Taubman Opens $120M Stony Point Fashion Park

RICHMOND, VA-Hurricane Isabel couldn’t keep 2,500 eager shoppers from attending the grand opening of the 690,000-sf Stony Point Fashion Park Thursday morning. While the increasingly inclement weather forced project developer Taubman Centers Inc. to cancel a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tailgate event, sales within the first couple of hours at the upscale $120 million mall of 90 stores and six-full service restaurants were brisk. “Business was pretty good this morning,” Taubman’s Karen Mac Donald tells GlobeSt.com. “In the first hour of business Galyan’s sold 150 raincoats. And we’re also a dog-friendly shopping center, so people even brought their pets.”

Located just south of the James River, Stony Point is the second gargantuan open-air shopping center to debut in Richmond this month; the other is the 1.2 million-sf Short Pump Town Center. But unlike its competitor, Stony Point offers the highly coveted retailer Saks Fifth Avenue, the first such store in Richmond and only the second in Virginia. The 84,000-sf Galyan’s, the 80,000-sf Saks Fifth Avenue, and a 200,000-sf Dillard’s serve as the mall’s anchors. “We are pleased to be opening Stony Point Fashion Park nearly 99% leased and committed,” Bloomfield, MI-headquartered Taubman president and CEO Robert S. Taubman notes. “It’s a true testament to the City of Richmond and to the Stony Point Fashion Park site in particular, that so many fine retailers and restaurants have chosen to be a part of this shopping center and the Richmond market as well.” Approximately 40% of the malls stores and all six of its restaurants–which include the likes of Champps Restaurants & Bar, Copeland’s Cheesecake Bistro and Fleming’s Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar–are new to the city.