MALLS: Revising Lynnhaven Mall

Since 1981, Lynnhaven Mall has been one of Hampton Roads' top shopping destinations and has been the largest mall in the area for quite awhile now. Built by Melvin Simon & Associates (now known as SIMON), Lynnhaven has undergone many changes throughout their 30+ years in operation. The mall was first remodeled in 1996 going from a brown/brick pallete to an aqua/evergreen atmosphere. When GGP brought the mall in August 2003, save for a logo addition and never replacing Lord & Taylor since 2005, nothing major happened to the mall. Now after the financial crisis is over and GGP emerged out of bankruptcy, Lynnhaven Mall embarked on a major renovation project which has already had dramatically changed the property.

The post is broken up into 3 portions: 2013, 2014 & 2015. The entire project will be finished in the 2015 Holiday Season.

2013

In 2013, the two wings of the mall received new flooring, new signage (which looks awesome) and a color under the skylights. The left wing has yellow and the right wing has blue. Also, some skylights has numerous square-shaped glass pieces hanging from above, which is also awesome. The center court portion of the mall, including the food court remained untouched. Shoppers thought that the food court would be remodeled, finally. However, we were way wrong.

2014

In the past, carousels were in just about every mall. Lynnhaven had a double-decker carousel at the mall's main entrance, which was a major draw to shoppers and visitors. Unfortunately, in January 2014, the carousel took its last turn and was the first step on remastering the center portion of the mall. People on social media and review websites bashed the mall because of this. I think that carousels and fountains in malls were great but times have changed.

Also, the all-glass main mall entrance (which is showing their age) as well as the food court mall entry which leads to AMC will both be remodeled. From the main entrance, current/new stores will have taller storefronts along with a remodeled ceiling and the center court diamond was completely cleaned up, repainted and will have the squares hanging from the ceiling, just like other parts of the mall. 

However, the biggest change is the moving of the large, but aging food court downstairs to the former area of the AMC mall entrance, expanding the mall's footprint by 20,000 square feet. The former food court used to house almost 20 eateries situated upstairs around a diamond and a couple or three specialty shops including FYE, Harris Jewelers (which moved to nearby Dave & Busters) and included McDonald's, Sbarro, Johnny Rockets, Chick-Fil-A and many more. (the latter three were actual sit-down eateries in their stores) Also, there were three large seating patios with the words "FOOD COURT" on the outside. The new food court is a standard six-space oval with around 500-600 seats and opened on late October 2014. The tenants for the new court are:

• Charley's Grilled Subs
• Chick-Fil-A
• Haagen Daz (as a kiosk)
• Mandarin Express
• Sarku Japan
• Taco John's*
• Villa Pizza *
• Yo Guru*
• *New to Lynnhaven Mall

In addition to the new food court, the center corridor also the Café Court, which has four eateries, along with seating including power outlets and USB ports so shoppers can recharge their phones and surf the web on their laptops, tablets and whatnot. The tenants for the Café Court are:

• Chocopita (recently opened mid 2015)
• Great American Cookies
• JellyBall (was formally in the old food court)
• Pholicious 
• We Are Nuts (formally in the Lord & Taylor/New Entrance concourse)

During the remodel, the mall's play area was moved from upstairs near the food court to the area around Dave's, Dick's and Barnes. Also new stores had opened up, including Michael Kors, Vera Bradley, as well as a few remodels. Also, most or maybe all stores will have store name banners on top of each store. Not a lot of malls does this although newer town centers does, like Peninsula Town Center.

2015

 (Top: The former Lord & Taylor building, rebuilt from Miller & Rhoads, opened in 1999, closed in 2005 (Credit: Virginian Pilot). Bottom: Lord & Taylor finally being razed in fall 2014)

Another big thing is that the former Lord & Taylor building, which was rebuilt from Miller & Rhoads in 1999 was also razed in fall 2014. This will become a lifestyle component with restaurants, stores and an entrance to the east (blue) portion of the mall. This is similar to the projects that happened at nearby Pembroke Mall and Patrick Henry Mall. This portion, along with the finishing touches at Center Court will be complete at the 2015 holiday shopping season. However, the development continues into 2016.

Stores to be located in the former Lord & Taylor space include:

• L.L. Bean (Opened June 10, 2016)
• VisionWorks

2016

While the mall itself is mostly complete, the front parking lots will change. The parking garage which was installed in the mid-1990's was partially deconstructed. The two-level garage was formerly used for the mall's former upper level, main entrance and Lord & Taylor. The remaining section is for JCPenney. Also, pads for future restaurants are planned inside the parking lot as well as a redesign of the lot leading to the mall's main entry and the L.L. Bean area.

As my blog grows, just about each mall in Hampton Roads will their overview blogs by me. This is not the overview for Lynnhaven Mall, but the addition to it for their renovation. Updates from this post may happen at any time.

WORKS CITED:
HamptonRoads.com (Lord & Taylor story)
Lynnhaven Mall's Website
Lynnhaven Mall's Renovation Page
Lynnhaven Mall's Facebook Photo Album
Virginian Pilot--"Lynnhaven Mall Goes Through Major Makeover" (August 1, 2015)

TRANSIT: HRT Fare Changes

(Click for Details)

"Effective Sunday, October 5th, the one-way bus/train fare will change to $1.75 and an One Day Pass will cost $4. The age for Senior Half-Fare eligibility will increase to 65. Please visit gohrt.com or call customer service for information on other fare changes." (HRT's audio bus and train announcements)

For the first time ever in Hampton Roads Transit's history, the fare will be increasing in order to raise revenues and to be able to make more capital purchases, such as buying new buses and improving passenger amenities. It is projected to add up to $3.2 million in revenue.

The road to a fare increase is not easy for any transit agency anywhere. For some agencies it happens every few years or so. For us, it was a long time coming and unless if you're me that it should have happened already earlier, you probably knew it was coming.

Let's go back to the beginning, October 1, 1999. HRT was newly formed after the merger of Tidewater Regional Transit (TRT) and Peninsula Transit (Pentran) which is still the largest voluntary merger of transit agencies in the nation to date. The fares are $1.50 in the southside (the TRT portion) and $1.25 in the Pentran district. In the early 2000's, fares were made even with $1.50. If passengers need to transfer buses, they could do so for free after they paid for their fare and asking the driver. The transfer ticket lasts for two hours and it could only be used at Transfer stations, not individual stops.

In October 6, 2008, transfers were done away for the day passes, aka the "GO Pass." A few old passes, such as the 10 ride pass or the youth 20 ride pass were cut. The one way price was still $1.50, but the day pass is $3.50. Earlier in Summer 2008, the MAX express service started running and actually the MAX was the first service to introduce passes. One way fare is $3.00 and the passes cost $5.50, which could be used on anything HRT. Passengers who are using the regular day pass can ride the MAX with their pass, but must pay up an extra regular fare to ride. IMO this sucks because for unexplained reasons, regular buses does not sell the MAX pass to people who get on a regular bus in case they need to go on a MAX bus (How this problem can be solved will be later in this blog).

Early talks for a fare change happened in 2010. In that June, announcements were made on HRT's website regarding fare changes and a couple public meetings were addressed. However, the CEO at the time Philip Shucet (just months in the helm) decided that there are some HRT routes that are "not efficient" and a study with a course of action took place for the next year. There was no fare change but almost 40 bus routes had either lost trips, longer frequency (example, a route running every 30 minutes became 60 minutes, etc), and even fully eliminating routes. This affected a lot of passengers and even at my bus routes at home in Portsmouth, but this is for another blog post in the future.

In 2011, the GO365 Pass was initiated and it is based on schools and businesses wanting the students/workers have a pass that can be used on any HRT service, including MAX routes. The program was heavily discounted and even though ridership peaked through the roof, the agency actually lost almost $2 million. In 2012, with a revised structure in place, HRT created a fare structure review by the APTA and had many recommendations, including doing away with the GO365 pass and having premium fares on the ferry and the Tide light rail.

In fall of 2013, HRT released a proposed fare structure which showed the projected fares and percentage increases. There were numerous public meetings in the first 6 weeks into 2014, in which I spoke twice. Over 100 people spoke and many people said that increasing fares by $.50 is too much at one time, especially for people working minimum wage or low income. Also, the 5-pass bundle deal which was proposed to be cut, was saved by passengers speaking up.

In the February 2014 HRT board meeting, the board voted to move forward with the fare increase by phases. The first fare change is for October 2014 for $1.75/$4 and in 2016, it will be raised again to $2/$4.50 (one way/day pass). Initially, the fare change would have started that July. However, HRT wanted to make sure that all improvements with the fareboxes and training from bus operators are up to par. Also, paper schedules were redesigned with a new look and color palette with the new fare changes.

(The new route brochures but WHY ORANGE!! HRT's colors are green, sky blue and navy blue)

Another hot topic is the increase of senior fare age to 65. Most transit agencies have their senior age set at 65. Before the change, the age was 60. Affected people can be grandfathered into the eligibility by going into HRT's headquarters.

The passes that will no longer be accepted starting October 5, 2014 are the 2-way passes and the Tide roundtrip pass.

With fare change already happening, observations from me are already taking place. This part of the blog will change/updated over time.

Now remember earlier in the blog about the horrible execution on how people are paying the MAX bus by a regular day pass. If there is a chance, if it goes my way, the day pass will not be $4.50, but $5. Why $5? I want the $5 pass to INCLUDE MAX SERVICE so it will be an all-agency pass. No more having to pay extra with a regular pass and save a lot of confusion. My idea comes from the Cleveland RTA, which has bus, express bus, heavy rail & one of the most successful Bus Rapid Transit lines in the nation, has its all day pass for all services for $5, so we should do that in Hampton Roads Transit. By the way, the MAX pass in the current fare structure will increase from $5.50 to $6.50 in the 2014 change and if my idea does not go through, it will cost a staggering $7.50 in 2016. Also in the 2013 proposal, the MAX pass would have been $8.25.

We will see how it pans out. watch this blog or keep up with gohrt.com for updates on other changes or to comment about the fare changes.

WORKS CITED/LINKS:
gohrt.com (Fare Change FAQ's)
gohrt.com (Fare Policy)
gohrt.com (Fare Structure 2014 & 2016)
gohrt.com (February 2014 Board meeting package, with fare structure)