Gallery Mall to Get Total Makeover

Dark, dingy, and half-empty, the Gallery at Market East is nobody’s idea of a great shopping mall. It currently features brick steps leading to an entrance below street level, and dim, unattractive concourses that look like throwbacks to the 70s and 80s. Overall, it is currently an ugly and unappealing excuse for a place to shop. All that is soon to change, however. Joseph Coradino, CEO of Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust, which operates the Gallery, envisions a totally-redone mall that’s light, bright, and filled with great clothes at even better bargains.

An artist’s rendering shows the light, bright Fashion Outlets of Philadelphia.

Under Coradino’s vision the Gallery will be transformed into the Fashion Outlets of Philadelphia. Mayor Nutter announced the “tentative” plan recently, the force of which hinges on the city and state coughing up a fair chunk of the heavy construction costs that will be incurred by PREIT. At least three government agencies need to approve the scheme, which calls for Philadelphia and Pennsylvania to come up with at least $90.5 million to help with the estimated $325 million in redevelopment costs. In addition, the city would be expected to come up with $58 million in maintenance and upkeep costs over the next 43 years.

Should the plan be approved, construction could start this summer and the new mall could open in two years. As imagined, the Fashion Outlets would feature a glass-enclosed entrance right at street level, and plenty of light filling the levels of the mall. The Outlets would bring something bright and beautiful to the notoriously dismal stretch between City Hall and Independence Square. It would feature stores that sell high-end designer brands at lower costs, as well as several restaurants, maybe a movie theater, and either a bowling alley or a bocce court.