(Note: Wrecking ball starts about 4 minutes into the video above.)
Just before noon on Thursday, a wrecking ball hit Landmark Mall. Cheers nearly drowned out the sound of glass, metal and concrete being crushed.
Alexandria Living Magazine
Mayor Wilson at the start of demolition of Landmark Mall in Alexandria's West End.
The first strike at Landmark Mall was years in the making, as city officials and a rotating cast of property owners planned and replanned to redevelop the dying mall.
Now, it's actually happening.
"It is happening because everyone refused to quit," Wilson said, crediting the can-do attitude of city officials and partners from Foulger-Pratt, Seritage, Howard Hughes Corp. and Inova Health System, whose new hospital will take up 11 acres on the site. The first residential buildings will deliver in 2025.
An enthusiastic Mayor Justin Wilson noted in his opening remarks that the project is on schedule. (Later, after a miscommunication with the crane operator delayed the first swing of the wrecking ball, Wilson joked, "We were on schedule until right now.")
In a project dubbed “WestEnd Alexandria,” Foulger-Pratt and other partners, including Inova, are tearing down the old mall and building a new hospital and trauma center, townhomes, senior living, retail and multiple other buildings on the 51-acre site.
"This is the most significant advancement for the West End of the city since annexation," Wilson noted, and the benefits will continue for generations to come. He later said the mall was a symbol of the area's economic struggles for decades, and now it will be a symbol of its vitality and strength.
This isn’t Foulger-Pratt’s first crack at Landmark Mall. In 1990, Foulger-Pratt renovated and added to the mall, including building the garage. One of Foulger-Pratt CEO Cameron Pratt’s first jobs was in Landmark Mall construction, he noted at Thursday’s event.
Pratt said he's excited about turning the area into the heart of the West End of Alexandria, including open space.
"A lot of stakeholders are excited about this milestone," said Brigg Bunker, managing partner and COO of Foulger-Pratt.
After most shops left the mall in the early 2010s, creative reuse programs started. These including educational institutions using some storefronts, a temporary homeless shelter in the former Macy's, and a movie set for a major motion picture (Wonder Woman 1984). Amazon and a car dealership have been using parking spaces around the building. Sears, the last operating business at the mall, closed in late 2020.
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LisaHelfert
The main mall building, the Sears automotive center, the former SunTrust Bank building and the Arlington Forest garage will all be demolished along with two flyovers at North Van Dorn Street and Duke Street at the southeast side of the site. The only structure which will not be torn down is the parking garage on the north part of the site, which will be retrofitted as part of the redevelopment. Developers will reuse some of the concrete from demolition in the new project and a large amount of steel will be recycled.
Construction hours will be Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. with any Saturday construction taking place between 9 a.m. and 6 a.m. although crews will try to keep the need for any Saturday work to a minimum.
Demolition will be completed using excavators, so there will be no dramatic explosions. Foulger-Pratt has declined to set up a construction camera, though drivers along North Van Dorn and Duke streets may be able to see some activity as they drive past. (A good vantage point may be the hill behind Big Lots at the corner of Duke and South Walker streets.)
Following demolition, the site will need a significant amount of regrading and infrastructure. The first buildings will not begin to appear until 2024 and construction is expected to continue until 2028 with the completion of the new Inova hospital.
More information on the new West End development can be found on the project website, westendva.com
