Retail Roundup: More changes at Valley View Mall
Roanoke Times file photo
A youth sports academy called Funomenal Sports Academy and Training will be moving into the spaces that formerly housed Hayden Music and E.I. Angel at Valley View Mall.
The sports training center will occupy 6,472 square feet near the entrance of Sears.
Mall general manager Louise Dudley said the sports academy is new type of business for the mall.
“We’re seeing more and more of these type of uses in malls,” she said. She pointed to Lynchburg’s River Ridge Mall, also owned by CBL and Associates Properties, which has leased space to Planet Fitness, a gym.
Funomenal Sports offers soccer and basketball training, as well as fitness and stretching classes for senior citizens who walk the mall, according to the academy’s website. Owner Gavin Walters of Callaway couldn’t be reached.
The sports academy is expected to open by July.
There’s also work happening at Justice, a girls’ clothing store.
The store is undergoing a remodel to separate it from The Limited, Dudley said. Until that work is done, the store has moved upstairs beside the Verizon store, near the entrance to Macy’s.
Just a few stores down, a new men’s and women’s clothing retailer, Upstreamers, soon will move into the Dollar Plus location.
The mall also recently filed a building permit to do work in the former Abercrombie & Fitch space.
Dudley said last week that the mall is close to signing a lease with a tenant for that space. She said she would not name the retailer until the lease is signed.
Ulta, a national beauty supply chain, has been advertising on its website for managers to run a Roanoke store. A Career Builder job posting says the store will be located at the mall.
Dudley said she couldn’t comment on whether the beauty store will be opening at the mall. An Ulta spokeswoman also would not confirm a Roanoke store opening.
Lastly, mall management announced last month that Plow & Hearth, a Virginia-based retailer of home and garden products, would open this summer in the former Twist & Turns space.
The furniture and home decor store closed April 30 so the owner could focus on marketing her merchandise to commercial customers and spend more time working as a design consultant. Plow & Hearth should open in June.
Also in the column, more details on the remodel and addition happening at Chuck E. Cheese’s.
May 7, 2012 - 9:47 AM
And Valley View slips closer to Tanglewood or Crossroads status with the loss of retailers.
Yep.
Valley View slipping to the level of Tanglewood?? Not even close!
I’ve heard from a source that Banana Republic is looking into the Abercrombie Space. I’ve heard this before so I’ll believe it when I see it but this would be a huge get for Valley View.
Also comparing Valley View to Tanglewood is a joke. You might want to drive out there sometime.
We should know soon what is going in the Abercrombie space. If Ulta is opening a store at the mall, as a job posting I mentioned here suggests, I wonder if that’s where they are going.
Greg I hope the rumor is true!! I love Banana Republic and shop there often. They would be a great addition and have been trying to get them here for years!!!!!!!
Ultra usually does not locate in a mall but rather in a outdoor retail center. Wonder if there ia any vacant spaces outside Valley View. Hope to hear something soon!!
Regarding the Chunk E. Cheese part of the article.
Is the year on the following correct.
“The exterior of the existing building also will see improvements for the first time since the store opened in 1996, Hayes said.”
I recall going there when I was a kid and now I’m 35.
Maybe I’m missing something after so many years. :>)
@Mike D. That’s what the spokeswoman at the company wrote in an email, but if you think it’s wrong I will ask her to double check the date. Thanks for calling it out!
Wasn’t Chuck E Cheese a “Showbiz” first? Maybe that’s the date confusion…
The building was definitely there before 1996. I was coaching youth soccer in 11th grade (1986) and we had our year end party there. If I recall correctly it was Showbiz Pizza then (same theme as Chuck E)
It was originally a Showbiz Pizza location. Chuck E Cheese went bankrupt in ’85 or ’86 and Showbiz ended up buying them. In the early 90′s Showbiz started to convert all locations to the Chuck E Cheese name, decor and animatronics. I remember first going there for my birthday before my family moved back into town in December of 1983.
I checked the Roanoke County GIS and the Chuck E Cheese building was built in Feb 1983. My guess is that the 1996 date is when it was converted from Showbiz Pizza to the Chuck E Cheese format.
@Peter J, great idea, checking GIS. I bet you’re right that 1996 was when it was converted, and that’s the last time the building saw any kind of improvements aside from general maintenance.
@Meghan… not TO the level, just CLOSER. I doubt Valley View will ever drop to “dead mall” status like Tanglewood once did (and recovered) and like Crossroads has been for years, but you can’t deny that they are losing an awful lot of tenants lately, sometimes by their own decisions.
Re: Chuck E. Cheese… I moved here in late ’96, and there were definitely MAJOR renovations happening up on that hill around that time. Almost as if the whole building was torn down and rebuilt. There also used to be a McDonald’s up there, but I think it’s some kind of office building now.
Ah I had forgotten about Showbiz. That very well could be the confusion.
Both the same basic theme and after many years it’s not hard to do.
Somewhere in this house there is a token from back then. Maybe I will find it one day. lol
I do recall a McDonald’s up there as well.
Amanda
Any word on whats going on over at Tanglewood. Are they trying to land any new stores? That mall is so dead and empty. I would think the county would be working harder to get new owners. There is no reason that mall cant do well. They are in a great location. I think they need to wreck it down and make an open air center something Roanoke needs! Let me know what you find out.
@Chris, it’s been a while since I’ve talked with the marketing director at Tanglewood, so it’s about time I give him a ring to see what’s new. If I hear anything worthy of passing on I’ll let you know.
Thanks Amanda.
The mall itself is much nicer then Valley View and it would be so nice to have it filled again with good national retail!
Valley View dead?? Are you kidding. Not as long as CBL ownes it. For every store that closes a new one opens right behind it. Thats why most of the time it is 100% leased. Retailers are waiting to get in that mall.
I heard Tanglewood will soon land a major new tenant….Oakeys Funeral Service. You can shop the Mall and use your credit card to pay for your funeral.
I keep hearing about Valley View West being developed on 581. Any idea what will be coming? I assume CBL who owns Valley View plans to develope the 100 or so Aces that Bowers keeps referring to. I assume it will be a lifestyle center with more shops and restaurants. CBL has built a great center in NC Alamance Crossings. Would love to see a short pump style shopping center built there. Roanoke has nothing like that and needs it. Amanda see what you can find out. Thanks!
@Chris: Check out this this story by reporter Mason Adams.
To sum up his reporting, four entities own the 150-acres west of Valley View Mall and want to develop it once construction of the interchange is complete in 2015. Those developers haven’t said publicly what type of development they have in mind. The city, meanwhile, is putting together a neighborhood plan. As you can imagine, the residents in the adjoining neighborhoods have concerns about traffic, property values and more.
There’s also more information on the city’s website.