Fair Oaks Mall is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

in the Fair Oaks

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counterparts of incorporated places, such ...

(CDP) of unincorporated

Fairfax County, Virginia Fairfax County, officially the County of Fairfax, is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is part of Northern Virginia and borders both the city of Alexandria and Arlington County and forms part of the suburban ring of Washington, D.C. ...

, just northwest of the independent city of Fairfax. It is located at the intersection of

Interstate 66 Interstate 66 (I-66) is an east–west Interstate Highway in the eastern United States. It runs from an interchange with I-81 near Middletown, Virginia, on its western end to an interchange with U.S. Route 29 (US 29) in Washingt ...

and

U.S. Route 50 U.S. Route 50 or U.S. Highway 50 (US 50) is a major east–west route of the U.S. Highway system, stretching from Interstate 80 (I-80) in West Sacramento, California, to Maryland Route 528 (MD 528) in Ocean City, Maryland, on the Atlanti ...

. The mall has a

gross leasable area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

(GLA) of . The anchor stores are

Dave & Buster's Dave & Buster's is an American restaurant and entertainment business headquartered in Dallas. Each Dave & Buster's has a full-service restaurant and a video arcade. As of October 2022, the company has 151 locations in the United States and two ...

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, Macy's Furniture Gallery, and a combination of

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores an ...

and

Golf Galaxy Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...

. In August 2007 it was announced by

Taubman Centers Taubman Centers, Inc. is an American real estate investment trust headquartered in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The company invests in shopping centers, and is a subsidiary of Simon Property Group since 2020. History The company was founded in 19 ...

that preliminary plans were in the works to expand the mall by 34%. From 2013 through 2014 Fair Oaks Mall underwent a renovation of the common areas of the mall. The five entrances to the mall were completely renovated, and a grand entrance was built on the north side of the mall along Route 50. The interior was updated with new floor tile, seating areas, technology tables, lighting, furniture, Michael & Son Fun Zone and customer service desk. In March 2019 the restaurant and entertainment facility

opened, bringing the total sit-down restaurants offered to seven, including

Cheesecake Factory The Cheesecake Factory Incorporated is an American restaurant company and distributor of cheesecakes based in the United States. The company operates 219 full-service restaurants: 206 under The Cheesecake Factory brand and 13 under the Grand Lux C ...

, Brio Tuscan Grille,

Texas de Brazil Texas de Brazil is a family owned churrascaria (Brazilian steakhouse) restaurant chain with locations both internationally and domestically. It debuted October 13, 1998 in Addison, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. The restaurant is a Brazilian-American � ...

, On the Border, Breakers Korean BBQ & Grill (upcoming), and Sushi On. In 2020, a

Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar is an American casual dining restaurant chain. As of February 6, 2022, Lazy Dog operates 40 restaurants across eight states: California, Florida, Nevada, Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Georgia and Virginia. The restaurant's n ...

opened next to the

History

Fair Oaks Mall officially opened on July 31, 1980. The mall, developed by the Taubman Company, opened in the midst of a

recession In economics, a recession is a business cycle contraction when there is a general decline in economic activity. Recessions generally occur when there is a widespread drop in spending (an adverse demand shock). This may be triggered by various ...

, with only four of six anchor stores in operation (

Hecht's Hecht's, also known as Hecht Brothers, Hecht Bros. and the Hecht Company, was a large chain of department stores that operated mainly in the mid-Atlantic and southern region of the United States. The firm originated in Baltimore, Maryland. By 20 ...

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

, and

Woodward & Lothrop Woodward & Lothrop was a department store chain headquartered in Washington, D.C. that began as the capital's first department store in 1887. Woodies, as it was often nicknamed, maintained stores in the Mid-Atlantic United States. Its flagship s ...

) and 15 other storefronts occupied, leaving three fourths of the storefronts empty. The two remaining anchors opened shortly after: in-line junior anchor

Garfinckel's Garfinckel's was a prominent department store Chain store, chain based in Washington, D.C. that catered to a customer, clientele of wealthy consumers. Its flagship store at 14th and F in the city's F Street shopping district is listed on the Nati ...

on August 21, 1980, and

Lord & Taylor Lord & Taylor was the oldest brick and mortar department store in the United States, in business from 1826 to 2020. The brand was purchased during former owner Le Tote's 2020 liquidation bankruptcy and relaunched by new owner, Saadia Group, as ...

in spring 1981. Developers expected 60 to be occupied by the Christmas season and 100 by the following year. Upon opening, it was the largest mall in the

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

, area. It included the first suburban Washington location of the British homegoods store

Conran's Habitat (a trading name of Argos Limited), is a brand of household furnishings in the United Kingdom and the main homewares brand within the Sainsbury's group. Founded in 1964 by Sir Terence Conran, it merged with a number of other retailers ...

. In 1982, the Fair Oaks Mall was one of the first sites used by Sears as part of its effort to offer

financial services Financial services are the Service (economics), economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of businesses that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit-card companies, insurance companies, acco ...

to customers, including stocks, bonds, insurance and real estate, from its

Dean Witter Dean Witter Reynolds was an American stock brokerage and securities firm catering to a variety of clients. Prior to the company's acquisition, it was among the largest firms in the securities industry with over 9,000 account executives (ranking t ...

Allstate The Allstate Corporation is an American insurance company, headquartered in Northfield Township, Illinois, near Northbrook since 1967. Founded in 1931 as part of Sears, Roebuck and Co., it was spun off in 1993 but still partially owned by S ...

and

Coldwell Banker Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC is an American real estate franchise owned by Anywhere Real Estate, with headquarters in Madison, New Jersey. It was founded in 1906 in San Francisco, and has approximately 3000 offices in 49 countries and territor ...

subsidiaries. In 1987, the mall's owners attempted to evict Garfinckel's and a related company, Raleigh Stores Holding, Inc., claiming that the store owners had not received the landlord's permission to assign the lease after

Allied Stores Allied Stores was a department store chain in the United States. It was founded in the 1930s as part of a general consolidation in the retail sector by B. E. Puckett. See also Associated Dry Goods. It was the successor to Hahn's Department Store ...

divested some lines of business. The Garfinckel's chain went out of business in 1990, and Woodward & Lothrop used the space as an auxiliary store for home furnishings. After Woodward & Lothrop went out of business, their furniture store became a Mastercraft furniture store, and then

Forever 21 Forever 21 is a multinational fast fashion retailer headquartered in Los Angeles, California, United States. Originally founded as the store Fashion 21 in Highland Park, Los Angeles in 1984,Forever 21History & Facts, n.d. Retrieved 27 April 2014 ...

in 2008. In 1998, Lord & Taylor moved from its original location to the old Woodward & Lothrop store. The old Lord & Taylor was converted to the mall's first Macy's. In 1988, seeking to reach out to a broader range of patrons, the Fairfax library system opened a 10,000-volume branch at the Fair Oaks Mall. The mall also contains a Virginia DMV customer service center. Fairfax Corner, a planned lifestyle center, opened in 2004 just south of Fair Oaks. The late 2010's saw multiple classic chain anchors retreat from brick and mortar after being disrupted by digital retailers in recent years. In August 2018, it was announced

would shutter and be reconstructed into additional mall space which includes

as well as a

. On August 27, 2020, it was announced that the Lord & Taylor location at the mall would be closing.

References

External links

Fair Oaks Mall
{{Coord, 38.863, -77.359, display=title Taubman Centers Shopping malls in Virginia Economy of Fairfax County, Virginia Shopping malls established in 1980 1980 establishments in Virginia Shopping malls in the Washington metropolitan area