Last night the Cherry Hill Zoning Board unanimously approved (6-0) plans for a 120,000 square foot, two-story Dick’s House of Sport retail store and activity facility which will be developed at the Cherry Hill Mall (a PREIT property).
Image: Dick’s House of Sport / PREIT
For now, the existing Dick’s Sporting Goods store remains open on Route 70 at the Garden State Park center (Wegmans), but when the new House Of Sport facility has completed construction at the Cherry Hill Mall… the Route 70 store will relocate to the larger House of Sport property at the PREIT owned Mall.
Additionally, the discount outlet Dick’s Going, Going, Gone store in the nearby Plaza at Cherry Hill is unaffected by these plans, and will remain open.
For the new project at the Cherry Hill Mall, this is a large effort which will feature the development of a super-sized Dick’s Sporting Goods store with an attached large exterior athletic/turf field, as well as an indoor rock-climbing wall, outdoor ice skating rink (wintertime) and other innovative retail and activity features.
The location within the mall property will be in the area of the One Cherry Hill office tower, which will be fully demolished as part of this project.
As first reported here at 42Freeway, demolition crews are already inside the closed office tower removing interior aspects, and after the holiday shopping season is completed the demolition effort will shift to bringing down the full building structure.
Specifically for the location within the mall property, the area where the nine-story office tower is now located will become the area of the new athletic field, and the two-story Dick’s House of Sport building will be developed immediately to the north of that.
Image: Dick’s House of Sport / PREIT
The athletic field is fully outdoors, but enclosed with a high fence and can only be accessed from within the retail store.
The two-story retail structure is basically a freestanding building developed close to the mall, but will offer a seamless connection point into existing hallways (both floors) of the mall’s newer wing where the Food Court and JCPenney’s are located.
House of Sport will have entrances to the mall on both floors.
Image: Dick’s House of Sport / PREIT
As mentioned, inside the House of Sport plans call for a rock-climbing experience, golf simulators and more.
Considerable commentary regarding the athletics fields presented it as a popular and valuable addition to the community based on installations at other House of Sport stores. The fields are utilize by the community for exercise, team practice, and exhibitions and more.
It was also stated that in the winter months an ice skating rink will be installed in the center of the field! The track design, shape and size appears to be done to perfectly accommodate the addition of the ice rink in the center.
It seems all parties involved believe this is an excellent location for the Dick’s House of Sport facility.
Commentary at the Zoning Meeting stated that the parking lots at the back side of the mall surrounding the office tower are underutilized by customers, so the addition of the Dick’s Sporting Goods store can be easily accommodated along with adequate parking.
It was also noted that the original (single floor) wing of the Mall between Macy’s and Nordstroms is currently the more popular area for customers, so with the addition of Dick’s House of Sports to the newer (two-floor) wing of the mall, it is expected to balance out customer movements inside the mall, as well as parking.
During the Zoning Board vote, members commented on how the House of Sport project is a positive addition to the mall property and Cherry Hill, adding value to the Township and community without increasing any negative impact on the surrounding community
I did not catch any details on the timing of the project’s development start and the opening of House of Sport. As is the case with most new commercial projects there are some additional details which need to be worked out including the relocation of cell towers on top of the office building, and some minor traffic signal adjustments.
Links and Location
Dick’s House of Sport – Approved
Cherry Hill Mall
2000 Rt 38
Cherry Hill NJ