Norfolk officials say the redevelopment of the former MacArthur Center site is about more than replacing a shuttered mall; it’s an attempt to physically rebuild the street grid that downtown lost when the mall opened in 1999.
The city has credited MacArthur Center with driving downtown Norfolk’s rapid growth, sparking light rail, hotels, condominiums, apartment communities and office towers. But like many indoor shopping malls, MacArthur Center’s business declined as retail trends shifted nationally and the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated store closures.
In 2020, the city adopted an updated Downtown Norfolk Plan that proposed three redevelopment options for the site, all of which called for demolishing the mall to build a new urban district with a street pattern reopening Bank and Court streets, connecting Scope and Chrysler Hall to St. Paul’s Boulevard, Main Street, and the waterfront…