Washington Crown Center

Shopping mall in Pennsylvania, U.S.

Washington Crown Center

Location| Washington, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Coordinates| 40°9′34″N 80°16′34″W﻿ / ﻿40.15944°N 80.27611°W﻿ / 40.15944; -80.27611
Address| 1500 West Chestnut Street
Opening date| 1969[1]
Developer| Crown American
Owner| Kohan Retail Investment Group
No. of stores and services| 30+[2]
No. of anchor tenants| 4 (October, 2023), 3 vacant
Total retail floor area| 676,136 square feet (63,000 m2)[1]
No. of floors| 1
Public transit access|  Freedom Transit bus: Local B, Local Saturday
Website| shopwashingtoncrown.com

Washington Crown Center (formerly Franklin Mall) is a 676,000 square-foot regional enclosed shopping mall in North Franklin Township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, just outside the city of Washington and south of Pittsburgh. The mall's anchor stores are Marshalls, Ollie's Bargain Outlet, and Rural King. There are two vacant anchors that were once The Bon-Ton and Hollywood Theaters. A third former anchor, Sears, has been partially filled by a Chrysler-Dodge-Jeep-Ram dealer, though a portion of the former department store remains vacant.

## History[edit]

The mall opened in 1969 as Franklin Mall, with Troutman's, Sears and Grant City (which became Hills in 1976) as its anchors.[3] An Acme supermarket was also located in the mall parking lot just past Grant's/Hills. It closed in 1977. Troutman's closed in 1984 and was sold to Pomeroy's,[4] which in turn converted to The Bon-Ton in 1987. A 1985 expansion to the mall added Hess's and a new Hills, while converting the original Hills location to a food court and additional retail space.[5]

In 1999, the mall was renamed Washington Crown Center and underwent a renovation.[6] Among the changes were the addition of a movie theater on the site of the former Hess's, which closed four years prior;[7] the conversion of Hills to Ames,[8] and the addition of Kaufmann's as a fourth anchor.[9] The Ames store closed in 2002 and became Gander Mountain in 2003,[10] while Kaufmann's was converted to Macy's in 2006. In 2013, Marshalls replaced the vacant Old Navy space as Old Navy moved up to Tanger Outlets Pittsburgh years prior. In 2014, Ross Dress for Less took 25,000 square feet of former specialty retail shop space. The trend of replacing small shops with big box stores continued through 2014 with the addition of Jo-Ann Fabrics, Ulta, and Books-a-Million. In January 2015, PREIT announced that it was planning on selling Washington Crown Center along with four other malls.[11]

In August 2016, PREIT sold the Mall for $20 million. It was reported that the occupancy had dropped to 87.4% before the sale and had represented a drop in performance.[12] Macy’s and Gander Mountain closed in 2017. Gander Mountain would be replaced by Rural King in March 2018. The Bon-Ton closed all locations by August 2018. On August 31, 2019, it was announced that Sears would be closing this location a part of a plan to close 92 stores nationwide. The store closed on December 15, 2019.[13] This was the last remaining Sears store in western Pennsylvania (not counting Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores).

On October 3, 2020, Hollywood Theaters announced it would be closing all of their locations permanently due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ross Dress for Less closed on January 19, 2021. This left Rural King, and Marshalls as the only anchor stores. Ulta Beauty moved to a nearby shopping center in April 2021. M@C Discount, an online auctioneer reselling returned merchandise from mainstream retailers, operates from a portion of the former Macy's location as of December 2021.

A new car dealership, Crown Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, & Ram, would take the majority of the former Sears lot in June 2023. Ollie's Bargain Outlet would open inside the former Ross Dress on October 18, 2023.

The largest video game store in the US (physically) Ironblast's GAME ZONE opened in the former ulta space October 2023 moving from it's smaller location in the mall (former BAM).

## References[edit]

1. ^ a b "Washington Crown Center Fact Sheet" (PDF). PREIT. Retrieved May 2, 2011.
2. ^ "Washington Crown Center Directory". Retrieved March 12, 2017.
3. ^ Observer-Reporter - Google News Archive Search
4. ^ Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Google News Archive Search
5. ^ The Pittsburgh Press – Google News Archive Search
6. ^ Observer-Reporter - Google News Archive Search
7. ^ Observer-Reporter - Google News Archive Search
8. ^ Observer-Reporter - Google News Archive Search
9. ^ Observer-Reporter - Google News Archive Search
10. ^ Observer-Reporter
11. ^ Kraus, Scott (January 5, 2015). "For sale: Palmer Park Mall". The Morning Call.
12. ^ Gough, Paul J. (August 16, 2016). "Washington Crown Center mall sold for $20M". American City Business Journals.
13. ^ Tyko, Kelly (August 31, 2019). "Kmart, Sears store closings: More locations to shutter by end of 2019". USA Today. Retrieved August 31, 2019.

## External links[edit]

* Washington Crown Center official site

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Shopping malls in Pittsburgh

Enclosed|

* Beaver Valley Mall
* The Block Northway
* The Mall at Robinson
* Monroeville Mall
* Pittsburgh International Airport
* Pittsburgh Mills
* Ross Park Mall
* South Hills Village
* Station Square
* Uniontown Mall
* Warner Centre
* Washington Crown Center
* Westmoreland Mall

Lifestyle /
Outdoor|

* Bakery Square
* Edgewood Towne Centre
* Ellsworth Avenue
* McCandless Crossing
* Northern Lights
* North Hills Village
* Robinson Town Centre
* Settlers Ridge
* SouthSide Works
* Walnut Street
* The Waterfront
* Waterworks Shopping Plaza

Outlet|

* Grove City Premium Outlets
* Tanger Outlets Pittsburgh

Defunct|

* Allegheny Center Mall
* Century III Mall
* East Hills Shopping Center (Eastgate Commerce Center)
* Eastland Mall
* Greengate Mall
* Highlands Mall
* Parkway Center Mall
* Washington Mall

* v
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* e

Washington in Washington County, Pennsylvania

Historic sites|

* David Bradford House
* East Washington Historic District
* F. Julius LeMoyne House
* LeMoyne Crematory
* McMillan Hall
* Dr. Joseph Maurer House
* Pennsylvania Railroad Freight Station
* Sackville House (demolished)
* Trinity Hall
* Washington Armory
* Washington County Courthouse
* Washington County Jail

Museums and attractions|

* David Bradford House
* F. Julius LeMoyne House
* Hollywood Casino at The Meadows
* Olin Art Gallery
* Pennsylvania Trolley Museum

Transportation|

* Freedom Transit
* Washington County Airport

Education|

* Washington & Jefferson College
* Washington Female Seminary (defunct)
* Trinity Area School District
* Trinity High School
* Washington School District

Industry and commerce|

* Cameron Coca-Cola
* Duncan & Miller Glass Company (defunct)
* Millcraft Industries
* Tanger Outlets Washington
* Washington Crown Center
* Washington oil field
* Washington Mall

Sports|

* Washington Wild Things (Consol Energy Park)
* Washington & Jefferson Presidents (Brooks Park, Cameron Stadium, Ross Memorial Park and Alexandre Stadium, IceoPlex at Southpointe)
* PONY Baseball and Softball
* Washington BlueSox

Media|

* Observer-Reporter
* Red & Black
* WJPA
* WNJR
* WKZV (defunct)

Houses of worship|

* Beth Israel Congregation
* Church of the Covenant
* First Presbyterian Church

Other|

* Brownson House
* City of Washington–Washington & Jefferson College relations
* Declaration and Address
* The George Washington Hotel
* Shorty's Lunch
* Washington Trust Building
* The Union Grill
* The Washington Hospital

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