Mall owner PREIT plans to begin constructing a 375-unit apartment building at Moorestown Mall early in 2025.
According to a top PREIT executive, the project, The Pearl, is part of the company’s long-term strategy of repurposing its mall properties into community hubs.
PREIT began converting its malls to offer more than shopping and movies six years ago and shows no sign of slowing down.
The 375 apartments comprising The Pearl are being built on the lot adjacent to Boscov’s on the side of Moorestown Mall facing Lenola Road, according to Josh Schrier, Executive Vice President and Chief Investment Officer at PREIT, in an email dated Dec. 20 to Paradise Media.
“Construction of the parking deck and subsurface work have been completed,” said Schrier, and that vertical construction of the seven-story apartment building will begin early in the new year.
Bel Canto Asset Growth of Plymouth Meeting is the project’s developer. Bel Canto could not be reached for comment on the timeline for the completion of the apartments.
The addition of residential units to Moorestown Mall is part of PREIT’s ongoing strategy, which began in 2018.
“PREIT is reimagining its malls, including Moorestown Mall, by creating mixed-use, community-focused destinations,” Schrier said in the same email. “The addition of The Pearl to Moorestown Mall advances the property’s town center vision by adding residential to our exciting array of leading medical providers, entertainment venues, restaurants, and retail establishments.”
Schrier said PREIT was adapting to consumer preferences and lifestyle trends.
“This approach is part of a larger strategy to integrate thousands of residential units across the PREIT retail portfolio,” Schrier said. “The goal is to create vibrant, multi-functional hubs that reflect the evolving needs of suburban markets.”
Moorestown Mall is just the latest PREIT mall to move forward on a residential component.
In 2018, PREIT sold land at Exton Square Mall for the eventual construction of a 350-unit apartment community, which is now open and operating.
In December 2023, PREIT closed on the sale of a land parcel at Springfield Town Center in Fairfax County, Virginia, to The Hanover Company for the construction of 439 luxury residential units. According to PREIT, construction is underway at the center.
PREIT recently obtained approvals to build up to 275 units on a parcel at Plymouth Meeting Mall in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania.
The Pearl has been nearly three years in the making for Camden County. In February 2022, the Cherry Hill Township Planning Board approved the development to move forward.
After receiving the site plan approval, Philadelphia-based PREIT issued a statement of its long-term vision of providing multi-family housing and hotel units across its mall portfolio.
Moorestown Mall “was the cornerstone of this new model,” PREIT said then in a statement.
In a fall 2022 company newsletter, PREIT announced it closed on a land sale that would become a multi-family complex of 375 apartments, 20% of which will be affordable housing.
