Big news for local mall watchers. Not mall walkers, but watchers — area residents wondering what will happen next at the Dulles Town Center mall.
The Burn has learned that the Sky Zone Trampoline Park is moving into the one of the vacant department store spaces in the mall.
As regular readers know, Sky Zone just closed their longtime Sterling location at the Cascades Marketplace shopping center back in July.
The closure came about because that section of Cascades Marketplace is being torn down to build residences.
Sky Zone said they were looking for a new spot to call home — and it seems they have found it at the DTC.
We’re told the indoor trampoline park will take over the upper level of the former Sears space at the mall. Sears closed back in 2021.
This will be right above the upcoming 810 Billiards & Bowling entertainment venue that is moving into the lower level of the Sears space.
If you haven’t seen our coverage of 810, check it out here. It sounds like it’s going to be amazing.
The Dulles Town Center has new ownership — and they have been making some major moves to fill the struggling center.
Besides the announcements of 810 Billiards & Bowling and Sky Zone, there is also a large furniture store that opened at the end of 2023. Campos Furniture took over part of the former Lord & Taylor space.
There have also been several new smaller tenants taking inline spaces throughout the mall.
Outside the mall — a new kabob restaurant and banquet hall recently opened in the former Longhorn Steakhouse building and a new restaurant and nightclub called AllGoRhythms is set to open soon in the former Greene Turtle sports bar spot.
There are also plans afoot to add residential housing in a ring around the mall, but if and when those plans will move forward is unclear.
Empty department stores present a special challenge to mall owners across the country. As more people shop online, the sheer size of the stores and the square footage has become untenable for many famous brands.
At the Dulles Town Center — Sears, Lord & Taylor, and Nordstrom all closed — leaving JCPenney and Macy’s as the main anchor stores besides a Dick Sporting Goods.
Stores like that are not looking for huge spaces any more, so things like furniture stores, rock climbing venues, and similar businesses are sometimes taking the spaces.
The Burn rarely makes predictions — but pickleball is all the rage right now and we’ve heard about some pickleball chains that are moving into vacant department store spaces.
We wouldn’t doubt if that eventually happened at the Dulles Town Center as well. Time will tell.
(Image at top: Sky Zone Trampoline Park)