The ceiling and a platform at the mall |
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| Location | King of Prussia in Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
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| Opening date | 1963 |
| Developer | The Kravco Co. |
| Management | Simon Property Group |
| Owner | King of Prussia Associates, Simon Property Group |
| No. of stores and services | 400+ |
| No. of anchor tenants | 7 |
| Total retail floor area | 2,793,200 square feet (251,388 m²)[1] |
| Parking | Parking lot, parking garage |
| No. of floors | 2 (3 in Nordstrom, Neiman Marcus, Macy*s, Bloomingdales, Pavilion; 3rd floor storage space in JCPenney) |
| Website | www.kingofprussiamall.com |
The King of Prussia Mall is the largest shopping mall on the East Coast of the United States,[2] and largest shopping mall in the United States of America in terms of leasable retail space.[3][4]
It is located in King of Prussia, an area within Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia. The two sections that compose the King of Prussia Mall include the Plaza at King of Prussia, anchored by Lord & Taylor, Sears, JCPenney, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom; and the Court at King of Prussia, which is anchored by Macy's and Bloomingdale's. The latter includes the Pavilion at King of Prussia.
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The mall was originally developed by the Kravco company. The Plaza at King of Prussia, the oldest portion of the complex, opened in 1963 as a modest open-air shopping mall anchored by JCPenney, discount department store E. J. Korvette, and an ACME supermarket. The Plaza prospered and by the late 1970s had become a partially enclosed super-regional mall anchored by department stores JCPenney, Gimbels, and Wanamaker's. The Wanamaker's store opened in 1965 in what had been an amphitheater.
Kravco recognized a demand for more upscale shopping in the northwest Philadelphia market in the late 1970s. The company embarked on a second mall, The Court at King of Prussia, to be constructed across the street from The Plaza. The Court opened in 1981 as a fully enclosed mall anchored by department stores Bamberger's (later in 1986 to become Macy's), Bloomingdale's, and Abraham & Straus (A&S). In addition, Sears was added to The Plaza around this time, and until the early 1990s the Plaza sported such stores as Woolworth's, Herman's World of Sporting Goods, and a Lionel "Kiddie City" toy store.The Woolworth's store was demolished in 1993 and moved into enclosed section which now houses Foot Locker, part of the Woolworth's floor is still visible in a storage room behind the Foot Locker. Before being redesigned, The Plaza also featured two 1980's style video arcades, each named Spaceport, and The RKO Plaza movie theater which, in an era before multiplexes, had only one extra large 7m screen.
By the early 1990s, demand for luxury goods had grown across the nation and many upscale retailers were in a growth mode. Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom were all looking for new locations in the area, and Kravco didn't want any of them to land at a competing mall. The company's dilemma, though, was that The Court was on a small piece of land and couldn't expand, while The Plaza was too downscale for these stores. Kravco decided to embark on an ambitious campaign to almost completely rebuild The Plaza to make it just as attractive to upscale retailers as The Court and to begin marketing the two malls as a single entity (a pedestrian bridge and walkway connecting the malls was constructed around this time, though there have always been informal passageways from one to the other).
The new Plaza is fully enclosed and has two levels throughout. Lord & Taylor opened its doors in the fall of 1995, while Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom opened theirs in the spring of 1996. Upscale stores at The Plaza are clustered in the southern end of the mall near Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom, while middle-market stores remain clustered in the northern end of the mall near JCPenney and Sears. The Court now contains a mix of upscale stores and middle-market stores.
The anchor line-up at both malls changed during the 1990s. Stern's, which had replaced Gimbel's, left and JCPenney moved in to its old space. John Wanamaker was acquired by May Department Stores, which rebranded all Wanamaker's as Hecht's, their Baltimore-Washington regional nameplate. Abraham & Straus was consolidated with Macy's and Strawbridge & Clothier briefly took its place at The Court. Soon after, May acquired Strawbridge & Clothier, rebranded it as simply Strawbridge's, and merged it with Hecht's Philadelphia operations. The Hecht's (former John Wanamaker) at The Plaza became a Strawbridge's and the Strawbridge's (former Abraham & Straus) at The Court closed. The mall even featured an outlet of the popular New York City toy company FAO Schwarz, complete with a giant teddy bear, before hard financial times forced it to close in 2004.
The growth of large-format specialty retailers in the 1990s led to the early 2000s conversion of the former Strawbridge's store at The Court into The Pavilion at King of Prussia, which might be considered the "third mall" at King of Prussia. The Pavilion connects directly to The Court. Tenants at The Pavilion include The Cheesecake Factory, Borders (until it closed in 2011), H&M, Urban Outfitters, DSW Shoes, Five Below, and Morton's The Steakhouse and many more.
In 2006, the Strawbridge's store was reflagged as a second Macy's location. It was closed in 2007, and will be demolished in 2011 to make room for a new two-story retail building.
In 2011, Simon increased its ownership of the King of Prussia Mall from 12.4 percent to 96 percent, buying Lend Lease's 50 percent ownership of the mall. Lend Lease had bought its stake in the mall in 1996, with Kravco, Simon, and three family trusts owning the remaining 50 percent at the time.[5]
Owned and managed by Simon Property Group of Indianapolis, the upscale mall, anchored by Bloomingdale's, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, JCPenney, Sears and Macy's, has over 400 stores and restaurants. It is also the sole outpost in Philadelphia for a number of high-end stores including Stuart Weitzman, Hugo Boss, Betsey Johnson, Love Culture, Kate Spade, DKNY, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Cartier, Anne Fontaine, and Hermès. King of Prussia frequently sees the addition of new retailers. The following opened for business in 2011: Lululemon, True Religion, 77kids, Ermenegildo Zegna, Vera Bradley, L.L. Bean, Touche Accessories, Lush and Love Culture.
The mall is a prominent tourist destination in the Philadelphia area, with an estimated 20-25% of visitors as tourists. Several nearby hotels offer mall tourist packages, which typically include mall gift cards. The mall employs over 6,000 people in the area.
Due to the mall's size, several retailers rent more than one space. For example, the mall has three Sunglass Hut Internationals, three Auntie Anne's Pretzels, two Coach stores, two Victoria's Secrets, two H&Ms, two Talbots stores, two Starbucks restaurants, two GameStop stores (the second one almost directly above the first), two General Nutrition Center stores, two Bath & Body Works, three AT&T stores, and two Teavana stores.
In addition to over 20 mid-range restaurants like Cheesecake Factory and California Pizza Kitchen, the complex has three distinct food courts, offering everything from Five Guys and Chick-fil-A to a cheesesteak shop and an upscale pizza market.
The Court is linked to the main section of the mall (known as the "Plaza") by a covered outdoor walkway, which features an array of plants, benches, and jazz music. Its anchor stores are Macy's and Bloomingdale's. It originally had a third anchor, Abraham & Straus, which sold its store in 1988 to Strawbridge and Clothier, which subsequently relocated to the former Wanamaker location at The Plaza in 1996 upon its acquisition by May Department Stores Co. Its spot was redeveloped as the shopping complex's newest section, the Pavilion at King of Prussia. Stores in this section include a double-level Urban Outfitters, Five Below and The Cheesecake Factory. One of the complex's three food courts is also located in the Court. The Court houses more upscale shops than the Plaza, and was also the original concept of The King of Prussia Mall.
The mall has several large stores located in the immediate vicinity, including a 16 screen United Artists Theaters with an IMAX theater,[6] a supermarket, a Costco Wholesale, Toys "R" Us, Best Buy, Nordstrom Rack, Crate & Barrel, Wal-Mart, and several luxury and affordable hotels. Lockheed Martin also has a massive campus overlooking the mall area.
The mall served as the home of the Philadelphia Freedoms tennis team of World TeamTennis in 2008 and 2009. Whenever a tennis event was to occur, a temporary tennis stadium was constructed in the parking lot of the Bloomingdale's anchor store. Eventually, the Freedoms left for The Pavilion at Villanova University in 2010.
The sixth anchor store in the Plaza (the former Wanamaker's/Strawbridge's/Macy's building), was demolished during the fall of 2011. Over 100,000 square feet of retail space adjacent to the former department store is currently under redevelopment with an expected grand opening in fall 2012.[7]
On November 29, 2011, Simon Property Group announced plans to create a 140,000 sf expansion to connect The Court and The Plaza. This new retail connector will feature over 40 stores, dining choices from some of Philadelphia's well known celebrity chefs, an upscale dining pavilion and a customer lounge. This proposal, which includes expanding the adjacent parking deck, is still subject to approval by the local government. This project will bring the largest shopping mall in the United States under one roof for the first time.[8]
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