Value City will close at River Ridge mall in July, and next year will be replaced by a 14-screen movie theater, the mall’s owners announced Friday.
The new 2,400-seat theater, managed by Regal Entertainment Group, is expected to open in fall 2009.
The change will also create 16,000 square feet of space for new specialty stores, said a news release from CBL & Associates Properties.
“It’s going to be nice. I’ve seen the design of it, the typical design,” said mall manager James Dolan. “It’s going to be definitely an asset to our community.
“We’re real excited. We look forward to working with the construction folks. We think that
this is definitely an asset to the mall.”
Dolan said the movieplex will bring more traffic and “continue to make the mall a destination point for entertainment.”
The 56,000-square-foot theater will include high-backed plush chairs in stadium seating and digital surround sound, according to the release.
The smaller theater at the mall will remain open until the new theater is finished. It then will be converted to retail space, Dolan said.
The Value City store will close sometime in July, Dolan said. Demolition will begin the following week.
Dolan said a good guess as to Value City’s current employment would be about 75 people, most part-time. Officials from Value City did not respond to confirm the number of the store’s employees.
The Value City discount department store moved in to River Ridge mall in 1998, replacing Montgomery Ward. It was the chain’s fourth store in Virginia, according to News & Advance archives.
Last October, Value City signed an agreement to sell up to 24 of its stores to Burlington Coat Factory. In January, Value City’s former parent company sold the chain to VCHI Acquisition Co. Since then, more stores have been closed.
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