Something big is happening in a smaller city. District Galleria, the name of a redevelopment plan in White Plains, New York—the county seat of Westchester—will demolish a four-and-a-half-decade-old enclosed mall and transform it into a community-oriented, mixed-use residential and retail space.
The development team behind the multi-billion-dollar project is Pacific Retail Capital Partners (PRCP), which formed a joint venture with mall owner Aareal Bank, local developer Louis Cappelli of the Cappelli Organization, and New York’s SL Green Realty in 2022.
Steve Plenge, chief executive officer at PRCP, believes the sites of most enclosed malls are prime real estate for development. Roughly a decade ago, a lot more opportunities arose to repurpose these buildings and add densification.
“We have these great assets in great locations because they were originally founded on 100-plus acres [40 ha] of land at the intersection of major arterials,” he said. “The towns and cities kind of grew up around them, so there’s a lot of density in these locations. But today, they’ve become very inefficient pieces of land.”
The Galleria in White Plains, is one example. “It’s very indicative of most malls out there,” Plenge said.
Few sites in White Plains are more characteristic of the urban renewal era than the now-shuttered Galleria mall, which closed in 2023. Described by the New York Times just a few years after the Galleria’s 1980 opening as “a harsh world of concrete,” the mall stood as an example of the Brutalist style that typified the era.
A Plan Comes Together
Nearly a decade ago, Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group sold the 870,000 square-foot (81,000 sq m) mall to PRCP; the REIT indicated in financial documents that it was selling properties that were no longer meeting its strategic criteria.
After the purchase, Plenge had his company do a floor-by-floor evaluation of the Galleria and outlined a capital improvement and leasing program. For years, Plenge and his team studied ways to reinvent the mall, to determine whether it could be transformed into a newer, more up-to-date version.
The original plan, according to Plenge, included improving the mall’s food court and adding a fine dining option. Nationwide, though, the traditional mall format was underperforming due to online shopping and changing consumer habits. The pandemic only worsened the retail performance of U.S. malls and led to increased vacancies. “We spent lots and lots of time . . . . Can we make this a mall, but a mall 2.0?” Plenge said. “And the conclusion was that [it] was not the best use.” The Galleria mall closed permanently on March 31, 2023.
District Galleria, Westchester’s biggest-ever residential project, will feature seven towers, six of which will be zoned for residential use, for a total of 3,001 units, which includes a percentage of units designated affordable in accordance with local legislation. Building heights will range from 250 feet (76 m) to 450 feet (137 m). White Plains residents and area commuters will be able to access pocket parks and plazas on its green promenade, with 60 percent of the project being open space, zoned for public use.
There is also talk of adding an amphitheater, an art exhibition venue, and space for a weekly farmers market.
“We see District Galleria as a catalyst for change [in] Westchester,” said Annmarie Plenge, chief creative officer at PRCP, who joined the company in 2023 from Gensler, where she co-led the firm’s mixed-use and retail centers practice.
Daily programming, including live music performances and outdoor movie nights, is intended to create a shared sense of place for residents and visitors. To complement the development’s design to Silver LEED standards, the project will lease to restaurants with an emphasis on local food concepts—quite a contrast from the series of fast-food chains the former mall housed in its now vacant food court. The new project’s outdoor areas will be designed by Eric Rains Landscape Architecture and include native plantings and a pet-friendly environment with designated areas for dogs and other pets.
Steve Plenge considers District Galleria unusual for mall redevelopments due to its primarily residentialdevelopment supported by a retail base, rather than the other way around. The project is expected to feature more than 3,000 residential units alongside 96,350 square feet (8,950 sq m) of retail space.
“The retail is not the tail wagging the dog here,” Steve Plenge said. “The big thing is the residential and providing the amenity base for the target demographic you’re going after in the multifamily. The line-up of retail you can capture because of this kind of built-in community we created is substantial. It’s almost like you’ve created a master-planned community suddenly. So, you’re looking at the demographics—they play a huge role in this.”
The city’s reception
PRCP began its work in White Plains by sitting down with city officials to ask what they wanted from the project. “It’s in their backyard,” Annmarie Plenge said. “We’re taking a property that is essentially obsolete and turning it into a catalyst the community can embrace.”
The development plan’s features and proximity to the Metro-North train station appealed to the city’s Common Council. White Plains mayor Thomas Roach is a longtime proponent of New Urbanism and had hoped to bring transit-oriented development to the city’s downtown.
“When you come from the train station and walk up Main Street, you’re basically walking through the [part of the] city that was leveled during urban renewal,” said Roach, who remembers being a young lawyer in the early days of the Galleria. Back then, he worked on a street lined with shiny office buildings but still lacked activity at street level. To get coffee, he’d cut through a JCPenney department store in the mall and wait for the food court to open.
Referring to the structure as “the Great Wall of Galleria”—a megablock that choked off parts of the city from each other—Roach saw it as outmoded. “And I spoke about it frequently,” he said.
Once the owners suggested that the site could be more valuable if developed differently, there wasn’t much to debate. Local efforts focused on relocating tenants and supporting employees, but the mall had outlived its usefulness.
“They knew what we wanted to see,” Roach said. “The first thing I said was, ‘more trees.’”Other than that, they knew what we were looking for.”
PRCP personnel said that they planned to open the space so that the surrounding streets would connect and help the development fit into the urban context.
The city embraces the idea. “It’s one of the few times in my career when the city said, ‘Go big. Do something! We want something iconic for us,’” Annmarie Plenge said.
The residential part of the development will have more than 300 units of affordable housing, which are to be the same size as the market-rate units and meet the 12 percent required by the city of White Plains.
Because the mall originally had a B-6 (enclosed mall) zoning designation, it requires the city’s approval to rezone to the new Transit Development 2 (TD-2) designation to create a mixed-use walkable development.
“We’re kind of in the driver’s seat that way,” said Mayor Roach.
Local developer involvement
Cappelli came aboard the District Galleria project in September 2022, as did SL Green, a prominent New York–based real estate firm. Since then, Cappelli said, his team has taken the lead on the project, citing his company’s proximity to the site. He described the development as “transformational” for downtown White Plains and noted the city’s strong transportation infrastructure.
White Plains is served by several major highways, including the Cross Westchester Expressway (Interstate 287), Interstate 95, New York State Route 119, and the Hutchinson River Parkway. This network provides direct connections to other parts of Westchester County, Manhattan, and Connecticut.
“The location of White Plains is outstanding,” Cappelli said. “And it feeds off Manhattan.”
Cappelli has proposed moving the mall’s parking underground to open up space for a cluster of residential towers. Of the site’s 11 acres (4 ha), 7 (3 ha) are now occupied by the mall and 4 (8 ha) by the city’s parking structure.
“I think it’s what the site was meant to be,” Cappelli said of the new plan. “It’s going to be magnificent, really.”
National and global awards recognition
PRCP garnered two awards last year for District Galleria: a Commercial Observer Project of the Year award and a Silver Global ICSC award for Design and Development in the unbuilt category.
New expectations of what mall means
Steven Plenge believes that shoppers today are sophisticated. “People go to airports everywhere, and they expect a more contemporary and elite design with their shopping experience.”
This expectation can extend beyond aesthetics to a safe and secure environment, abundant green space, interesting storefronts, and state-of-the-art eateries.
“The definition of a mall has shifted,” Steven Plenge said. “What they want is different.”
