Belle View Shopping Center Celebrates Reopening

The Belle View institution was welcomed back with open arms by the community at Saturday’s celebration.

Jun. 21, 2021

3:36 p.m.

Photo by Susannah Moore

The community celebrates the reopening of the Belle View Shopping Center on June 19, 2021.

To say that the past 20 months have been tough for the Belle View Shopping Center is an understatement, but all of that is about to change now that the center has fully reopened with a new look.

In October 2019, a devastating 6-alarm fire tore through the east side of the shopping center, damaging 10 businesses and forcing six of them to close indefinitely. Two of those businesses never reopened. Soon after, the COVID-19 pandemic swept across the country, posing additional challenges to businesses struggling to recover from the fire.

On Saturday, the shopping center hosted a Summertime Fun 2021 Patron Appreciation Day to celebrate a new chapter as four businesses, GOLFTEC, Wine & Design, Roy Rogers and Spokes, etc. have all recently reopened and the whole shopping center received a renovation earlier this year.

The event featured free samples from restaurants in the center, as well as live music, balloons and other activities. Firefighters from the Penn Daw fire station hosted a fire truck demonstration. The station is the closest to the shopping center and was instrumental in putting out the shopping center fire.

Gary F. Sedoruk, Managing Director and Owner Representative of Benenson Capital Partners, LLC, Mount Vernon Supervisor Dan Storck and Mount Vernon School Board Representative Karen Corbett Sanders provided remarks at the event, thanking the firefighters and praising resiliency of business owners and community support.

As an additional expression of gratitude to the firefighters and the community, Belle View Shopping center presented a check for $2,500 to the non-profit Firefighters & Friends to the Rescue which supports underprivileged children in the DC metro area.

Photos from Saturday’s event are below.

1 of 28