The Philadelphia Business Journal reported on November 20th that developer Lubert-Adler has the majority of the Plymouth Meeting Mall property under agreement with the intention to redevelop it into a mixed use town center.

MoreThanTheCurve.com first heard hints of this back in September and inquired with the parties involved, Lubert-Adler and PREIT, on September 19th, and did not receive a response.

According to a Philadelphia Business Journal article, Dean Adler of Lubert-Adler said they are exploring a variety of uses as it relates to a mixed-use town center, including residential, indoor and outdoor sports fields, a courtyard, an ice rink, and a community pool. What would remain of the existing mall (that is included in this acquisition) is not yet known.

It is important to note that there are other major property owners on what is generally considered the Plymouth Meeting Mall property. Keystone Development + Investment purchased the office building attached to the mall in 2013 and is currently converting that building into apartments.

MoreThanTheCurve.com first reported that the former Macy’s portion of the mall, redeveloped between 2017 and 2019, had been sold to Goodman Properties. That portion of the mall is home to Dick’s Sports Goods, Burlington, Miller’s Ale House, Michael’s, and Edge Fitness. An entity named Agree Shelf PA LLC owns the building that is home to Whole Foods Market.

Adler did not address in the article whether or how all of these other properties would be integrated into the town center plan.

In recent years, PREIT has sought to redevelop the former IKEA office building site on the edge of the property into apartments. After scaling the number of units down from 500 to 300, the township eventually passed an ordinance allowing apartments by conditional use, but PREIT never sought that approval. The Keystone apartment project was permitted under a separate zoning amendment that allowed conversions of existing buildings.

What, if any, zoning changes will be needed for Lubert-Adler to move forward with its plan has not been publicly discussed at this point. Many of the uses Adler outlined are permitted within the Shopping Center District. Based on the planning and zoning meetings involving the mall that we have attended over the past several years, the uses won’t really be the driving concern. Traffic, circulation around the property, and parking will most likely be the focus.

This will likely be an ongoing news story for the next two years. Stay tuned for more.