Recently, Spotsylvania Mall has undergone a face lift. It has slowly transformed into the Spotsylvania Towne Center. Behind the new town center is an area known as The Village. A superb assortment of new eateries, upper scale shops and an entertainment complex that is very tastefully and logically done. The village allows customers to park either within or just outside of its confines and casually stroll the area. There are sidewalks. There are bricked over traffic circles. The Village is a smaller version of Reston Town Center in Northern Virginia. The key here is that customers can WALK from business to business.
Contrast this with the abomination directly across RT 3 known as Central Park. Hundreds of stores amassed on acres of concrete and asphalt that was once home to the Shannon Golf Course. Construction of this 310 acre nightmare was begun in 1995 by the Silvers Company. Initial plans presented to residents and city government indicated a similarity to Reston Town Center. Pleasant and walkable. Due to the "economy" those plans were shelved, never to be seen again.
Nowhere in Central Park is it safe for customers to simply park their vehicle, walk and shop. To do so is to, put it mildly, take ones life into their hands. Try simply crossing any road and you're fair game for every idiot with a vehicle. There is nothing pleasant, enjoyable, appealing or customer friendly about this mecca monstrosity of the retail world. One goes there to shop or eat and then gets the hell out as quickly as possible.
The developers had the grand idea of creating "Uptown" Central Park. A more exclusive section of asphalt mimicking the art deco era of the 30's with neon lighted buildings designed to draw the crowds in a hopeless attempt to "polish the turd" as we say. Two words...abject failure.
The next grand idea to spew forth was the Silvers magnanimously offering Central Park to the City as a new "venue" to celebrate the annual 4th of July fireworks show. Let's see, you take thousands of people, thousands of vehicles, disperse them across 310 acres of asphalt and concrete that have been baking in the Virginia summer sun for 12 hours and tell them to "enjoy the show." Smart!
The Village is an idea whose time has come and arrived. While for years, I avoided Spotsylvania Mall like the plague due to its crappy stores, having visited the reinvented Towne Center and The Village numerous times in the past few months, I find myself doing more shopping, dining and spending dollars there. My hope is that The Village will ultimately be a resounding success. They appear to have learned from the Central Park approach to retail, on what not to do.
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