The is the largest
Shopping Mall on the East Coast of the
United States , second largest in the country, and
Largest In The Country In Terms Of Leasable Retail Space . The two-building agglomeration is also arguably the world's largest shopping complex at one discrete location. It is located in
King Of Prussia , an area of
Upper Merion Township, Pennsylvania , northwest of
Philadelphia .
The history of King of Prussia speaks to the evolution of shopping malls and the retailing business over the years. It was originally developed by the Kravco company, which still owns the mall today (it is now known as
Kravco Simon ). The
Plaza At King Of Prussia , the oldest portion of the complex, opened in
1963 as a modest open-air shopping mall anchored by
JCPenney , discount department store
E.J. Korvette , and an
ACME supermarket. The Plaza prospered and by the late 1970's had become a partially enclosed super-regional mall anchored by department stores JCPenney,
Gimbel's , and
John Wanamaker .
Kravco recognized a demand for more upscale shopping in the northwest Philadelphia market in the late 1970's. The company embarked on a second mall,
The Court At King Of Prussia , to be constructed across the street from The Plaza. The Court opened in 1981 as a fully enclosed mall anchored by department stores
Macy's ,
Bloomingdale's , and
Abraham & Strauss (A&S). In addition,
Sears was added to The Plaza around this time, and until the early 1990's the Plaza sported such stores as
Woolworth's , Herman's World of Sports, and a
Lionel "Kiddie City" toy store.
By the early 1990's, demand for luxury goods had grown across the nation and many upscale retailers were in a growth mode.
Lord & Taylor ,
Neiman Marcus , and
Nordstrom were all looking for new locations in the area, and Kravco didn't want any of them to land at a competing mall. The company's dillema, though, was that The Court was on a small piece of land and couldn't expand, while The Plaza was too downscale for these stores. Kravco decided to embark on an ambitious campaign to almost competely rebuild The Plaza to make it just as attractive to upscale retailers as The Court and to begin marketing the two malls as a single entity (a pedestrian bridge and walkway connecting the malls was constructed around this time, though there have always been informal passageways from one to the other).
The new Plaza is fully enclosed and has two levels throughout. Lord & Taylor opened its doors in the fall of 1995, while Neiman Marcus and Nordstrom opened theirs in the spring of 1996. Upscale stores at The Plaza are clustered in the southern end of the mall near Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and Nordstrom, while middle-market stores remain clustered in the northern end of the mall near JCPenney, Sears, and Strawbridge's. The Court consists entirely of upscale stores.
The anchor line-up at both malls changed during the 1990's.
Stern's , which had replaced Gimbel's, left and JCPenney moved in to its old space. John Wanamaker was acquired by
May Department Stores , which rebranded all Wanamaker's as
Hecht's , their Baltimore-Washington regional nameplate. A&S was consolidated with Macy's and
Strawbridge & Clothier briefly took its place at The Court. Soon after, May acquired Strawbridge & Clothier, rebranded it as simply Strawbridge's, and merged it with Hecht's Philadelphia operations. The Hecht's (former John Wanamaker) at The Plaza became a Strawbridge's and the Strawbridge's (former A&S) at The Court closed. The mall even featured an outlet of the popular
New York City toy company
F.A.O. Schwarz , complete with giant teddy bear, before hard financial times forced it to close in 2004.
The growth of large-format specialty retailers in the 1990's led to the early 2000's conversion of the former Strawbridge's store at The Court into , to name a few.
The mall is known as being particularly upscale, catering to the needs of the wealthy northwestern Philadelphia suburbs, with such high-end stores as
Versace ,
Hugo Boss ,
Tiffany & Co. ,
Cartier ,
Coach ,
Burberry ,
Sephora ,
Hermès , and
Louis Vuitton , as well as the exclusive department stores
Bloomingdale's ,
Neiman Marcus , and
Nordstrom . The five other department stores include
JCPenney ,
Macy's ,
Sears ,
Lord & Taylor , and
Strawbridge's (which is to be converted into a
Boscov's when the Macy's integration of May stores is complete). The mall has over 400 stores and restaurants.
Valet Parking is available for shoppers outside of Neiman Marcus. The average household income of shoppers is $70,000 a year. Shoppers spend more than a billion dollars annually, giving the Plaza, excluding department stores, an average annual sales per square foot of $512, the Court an average of $470, although some of the luxury goods stores have averages over $4,000 per square foot.
The mall remains a prominent tourist destination in the Philadelphia area; according the mall, about 20 to 25 percent of its customers are tourists, who arrive on some of the 1,000 some tour buses that visit each year. In addition, the mall employs over 6,000 people in the area.
One of the interesting aspects of the mall is that many stores rent more than one space. Shoppers will find, for example, three
FYE music/movie stores, three
Sunglass Hut International s, three Auntie Anne's Pretzel eateries, three
Hallmark Cards shops, two
Coach stores, two
Bath & Body Works , two
Victoria's Secret s, two
Gap s, two
Starbucks , two
General Nutrition Center stores, and two
Teavana stores.
The complex has three
Food Court s, containing everything from
Burger King to
Bennigan's , though the latter is not contained in an enclosed portion of the mall complex. One of the two
Rock Bottom Breweries located in Pennsylvania is located in the Plaza portion of the compound.
Although the mall is smaller than the
Mall Of America and
South Coast Plaza in terms of total area, there is more space devoted purely to retail than any other mall in the country, about 200 acres or 2,850,000 square feet(285,000 m²), roughly 350,000 more square feet retail space than Mall of America and 50,000 more than the South Coast Plaza. There are more than 13,000 parking spaces.
Its slogan is "Life. And all its stores."
Surrounding the mall's premises are a number of stores and shops whose proximity to the shopping giant surely did wonders for their business. A quick drive will have shoppers finding an
IMAX theater, supermarket, and even several hotels.
There are two sections to this mall, each located in its own double-level building:
Some of the 400+ stores located at the mall include:
