The Tysons Galleria area from the air. |
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| Location | 2001 International Drive, McLean, Virginia, United States |
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| Opening date | 1988 |
| Developer | Lerner Enterprises and Homart Development Company |
| Owner | GGP Platinum Properties |
| No. of stores and services | 120+ |
| No. of anchor tenants | 3 |
| Total retail floor area | 800,000 sq ft (74,000 m2) |
| No. of floors | 3 |
| Website | http://www.tysonsgalleria.com/ |
Tysons Galleria is an upscale three-level super-regional mall owned by General Growth Properties located at 2001 International Drive, McLean, Virginia, in Tysons Corner.
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The mall opened in 1988 across Virginia Route 123 from Tysons Corner Center as part of the $500 million ($900 million in 2008 dollars) office development The Corporate Office Centre at Tysons II, leading local residents to refer to Tysons Galleria as "Tysons II".[1] It was intended to be the upscale companion of Tysons Corner Center, but failed to attract high-end boutiques due to the poor economy of the time and a major expansion and renovation of the existing high-traffic Tysons Corner Center across the street, which included the East Coast's first Nordstrom store. It was previously known as the Galleria at Tysons II, but from its opening to the mid-1990s, either a "T" or an "a" were missing from the main entrance sign.[2] It had annual sales of $262 per square foot, below the market average for malls in the Washington metropolitan area in the early 1990s.[3]
The Galleria was renovated to appear more like a "European streetscape" and expanded in 1997 by its new Chicago-based owners, who had its name changed to Tysons Galleria. Its interior was lightly remodeled to appear less like a "space walk".[2]
The mall eventually attracted the high-end tenants that it had hoped for when it first opened with high-end department stores Neiman Marcus and Saks 5th Avenue in 1988. National Geographic stated in its December 2002 issue that "Tysons Galleria is the Rodeo Drive of the East Coast."[4] The Washington Post describes it as a "bright and elegant Fifth Avenue-like mall".[5] Tysons Galleria was rated one the top 15 sales-producing shopping centers in terms of dollars per square foot by WWD in 2003.[4]
Tysons Galleria features valet parking and concierge services, including having large purchases delivered and organized into customers' closets.[2] The mall has given consistently big-spending customers reserved parking spaces.[2] The Galleria also has foreign currency exchanges, day spas, security escorts, and taxi services. An adjacent Ritz-Carlton hotel is accessible from inside the mall, much like in the nearby Fashion Centre at Pentagon City in Arlington. The hotel attracts wealthy visitors from Europe, the Middle East, and Japan, who in turn help fuel sales of the mall's high-end goods.[2]
It hosts a variety of high-end stores, such as Coach, Ann Taylor, Anthropologie, Thomas Pink, 7 for all Mankind, J.Crew, Eileen Fisher, Nicole Miller, and Tommy Bahama, and luxury boutiques, such as Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Chanel, Gucci, Hugo Boss, Salvatore Ferragamo, Bally, Cartier, De Beers, Ermenegildo Zegna, Montblanc, Max Mara, Karen Millen, Betsey Johnson, Juicy Couture, BCBG Max Azria, Ralph Lauren, Lacoste, Marciano, Max Studio, Stuart Weitzman, Cole Haan, Tumi, and Versace.
FAO Schwartz operated a three-level store that closed in 2001, but occasionally the company will open a temporary location for the winter holiday shopping season. The mall also had one of the original locations of Tiffany & Co.'s Iridesse.
Restaurants include Cheesecake Factory, P. F. Chang's China Bistro, Legal Sea Foods, Corner Bakery Cafe, and Maggiano's Little Italy.
Several brands, including Bottega Veneta, Chanel, David Yurman, De Beers, Elie Tahari, Salvatore Ferragamo, Tory Burch, and Versace, have their only state-wide and Baltimore-Washington area boutiques in Tysons Galleria. Similarly, some high-end watch makers, including Breguet and Girard-Perregaux, have their only regional point of sale in Tysons Galleria.
The Macy's at Tysons Galleria caters to an affluent audience, carrying higher-end brands that are not found at the Macy's in neighboring Tysons Corner Center (which was originally a Hecht's).[6]
Scenes from the film First Kid were shot in the mall.