Valley View Mall (Roanoke, Virginia) facts for kids
Interior of Valley View Mall
|
|
| Location | Roanoke, Virginia, United States |
|---|---|
| Coordinates | 37°18′14.5″N 79°57′50.1″W / 37.304028°N 79.963917°W |
| Address | 4802 Valley View Boulevard NW |
| Opening date | July 17, 1985 |
| Developer | Henry Faison |
| Owner | CBL & Associates Properties |
| No. of stores and services | 102 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 5 (4 open, 1 vancant) |
| Total retail floor area | 844,193 sq ft (78,428.1 m2) |
| No. of floors | 2 |
Valley View Mall is a large shopping mall in Roanoke, Virginia. It is about 800,000 square feet in size. The mall is located in the Roundhill area, close to major highways like Interstate 581 and U.S. Route 220.
Around the mall, you'll find many other stores and restaurants. Some of these include Ashley Furniture, Dick's Sporting Goods, Best Buy, Grand Home Furnishings, Walmart, and Target. There's also a big Regal Cinemas movie theater with 16 screens nearby. This theater replaced a smaller one that used to be inside the mall.
| Top - 0-9 A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
How Valley View Mall Started
The land where Valley View Mall now stands was once a farm owned by the Huff family. This farm was quite large and was unusual because it was right inside the city of Roanoke. It was also very close to a major highway.
In 1976, a developer named Henry Faison was flying into Roanoke Regional Airport. He saw the farm from the air and realized it was a perfect spot for a mall. It was near two major interstates, Interstate 581/U.S. Route 220 and Interstate 81.
Some local people and the owners of another mall, Tanglewood Mall, tried to stop the building of Valley View Mall. They filed a lawsuit to prevent the land from being used for the mall. However, the Virginia Supreme Court eventually said it was okay to build. Construction began on August 22, 1983.
Opening and Early Years
Valley View Mall officially opened its doors on July 17, 1985. When it first opened, it had several big department stores. These were Sears, JCPenney, Leggett (which is now Belk), Miller & Rhoads, and Thalhimer's.
Over time, some of these stores changed names or closed. For example, Miller & Rhoads later became Montgomery Ward. Thalhimer's became Hecht's, and then later Macy's. The original Miller & Rhoads space is now split between a part of Macy's and other stores like Old Navy. There was even space left for a sixth large store, but it was never built.
Around the mall, other stores and restaurants also opened. These included Holdren's (an electronics store), Hechinger (a home improvement store), Toys "R" Us, Chi-Chi's (a restaurant), and Olive Garden.
Growing Popularity
Even with Valley View Mall opening, another local mall, Tanglewood, still stayed popular. Valley View had more stores, but Tanglewood kept many of its shoppers.
At first, getting to and from Valley View Mall was a bit tricky. Traffic would often back up on the highway and the roads leading to the mall. But Valley View still grew into a major shopping spot for much of Southwest Virginia and Southern West Virginia.
By the mid-1990s, the traffic problems were fixed with new roads. More big stores like Walmart, Target, Staples, PetSmart, and Best Buy built locations along the new access road.
Changes Over Time
In 2001, the mall was sold to a company called CBL & Associates Properties, Inc. Since then, Valley View Mall has continued to attract popular national stores like Eddie Bauer and Old Navy. Many of the areas around the mall have also been developed with new businesses.
In 2005, Starbucks opened its first coffee shop in the Roanoke area at Valley View Mall. On September 9, 2006, the Hecht's department store officially became Macy's.
A new outdoor shopping area called "The District at Valley View" has been built next to the mall. It has stores like Barnes & Noble, fashion shops, and restaurants such as Carrabba's Italian Grill, Abuelo's Mexican Food Embassy, and Panera Bread. In 2014, H&M opened its first store in western Virginia at the mall. However, Gap closed its store in the mall in 2015.
In 2019, it was announced that the Sears store would be closing. It shut down in October 2019.
A fun statue called the "Shoe Tie Guy" used to be a well-known landmark inside the mall. It showed an older man tying his shoe on a park bench. The statue was removed in October 2020 because of "loose bolts." It's not clear if it will ever return.
Youth Escort Policy
In July 2007, Valley View Mall started a rule called the Youth Escort Policy. This rule means that anyone under 18 years old who wants to visit the mall after 6:00 PM on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday must be with an adult. If they are not with an adult, they have to leave the mall area.
Teens who are not with an adult can still shop in the large anchor stores, but they cannot go into the main mall hallways. The mall management put this rule in place because some shoppers complained about groups of unsupervised teenagers hanging out in the mall and parking lots on weekend nights. Before this, the mall had added more security guards to try and fix the problem.
Some local teenagers were upset by this rule. They felt it was unfair to punish everyone for the actions of a few. They also said there weren't many other fun things for teens to do in Roanoke. Because of this, some teens planned to boycott the mall.
