Towson Town Center

Towson Town Center

Towson Town Center from Dulaney Valley Road
Location 825 Dulaney Valley Road, Towson, Maryland, United States 21204
Opening date May 13, 1959[1]
Developer The Hahn Company
Management General Growth Properties
No. of stores and services 195
No. of anchor tenants 2
Total retail floor area 1,040,000 square feet (97,000 m2)[1]
No. of floors 4
Parking Lighted Lot, parking garage, 4400 spaces[1]
Website http://www.towsontowncenter.com/

Towson Town Center is a large indoor shopping mall located in Towson, Maryland. It was the largest indoor shopping mall in Maryland prior to the completion of Arundel Mills in late 2000 in Hanover and the 2007 expansion of the Annapolis Mall.

History

Towson Plaza was an open-air mall built in 1952 on ground originally sold by Goucher College. Towson Plaza was built next to the Towson location of Hutzler's which has since closed and been redeveloped. Towson Plaza was one of the earliest multi-level shopping centers.[2] and much of that original structure remains incorporated into the current mall as its two lower levels. The mall was enclosed in 1973, and renovated in 1982 with the opening of Hecht's across the parking lot. Lawrence Rachuba and the DeChiaro group were the developers.[3]

Over the years, stores and attractions were added on to increase traffic in the mall and make it more competitive with other malls in the area. One memorable effort was "Gadgets," a theme restaurant with mechanical characters performing periodic shows on stage, which opened and closed in the early 1980s. Some of the original stores survived this era but later closed, including Hess Shoes, Loewmeyer's, and Friendly's. Formerly occupying the original center court on Level 1, now the GBMC Grand Court, was The Garden Cafe bar and lounge along with a fountain partially inspired by Robert Woodward's El Alamein Fountain. The center's first glass elevator was installed between the old escalators. During the 1991 renovation, the fountain was replaced with a smaller fountain, which was later removed in 2008. In 1999, the popular theme restaurant, Rainforest Cafe opened in the mall and was a tenant for the next ten years, closing in January 2009.[4] Bistro Sensations took the place of Garden Cafe in 2000 and has since gone out of business. Other small fountains that were in the mall's domed courts have been converted into planters.

The third and fourth floors opened in October 1991 and included a new food court. While the third and fourth floors are directly above each other, access from the third floor to the second and first form a downhill pattern, as much of the mall property is on a slope. The 2007 expansion described below expanded the older first and second floors toward Dulaney Valley Road.

Anchor stores

At opposite ends of the mall are two department stores, Macy's (formerly Hecht's) and Nordstrom. The three-story Macy's connects to the mall's top two floors, while Nordstrom connects to all four mall floors (including Nordstrom Rack on the first floor).

Inside of Towson Town Center

Crime

A large parking garage is connected directly to the mall structure. A popular area high school teacher was murdered on one of the garage's upper levels in 2005, leading some to worry that the crime in inner-city Baltimore was gaining a stronger foothold in the suburbs. After the murder, several reports of mugging as well as muggers with guns led to several security upgrades with many firsts in mall security. On December 19, 2011, a man was shot and killed outside a service entrance to Nordstrom. The man's 4 alleged assailants have been arrested. On April 23, 2012, a man and woman were robbed at gunpoint by 3 men in one of mall's parking garages. The robbers remain at large.[5]

On January 24, 2013 a man stole $35,050 worth of merchandise from the Louis Vuitton store.

A cell phone video in December 2015 showed police at the scene of a disruption at the mall. Teenagers were accused of throwing rocks st police officers.

Curfew

On September 16, 2016, A new rule was put in place saying anyone under the age of 17 will not be allowed in the mall after 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday and Saturday nights unless they are with a adult.

Renovations

In 2007, Towson Town Center began a $76 million expansion and renovation project that added to the existing structure, its largest expansion since 1992. The project included renovations to the mall's first and second floors, parking, restaurants, and a "Main Street"-style facade with exterior shopping, which was largely completed in October 2008. The project includes a flagship Crate & Barrel store, P.F. Chang's, Cheesecake Factory.

Location

Towson Town Center is located at the intersection of York Road, Dulaney Valley Road, and Joppa Road and is also bordered in the north by Fairmount Avenue. It can be accessed from the Baltimore Beltway by taking exit 27 and heading south.

The mall is close to Goucher College, Towson University, the Towson Sheraton hotel, and the Towson branch of the Baltimore County library.

Public bus service to the mall is available on Routes 3, 8, 11, 12, 48 and 55, operated by the Maryland Transit Administration. The Collegetown Network, a joint venture of many higher-education institutions in and around Baltimore, also operates a shuttle service that transports many students to and from the mall.

As of July 2014, Towson Town Center is directly across the street via Joppa Road from the new Towson Square development that contains a brand new Cinemark movie theater, re-introducing a movie theater into the downtown Towson area which formerly had an AMC movie theater at Towson Commons a few blocks away on York Road which closed and a LA Fitness replaced the theater.

Anchors

Parking

Towson Town Center has three main parking garages. The mall has a total of 4400 parking spaces.[1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Towson Town Center Center Information". General Growth Properties. Retrieved 2010-10-23.
  2. ↑ http://www.greatertowson.com/html/gtc_funfacts.html
  3. ↑ "Lawrence R. Rachuba took his father -in-law's property development company to new heights. Then the family partnership unraveled.".
  4. ↑ "Rainforest Cafe in Towson closes doors". The Baltimore Sun.
  5. ↑ Song, Jason (2005-02-20). "Respected teacher at St. Paul's was Towson mall shooting victim" (reprint). The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved 2007-04-24.

Coordinates: 39°24′04″N 76°36′16″W / 39.40115°N 76.60449°W / 39.40115; -76.60449

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