Uptown Christiansburg (formerly New River Valley Mall) is an enclosed

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 ...

Christiansburg, Virginia Christiansburg (formerly Hans Meadows) is a town in Montgomery County, Virginia, United States. The population was 21,041 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Montgomery County. Christiansburg, Blacksburg and the city of Radford are th ...

, United States. Opened in 1988, it features Kohl's, Belk,

Homegoods HomeGoods is a chain of home furnishing stores headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. It was founded as a small chain in 1992, and grew to include hundreds of locations throughout the United States. HomeGoods sells furniture, linens, cooking ...

, and

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 ...

as its major anchor stores.

History

The mall opened in 1988. Built by

Crown American Crown American is a privately held American company that manages and develops commercial real estate. The corporate headquarters is in downtown Johnstown, Pennsylvania, in a building designed by architect Michael Graves. History The company wa ...

, it originally featured

Hess's Hess's was a department store chain based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The company started in 1897 with one store, originally known as Hess Brothers, and grew to nearly 80 stores by its peak in the late 1980s. The chain's stores were closed or sold ...

J. C. Penney 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, Girl ...

, Sears, and Leggett (now Belk). The mall struggled with vacancy for several years, and was only at 75 percent occupancy for most of the 1990s. In response to this,

PREIT Pennsylvania Real Estate Investment Trust is a publicly traded real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers mostly in the Mid-Atlantic states. History The company was founded by Sylvan M. Cohen in 1960 as one of the first equi ...

, which bought most of the Crown American portfolio, renovated the center throughout the 21st century. Renovations included expansion of the Belk space and a new

store, replacing Peebles which was operating out of the former Hess's space. A vacated movie theater was also turned into a

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

and a satellite campus of

New River Community College New River Community College (NRCC) is a public community college in Dublin, Virginia, in the New River Valley of southwestern Virginia. It is one of the 23 colleges in the Virginia Community College System. NRCC's service region covers the coun ...

. Sears closed in 2014, and was replaced by Kohl's a year later. In 2016, Farallon Capital Management acquired the mall from PREIT, and hired

CBL & Associates Properties CBL Properties (previously CBL & Associates, Inc., then CBL & Associates Properties, Inc.) is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers, primarily in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States. The company is or ...

to manage it. After J.C.Penney closed its store at the mall in 2017, the space was renovated to accommodate a new

Ulta Ulta Beauty, Inc., formerly known as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and before 2000 as Ulta3, is an American chain of beauty stores headquartered in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Ulta Beauty carries both high-end and low-end cosmetics, fragra ...

, and Kirklands.

Planet Fitness Planet Fitness (PFIP LLC) is an American franchisor and operator of fitness centers based in Hampton, New Hampshire. The company reports that it has 2,039 clubs, making it one of the largest fitness club franchises by number of members and loca ...

announced in 2018 that it would open in the Kohl's wing. Farallon Capital Management sold the mall to RockStep Capital for $21.6 million in Fall 2019. New River Valley Mall was renamed to Uptown Christiansburg in July 2020.

References

External links

Uptown Christiansburg official website
{{Shopping malls in Virginia Shopping malls in Virginia Buildings and structures in Montgomery County, Virginia Tourist attractions in Montgomery County, Virginia Shopping malls established in 1988 1988 establishments in Virginia