Week 12: Staunton Mall's interior is shelled out, closer to full demolition

Laura Peters, Staunton News Leader
·3 min read

STAUNTON — More of the Staunton Mall has been demolished. Now in week 12 of teardown efforts, the mall is well underway of being closer to full demolition.

Demo started on the abandoned mall in March at the former J.C. Penney. Now, it stretches to the old United Church location, where Queen City Strength used to be located.

It looks like inside the mall has been scooped out like a bucket of ice cream. Much of the exterior walls have been left standing creating a jagged outline of the mall from J.C. Penney to the mid-section. The News Leader has reached out to demo crew Metro Industrial Wrecking asking what happens with the materials that are being torn down from the mall, but did not hear back.

The demolition is making way for a flex space with retail and multifamily use, according to plans.

The mall closed in early 2021 after it was sold to Staunton EM 2 LLC for $3,675,000. The stores remaining on the property include Dollar Tree, Belk, McDonalds, Red Lobster and the T-Mobile store.

Commonwealth Commercial, which is in charge of leasing out the spaces, hasn't given many updates on what comes next. Carl Blackwell with Commonwealth Commercial said they are working on a demolition plan with the build back of retail, office, flex and multi-family.

There are three parcels available near McDonalds heading toward Belk, two near the former J.C. Penney and four in the back portion of the current mall's footprint, including the back parking lot. The front portion of the mall, past the J.C. Penney store to Belk, looks like it would be torn down to make for a larger parking lot.

With the partial demolition of the mall, it would revert to a strip mall with several new outparcel businesses.

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Here's a timeline of the mall:

  • The property began as an open air shopping plaza concept in 1969.

  • In 1985, it was renovated and roofed in for indoor shopping.

  • In 2004, then-owner Colonial Properties Trust announced it wanted to sell what was then called Colonial Mall Staunton, along with five other malls it owned.

  • First Republic Group Realty purchased the property in 2007, renaming it Staunton Mall.

  • Staunton Mall Realty LLC bought the shopping center in November 2010 for $4.05 million when then-owner First Republic Realty was in bankruptcy.

  • In 2014, Staunton Mall Realty LLC sold the property to Staunton Mall LLC, a Delaware company for $4.5 million. Once the mall was sold, a new management team came in, which has also seen turnover. Then, Asprey Real Estate Corp. took over management in 2015.

  • Peebles closed in 2018.

  • J.C. Penney closed in 2020.

  • The mall was sold in 2021.

  • It was rezoned in 2021 for multifamily residential.

  • Teardown began in March 2022.

Laura Peters is the trending topics reporter at The News Leader. Have a news tip on local trends or businesses? Or a good feature? You can reach reporter Laura Peters (she/her) at lpeters@newsleader.com. Follow her @peterslaura. Subscribe to The News Leader at newsleader.com.

This article originally appeared on Staunton News Leader: Week 12: Staunton Mall's interior shelled out, closer to full demolition