Pembroke Mall to get makeover

Hanging out at the mall may soon take on new meaning in Virginia Beach.

Within a few years, Pembroke Mall could be home to thousands of apartment dwellers as part of a $200 million makeover of the vintage 54-acre retail property announced in November 2021.

“All we’re doing is changing with what the customer desires,” says Ramsay Smith, asset manager for Pembroke Square Associates, the company that in 1966 built Pembroke, the first enclosed mall in Hampton Roads.

The mall’s transformation is slated to include a seven-story, 153-unit senior-living community and a five-story apartment building with 324 units, two levels of parking and ground floor retail. The project also will feature a 14-story “dual-brand” hotel to be built on the site of the former SunTrust Bank building, with 209 rooms over a three-story parking garage. Smith, also president and principal broker of Pembroke Realty Group, declined to identify the flag of the hotel chain that will have two brands operating under the same roof, the first arrangement of its kind in the region.

Construction is expected to start around midsummer on the senior complex, which will go up on the northeast corner of the mall property. It will be managed by Virginia Beach-based Beth Sholom Village.

Construction of the hotel and apartments, to be built to the west of the Kohl’s store, is projected to start late in the fourth quarter.

Other possible additions on the horizon could include high-rise office buildings as well as a 40,000-square-foot health/fitness club.

The redeveloped mall is expected to open in 2024.

Starting in May, about 171,000 square feet of the existing mall property — roughly 20% of the mall’s nearly 900,000 square feet — will be demolished to make room for the new development. About 20 retailers, including Target, REI, The Fresh Market, Kohl’s and Old Navy, will remain open throughout the redevelopment.

On March 1, Virginia Beach Deputy City Manager and Economic Development Director Taylor Adams delivered a presentation to City Council stating that while the entire project has $161.4 million in private investment, the developers are requesting $24 million from the city to build two public parking garages with 808 spaces. Council is set to vote on the request on April 5.

The estimated net revenue to the city from the Pembroke redevelopment project would be $8.9 million over 20 years, Adams says.