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By Kim, May 11, 2010

I’m sure all of you denizens of the Springfield, Virginia area are eager for news of what’s going on with the big project to redevelop Springfield Mall into a bustling multipurpose, mixed-use retail/hotel/office/residential complex, as advertised starting in about 2006.

And I wish I could tell you. I’ve been trying to keep up with this project, which is so critical to the future of the area, but . . . it’s . . . taking . . . a . . . lot . . . of . . . time.

My last post on the subject, about three months ago, included information from Supervisor Jeff McKay’s office to the effect that construction on Phase One, including a new food court, movie theater and indoor renovations, should begin in April or May. Not happening. I was there yesterday and  the only renovations to be seen are a small bit of torn up floor tiles, and a single set of the old off-white railings repainted grey, outside the interior Macy’s entrance upstairs. I’m told this work is preparatory to a test of some minor work planned for the rest of the mall interior.

McKay’s office remains confident that the project is on track because the various permit applications and meetings are continuing. The project received County rezoning approval last July, but McKay’s office says the various permitting requirements for a project of this magnitude are quite time-consuming.

The mall’s owner, Vornado Realty Trust, appears to be in strong financial condition despite the current state of the commercial real estate market. They are making a profit – unlike General Growth, the owner of Landmark Mall, who also had big plans but just went through the largest bankruptcy in US history.

However, Vornado has just this spring defaulted on mortgages for at least three projects – Springfield Mall ($164 million), High Point (NC) Merchandise Mart ($217 million) and The Cannery in San Francisco ($18 million). It is widely assumed that these defaults are strategic, designed to force the renegotiation of the mortgages for Vornado’s benefit, and that they want to continue to hold, manage and renovate the properties more or less as originally planned. That would make hardball business sense, I suppose, but it’s not the kind of dealing that would make me pleased to have Vornado as a major player in my town.

Update 5/12/2010:  A scenario for your consideration – Vornado’s mortgage on the Mall is nonrecourse debt, meaning Vornado is not liable for making its lenders whole if the property is worth less than the mortgage. This is different from residential mortgages in most places, where the lender can file a judgment against you if you default, and recover losses from other assets you might have or acquire.

So, commercial property goes into general decline (which it has), plus Vornado “manages” the property in such a way as to make it less valuable – i.e., by losing most of the tenants, which seems to have been accomplished. (Remember, the anchor stores – Target, Macy’s Penney’s – are not tenants; they own their stores.) Then, Vornado defaults on it’s now much-less-valuable property – or threatens to. The lender, faced with renegotiating the debt or taking a possibly even bigger loss through foreclosure and resale, is now over a barrel – even if it forecloses and sells the property to the highest bidder, the highest bidder could still be Vornado or some shell company they own.

Hmmm . . . .

More news as I get it.

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By Kim, February 4, 2010

From the Springfield Connection’s report on a Jeff McKay Lee District Town Hall meeting on January 30:

McKay gave an update on the Springfield Mall renovations, saying that the 10-year plan to rehabilitate the mall is underway and is making good progress. Phase one, which includes a new food court, movie theater and indoor renovations has been revamped, he said, and construction should begin in April or May.

“The news is good for the Springfield Mall,” McKay said. “The first phase is the most important part because what we really want out of the mall is quality retail and entertainment and that is what is going in, in the first phase.”

Further update – in his newsletter today, Supervisor McKay said,

Redevelopment of the mall has been a priority and we have successfully worked with the mall owner in planning a transformation into a modern, pedestrian-oriented mixed-use town center . . . The new mall and town center will include a grocery store, dog park, tot lot, athletic courts, fitness center, and state-of-the-art movie theater. Other community investments that are part of this case include an artificial turf field for Lee High School, financial contributions to the Lee District REC Center, Springfield Regional Road Fund, the TAGS circulator bus system, and improved access to Metro from the Mall.

And yet another update – I heard from McKay’s office in the midst of all the snow:

The website that you referenced was taken down, but only so it could be updated. We had received many complaints about how outdated the site was, so Vornado decided to take it down and put “Under Construction” on the page for the time being. We are in difficult times right now and just have to understand that projects are all being slowed a little bit, on what we can visually see. However, Vornado continues to make progress on building permits and site plans with the County and hasn’t given us any reason to believe they won’t be moving forward.

More updates as I see them!

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By Kim, July 14, 2009

From the Fairfax Times today:

A complete overhaul of the Springfield Mall and surrounding areas gained final approval July 13.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved turning the 34-year-old mall property into a more urban-style town center that the community hopes will once again make central Springfield a destination.

“Springfield Mall needed a complete transformation,” said Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee). “We wanted a regional mall on par with other regional malls in the area that we could be proud of.”

The project includes upgrades to the mall itself, as well as construction of new offices, apartments, a hotel, movie theater and additional restaurants and shops. Mall owner Vornado has also promised to improve connections to the Franconia-Springfield Metro station for pedestrians, cyclists and buses; build a synthetic turf playing field; and contribute to area road and park improvements.

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By Kim, May 18, 2009

From the Washington Examiner:

Supervisors delay Springfield Mall redevelopment

Fairfax County supervisors on Monday [5/18/2009] delayed a vote on the long-awaited overhaul of Springfield Mall after an unresolved issue among landowners knocked the project off course. County officials and mall owners alike had hoped for a quick rezoning approval that would have allowed the ambitious redevelopment to move forward. The makeover would install new retail, hotel, office and living space on the site of the languishing mall, as well as trails, parks and other improvements.

The delay is rooted in a disagreement over details of the project among the four owners of the 80-acre mall property, officials said. County supervisors Monday agreed to delay the rezoning until July. [Kim note - ugh.]

“For me, this is a very difficult thing to have to do, because the community has embraced this project, and county staff has moved mountains” to keep it on schedule, said Lee District Supervisor Jeff McKay. McKay said one of the landowners, Target, has not reached an agreement on proffers, which are contributions to roads, schools and other services a developer makes in exchange for a rezoning.

Overhauling Springfield Mall has been one of the county’s top revitalization priorities for years. Eclipsed by better-regarded shopping centers in Tysons Corner, the mall garnered an undesirable reputation as a symbol of suburban decay. Officials hope to use the revamp to reverse that image.

They’re not the only ones!

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By Kim, May 7, 2009

From the Springfield Connection:

At its May 18 meeting, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors is expected to approve a rezoning proposal and finally sign off on the transformation of the Springfield Mall into a commercial and residential town center.

The mall’s owner, Vornado Realty Trust, plans to redevelop the 80-acre suburban retail shopping center into an area where people will be able to live, work, dine and entertain themselves — all without getting into a car.

According to the Web site, www.springfieldtowncenter.com, the new town center would include high-quality retailers, a state of-the-art movie theater, “Class-A” office space, upscale hotels and “premier” residential homes.

Vornado’s plans also include parks and plazas with pathways that make travel between residential and commercial space easy. According to the Web site, parking would be offered throughout the development.

“This is the single most important project for Springfield obviously, but I think it is also the most important project for the entire county. I can’t think of another regional shopping center that is in such dire need,” said Supervisor Jeff McKay (D-Lee), who represents the area where the Springfield Mall is located.

The Springfield Mall has many amenities some of the county’s higher performing shopping centers, including Tysons Corner, Fairfax Corner and Reston Town Center, lack. The mall is at the crossroads of Northern Virginia’s two major thoroughfares, the Capital Beltway and Interstate 95, and is in close proximity to a Metro station.

McKay said the mall has not lived in up to its potential, primarily because of poor and irresponsible ownership in the past. With Vornado at the helm of the redevelopment project, he expected the site to flourish.

“Springfield Mall had everything that Tysons Corner craved, except a good owner. There is no reason why that mall can’t exceed Tysons Corner in quality when it has everything going for it that it has,” said McKay.

McKay and other supervisors have been frustrated with recent delays in getting the Springfield development underway.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission approved the site’s rezoning application in February and the supervisors were supposed to vote on the plans in late March. But negotiations between the Target store and Vornado held up the supervisors’ final approval.

“It is unfortunate that Target and Vornado had not talked earlier in the process than they did on some of these last-minute details,” said Stuart Mendelsohn, Target’s lawyer and former Dranesville supervisor.

Target, one of the mall’s current retail anchors, owns the land on which its store sits and has more control over what happens to its property than most of the mall’s other retail outlets.

The mall redevelopment plans called for the current Target to grow from a one-floor store to a two-floor store; however, the company did not want to be locked into any specific expansion plans.

“Ultimately, I think [the expansion] is what they would like to do but, at this point, they were not prepared to move forward on that,” said Mendelsohn.

Target was also displeased with the configuration of the parking garage that is planned for outside the store’s entrance, said Mendelsohn and McKay.

But ultimately, Target is excited about the Springfield Mall redevelopment and wants the project to move forward.

“Target is absolutely supportive of all the changes coming to the mall,” said Mendelsohn.