Crossing Broad
Jake Blumgart at the Inquirer:
Northeast Philadelphia’s Franklin Mall — better known by its original name, Franklin Mills — is for sale after years of plummeting valuation, occupancy, and visitor numbers.
A listing on the website of real estate brokerage Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) includes possible uses a new owner can consider, including industrial and office development. The parcels including Sam’s Club and Walmart are not included in the sale.
No surprises here. That place was just as empty as most of the malls in the suburbs, most of which are being redeveloped and/or already flipped years ago. Add Franklin Mills to a list that includes Plymouth Meeting, Coventry, Exton, Granite Run, etc. Echelon Mall turned into the Voorhees Town Center and Montgomery is hanging on by a thread. It’s a tough time for Millennial and Gen X mallrats.
What’s funny is that there was a viral A.I. clickbait story going around in the summer asking if this location would be a possible spot for a new Philadelphia Eagles stadium. We took the bait and dove head-first into the hypothetical, noting that this locale checked the following boxes:
Where it fails is public transportation, for starters. You only have the Cornwells Heights stop on the Trenton train line, and that’s not walkable to the Franklin Mills site. You have I-95 right there, but people coming from the western suburbs have to use Woodhaven and the Boulevard and that annoying intersection with 276 and Street Road. That area blows already, but it’s not any worse than trying to drive in and out of the sports complex, is it? There are also residential neighborhoods right across from Knights Road, so that’s something you have to consider. It would probably be similar to Gillette in Foxboro if this ever happened.
Honestly, I want to hate it. But I don’t hate it. Why? Dunno. It doesn’t seem realistic that the Eagles would ever leave South Philly for Northeast Philly, but if we can’t spitball about this on an irreverent sports blog, then what else are we to do? Big J Journalism?
Here’s the description from the seller’s site:
*Jones Lang LaSalle Americas, Inc. (“JLL”) has been retained as exclusive advisor for the sale of Franklin Mall, formerly known as Philadelphia Mills, (the “Property” or “Mall”), an exceptionally located, single-level super regional shopping center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The Property is situated on approximately 170.37 acres, 137.23 of which are owned. Comprising approximately 1,604,934 square feet (“SF”) of gross leasable area (“GLA”), Franklin Mall offers an anchor line-up that is ideally suited for the trade area including Wal-Mart (non-owned, 179,868 SF), Sam’s Club (non-owned, 133,010 SF), Burlington (128,000 SF), Marshall’s (70,701 SF), Dave and Buster’s (60,268 SF) and two available boxes (100,200 SF and...
