[hammersklavier]

I was able to walk the mall after work today...

So the biggest good thing is the concourse facelift. It really does feel a LOT cleaner than the Gallery ever did (at least in my experience) and more unitary as well. I had never noticed just how big the Gallery really is before, because the K-Mart made it feel more like two small malls. Now it feels whole, and so much larger than it ever did before.

The inline retail mix is nothing particularly special, but it does have some of the suburban fast-casual stores which are Center City newcomers. Actually the mix makes me wonder how quickly the local Uniqlo rep will lease space in the thing, since all their competitors are already there, lol.

The new lifestyle options are impressive, however. The AMC is very much a welcome addition to Center City (now we need an IMAX theater, and one of those dinner-and-a-movie ones!), and the -- was it a bowling alley? -- across the way looked like it'll be pretty cool. The Candytopia is an interesting idea commanding a large space near the main entrance ... too bad it interacts with all three sides extremely poorly. A huge missed opportunity there, to be sure.

I do rather fear PREIT cheaped out where they could get away with it, though. The dead little passage over to the 8th Street El stop is the same as it ever was (only less airy); the weird escalator setup in Gallery I is still there; the façades look only half-finished; hardly any of the signage is, in fact, digital. The place looks slicker now, but I think there were steps they could have taken to more permanently fix the circulation problems (like embedding a ramp or escalator in the passage to the Gallery I parking garage instead of having a random escalator right in the middle of the concourse) that they didn't.

I also think the place remains too inwardly focused. Don't get me wrong, it is an improvement over the extreme inward focus the Gallery used to have, but I don't really think it'll be able to translate its energy onto Market. Perhaps if the City Winery and Candytopia had switched spots...

I'm also in a really cynical mood about all the space PREIT's hoarded on the other side of Market. I rather hope that they'll partner with a developer to redevelop the 900 and 1000 blocks of Market, preferably with space for larger tenants, but I fear that'll probably never be the case, and the south side of Market East will continue to wither away.
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Incidentally, I definitely think that, if the Reading Terminal Market can expand into the headhouse building, it would make for an excellent western anchor for the Gallery, especially with the food court now being consolidated around the Market East Station entrance. The Field House is currently the biggest impediment to its doing so. Also Market East station badly needs a facelift. It looks grimier than ever compared to how fresh and clean the Gallery now looks.