Pembroke Square starts phase 2 of mall redevelopment

Pembroke Square will begin the next phase of demolition Monday on the former Pembroke Mall in Virginia Beach, as part of a $200 million mixed-use redevelopment project.

The roof and columns of the mall’s structure will be removed at the northeast entrance, north of Kohl’s on the Constitution Drive side of the former mall. A portion of the mall’s interior was already been demolished in preparation for the next phases of development.

A senior living community that’s part of the redevelopment, Aviva Pembroke, at the corner of Jeanne Street and Constitution Drive, is under construction with plans to open this October. Aviva Pembroke will be seven stories with 153 units. It is expected to have 121 independent units, 20 assisted living units and a dozen memory care units. The building has been topped out, and the company is sequencing exterior finishes right now, Smith said.

The second phase of the redevelopment project will include a Tempo by Hilton hotel in partnership with The Landmark Group that will open in 2025. Plans for the hotel were scaled back to seven stories last year and it’ss under a full redesign, Smith said. Developers reconsidered the hotel plans after interest rates shot up and construction costs escalated. Smith said ground could break on the hotel possibly in December, but more likely in the first quarter of next year. It will have 163 rooms and take 22 to 24 months to build.

There’s also a residential portion of the project, and like the hotel, the plans for that apartment building have been scaled down from 12 stories to seven stories. Predevelopment work is being completed before developers finish a new design. Development of the apartments is running about six months behind schedule, Smith said, and a groundbreaking is likely to take place in mid-2025, with a 22- to 24-month schedule for construction. The yet-to-be-named building will have 272 apartments and an adjacent parking garage with 611 spaces, instead of being located under the building as originally planned.

Another area of the property could handle an office tower, Smith said, but plans for that are on hold amid a decline in office demand, so it would need to be a build-to-suit opportunity.

Pembroke Square Associates first announced plans for the redevelopment of the aging mall’s 54 acres in November 2021. Groundbreaking for its first phase took place in December 2022.