Kroger (University Mall)
This Kroger Superstore opened at University Mall in 1974, replacing an earlier store downtown. It may have had a SupeRx Drugs next door. If it did, it was long-gone before I saw the store in the late 1980s. In any event, the original store was expanded twice; once in the 1980s, and once again in the mid 1990s. The present exterior dates from around 1995 and has changed little in 15 years.
University Mall is a shopping center in Blacksburg, Virginia adjacent to the Virginia Tech campus at the intersection of Prices Fork Road and University City Boulevard. Opened in 1974, the original enclosed mall contained about 250,000 square feet of retail space and was anchored by Woolco and Roanoke-based Heironimus, with Kroger on an outparcel across the street.
During the 1970s and much of the 1980s, this was the hottest retail address in the New River Valley. The center featured a strong mix of regional and local tenants including Mills Fabric, Ritz Camera, H&M Shoes, John Norman (menswear), Sidney’s, The Sickle Moon, Dana (all three were women’s apparel stores), Printer’s Ink bookstore and Peoples Drug. Even Woolco’s closure in 1983 didn’t cripple the place; Roses quickly moved in to replace it.
What did take this place down was the opening of the New River Valley Mall in neighboring Christansburg in 1988. Though the anchors stayed in place, the small shops inside the mall largely closed or moved.
In the early 1990s, both anchors folded and Virginia Tech took over their spaces for various university services and a branch of the University Bookstore. During this time, People Drug became Revco and then CVS and the mall interior slowly filled back in with various local businesses.
In 2004, the mall was sold to a group of local businessmen and plans were made to eventually donate the property to the Virginia Tech Foundation, the mall’s primary tenant. During this time, the interior of the mall received its only renovation. Its tile and concrete floors were carpeted. The globes of its pole lights were changed, and the mall was painted. Two large mobiles were placed over its pair of fountains, which have were thoroughly cleaned. On the exterior, the south end of the mall was expanded and heavily renovated with a parking garage and multistory office building added next to the intersection of Prices Fork Road and University City Boulevard, along with an outparcel for Panera Bread.
Though the center is almost fully tenanted now, the interior mall remains a well-preserved relic of 1970s retail design. Many storefronts are still original and substantially all of the interior décor from 1974 is still here. Even the CVS is still here, largely unchanged from its days as a Peoples Drug.
Kroger (University Mall)
This Kroger Superstore opened at University Mall in 1974, replacing an earlier store downtown. It may have had a SupeRx Drugs next door. If it did, it was long-gone before I saw the store in the late 1980s. In any event, the original store was expanded twice; once in the 1980s, and once again in the mid 1990s. The present exterior dates from around 1995 and has changed little in 15 years.
University Mall is a shopping center in Blacksburg, Virginia adjacent to the Virginia Tech campus at the intersection of Prices Fork Road and University City Boulevard. Opened in 1974, the original enclosed mall contained about 250,000 square feet of retail space and was anchored by Woolco and Roanoke-based Heironimus, with Kroger on an outparcel across the street.
During the 1970s and much of the 1980s, this was the hottest retail address in the New River Valley. The center featured a strong mix of regional and local tenants including Mills Fabric, Ritz Camera, H&M Shoes, John Norman (menswear), Sidney’s, The Sickle Moon, Dana (all three were women’s apparel stores), Printer’s Ink bookstore and Peoples Drug. Even Woolco’s closure in 1983 didn’t cripple the place; Roses quickly moved in to replace it.
What did take this place down was the opening of the New River Valley Mall in neighboring Christansburg in 1988. Though the anchors stayed in place, the small shops inside the mall largely closed or moved.
In the early 1990s, both anchors folded and Virginia Tech took over their spaces for various university services and a branch of the University Bookstore. During this time, People Drug became Revco and then CVS and the mall interior slowly filled back in with various local businesses.
In 2004, the mall was sold to a group of local businessmen and plans were made to eventually donate the property to the Virginia Tech Foundation, the mall’s primary tenant. During this time, the interior of the mall received its only renovation. Its tile and concrete floors were carpeted. The globes of its pole lights were changed, and the mall was painted. Two large mobiles were placed over its pair of fountains, which have were thoroughly cleaned. On the exterior, the south end of the mall was expanded and heavily renovated with a parking garage and multistory office building added next to the intersection of Prices Fork Road and University City Boulevard, along with an outparcel for Panera Bread.
Though the center is almost fully tenanted now, the interior mall remains a well-preserved relic of 1970s retail design. Many storefronts are still original and substantially all of the interior décor from 1974 is still here. Even the CVS is still here, largely unchanged from its days as a Peoples Drug.