fashion retail tenant—it’s just not disclosing who yet.
On Monday, Cherry Hill Center, LLC, an affiliate of mall owners PREIT (the Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust), got permission for a 5,000-square-foot buildout on the north side of the property.
The extra footage will help build a 26,188-square-foot retail space connected to what is currently the Hollister store and its neighboring tenants near “the Pottery Barn customer pickup, H&R Block offices, [and] mall service court number five,” attorney Richard Goldstein told the Cherry Hill Planning Board.
PREIT Development Director Nancy Kilpatrick said the identity of the prospective tenant must remain confidential, but disclosed that it is “an international fashion retailer looking for a location in South Jersey.” As the mall is 93.8-percent occupied, Kilpatrick said, “we need to bump out the space.”
One possible candidate could be the Dublin, Ireland-headquartered Primark, which has expanded to the United States in recent years, adding locations in the King of Prussia and Willow Grove malls and a Bethlehem, Pennsylvania distribution center, as reported in Chain Store Age. Primark also opened its first New Jersey location in the Freehold Mall this summer, according to NorthJersey.com.
Kilpatrick would only say that the prospective tenant provides “fashion, retail, apparel, and accessories for men, women, and children.”
The requested variance also requires the relocation of a utility room, and sacrifices 13 parking spaces to gain the extra 5,000 square-feet, lowering the overall count from 6,204 to 6,171 spaces. Even doing so, the mall still contains 26 surplus spaces beyond statutory requirements when the property was updated in 2007, Goldstein said.
He also noted that developers could be back to the board to address previously granted approvals for a specialty retailer and restaurant to be built elsewhere within the property.
“The unbuilt restaurant and retail space are open fields,” Goldstein said. “It is our expectation that we will be back to the board to deal with that area.”
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