Towson Town Center
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Towson Town Center is a large indoor
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 ...
located in
Towson, Maryland Towson () is an unincorporated community and a census-designated place in Baltimore County, Maryland, United States. The population was 55,197 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Baltimore County and the second-most populous unincor ...
. It was the largest indoor shopping mall in Maryland prior to the completion of
Arundel Mills Arundel Mills is a shopping mall located in unincorporated Anne Arundel County, Maryland (with a Hanover mailing address). It is 59.3% owned by Simon Property Group, who manages the mall. With its GLA, it is the largest mall in the state of ...
in late 2000 in
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
and the 2007 expansion of
Westfield Annapolis Westfield Annapolis is a shopping mall, owned by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and is located near the junction of U.S. Route 50 and Interstate 97 in Parole, near Annapolis, Maryland. As of 2022, the mall features the traditional tenants Macy's and ...
.


History

Towson Plaza was an open-air mall built in 1952 on ground originally sold by
Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a private liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland. It was chartered in 1885 by a conference in Baltimore led by namesake John F. Goucher and local leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.https://archive.org/details/h ...
. Towson Plaza was built next to the Towson location of
Hutzler's Hutzler's, or Hutzler Brothers Company, was a department store founded in Baltimore by Abram G. Hutzler (1836–1927) in 1858. From its beginning as a small dry goods store at the corner of Howard and Clay Streets in downtown Baltimore, Hutzler's ...
which has since closed and been redeveloped. Towson Plaza was one of the earliest multi-level shopping centers. 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 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 ...
across the parking lot. Lawrence Rachuba and the DeChiaro group were the developers. 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 restaurant and arcade. It was a
Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
themed restaurant with
animatronic Animatronics refers to mechatronic puppets. They are a modern variant of the automaton and are often used for the portrayal of characters in films and in theme park attractions. It is a multidisciplinary field integrating puppetry, anatomy a ...
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 Friendly's is a restaurant chain on the East Coast of the United States. Friendly's was founded in 1935 in Springfield, Massachusetts, by the brothers S. Prestley Blake and Curtis Blake. It has 10,000 employees; George Michel is the CEO. It ...
. The Level 1 center court featured The Garden Cafe and a dandelion fountain at its entrance. The glass elevator was installed between the old escalators. During the 1991 renovation, the fountain was replaced with a smaller one. 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. Bistro Sensations took the place of Garden Cafe in 2000 and has since gone out of business. The third and fourth floors were developed by
The Hahn Company The Hahn Company, San Diego, California, alternately known as Ernest W. Hahn, Inc., was a major American shopping center owner and developer from the 1950s to the 1980s. Purchased by the Trizec Corp. in 1980 (which then took the name TrizecHahn), ...
, later TrizecHahn, and opened in October 1991. It included the addition of the Arbor Terrace food court on Level 3. New fountains were added to the
Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...
court and third floor courts along with a glass elevator connecting Levels 3 and 4. The upper floors sit above a parking garage while access to the lower levels form a downhill pattern, as much of the mall property was built on a slope. The 2007 expansion described below expanded the older first and second floors toward Dulaney Valley Road. The mall was sold to
The Rouse Company The Rouse Company, founded by Hunter Moss and James W. Rouse in 1939, was a publicly held shopping mall and community developer from 1956 until 2004, when General Growth Properties (GGP) purchased the company. Beginnings - Moss-Rouse Company ...
in 1998 years before it was acquired by
General Growth Properties GGP Inc. (an initialism of General Growth Properties) was an American commercial real estate company and the second-largest shopping mall operator in the United States. It was founded by brothers Martin, Matthew and Maurice Bucksbaum in Ceda ...
. All GGP properties were transferred to Brookfield Properties in 2018.


Stores

At opposite ends of the mall are two department stores,
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 ...
(formerly
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 ...
) and
Nordstrom Nordstrom, Inc. () is an American luxury department store chain headquartered in Seattle, Washington, and founded by John W. Nordstrom and Carl F. Wallin in 1901. The original Wallin & Nordstrom store operated exclusively as a shoe store, a ...
. The three-story
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 ...
connects to the mall's top two floors, while Nordstrom connects to all four mall floors (including Nordstrom Rack on the first floor). Current tenants *Nordstrom (since 1991) *Macy’s (Since 2006) Former tenant *Hecht’s (closed 2006)


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. Four men were convicted in the gang-related shooting. 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. On January 24, 2013, a man stole $35,050 worth of merchandise from the
Louis Vuitton Louis Vuitton Malletier, commonly known as Louis Vuitton (, ), is a French high-end luxury fashion house and company founded in 1854 by Louis Vuitton. The label's LV monogram appears on most of its products, ranging from luxury bags and leather ...
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 at police officers. This has resulted in a permanent curfew for residents under the age of 17 from entering the mall after 5:00 P.M. on Fridays and Saturdays without an adult present with them.


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 Euromarket Designs Inc., doing business as Crate & Barrel (stylized as Crate&Barrel), is an international furniture and home décor retail store headquartered in Northbrook, Illinois. They employ 8200 employees across over 100 stores in the Uni ...
store,
P.F. Chang's China Bistro P. F. Chang's China Bistro is an American-based, casual dining restaurant chain founded in 1993 by Paul Fleming and Philip Chiang that serves Asian fusion cuisine. Centerbridge Partners owned and operated Chang's until acquired by the private e ...
,
The 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 ...
, Stoney River Legendary Steaks, and T.G.I. Friday's. In November 2016, Towson Town Center began a million dollar renovation to its four parking garages. This involved the addition of Park assist technology. A “Park Assist” system alerts customers to available parking spaces through overhead red and green lights. According to owner Brookfield Properties, they also remodeled mall entrances, enclosed bridges from parking decks to the center, enhanced lighting and updated signage, adding 1,600 standardized signs, including at all major entrances.


Location

Towson Town Center is located at the intersection of York Road, Dulaney Valley Road, and
Joppa Road Joppa Road is a county highway in the U.S. state of Maryland. The highway extends from Maryland Route 25 (MD 25) in Brooklandville east to MD 7 near White Marsh. Joppa Road has three main segments separated by very short breaks on its course ...
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 Goucher College ( ') is a private liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland. It was chartered in 1885 by a conference in Baltimore led by namesake John F. Goucher and local leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.https://archive.org/details/h ...
,
Towson University Towson University (TU or Towson) is a public university in Towson, Maryland. Founded in 1866 as Maryland's first training school for teachers, Towson University is a part of the University System of Maryland. Since its founding, the university h ...
, and the Towson branch of the Baltimore County
library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vir ...
. Public bus service to the mall is available on bus routes 36, 51, 52, 93, CityLink Green, and CityLink Red operated by the
Maryland Transit Administration The Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) is a state-operated mass transit administration in Maryland, and is part of the Maryland Department of Transportation. The MTA operates a comprehensive transit system throughout the Baltimore-Washingt ...
. 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. The
Towson Square Towson Square, originally known as Towson Circle III while in planning, is an outdoor mall constructed between 2013 and 2014 in Towson, Maryland. The outdoor mall is estimated to cost have $85 million to be built by its developers, Cordish Compa ...
development, with restaurants and a movie theater, is across Joppa Rd. The Prospect Hill Cemetery is across from Macy's on Dulaney Valley Rd.


Parking

Towson Town Center has four 7-story parking garages, which are color coded. The A garage is orange, B is red, C is blue, and D is green. The mall has a total of 4400 parking spaces.


References


External links

* {{Brookfield Properties 1959 establishments in Maryland Baltimore County, Maryland landmarks Buildings and structures in Baltimore County, Maryland Shopping malls established in 1959 Brookfield Properties Shopping malls in Maryland Tourist attractions in Baltimore County, Maryland Towson, Maryland