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A Dover Mall “power center” master plan in its infant stages was introduced at Wednesday’s Dover Development Advisory Committee staff meeting. Although it didn’t offer insight into potential stores or entertainment options that might be coming to Dover in the future.
• The mall now can hardly keep/get any good stores! How will they fill this center? — Kristin Dixon
• Just don’t think this concept will work here in Dover. The mall will see the Sears store close the end of this month and both the J.C. Penny and Macy’s anchors are part of chains experiencing less traffic and sales and closing stores each year. And as mentioned in several articles this past holiday season the trend is for more people doing their shopping online rather than drive to a brick and mortar store, especially in a mall. In closing I think any exit off of Route 1 in that area should be convenient to both the mall and Dover Downs. If not, let the mall owners pay for its construction since they get the benefit of it just serving the mall. — Dan Maher
• They are paying for the access from Route 1. It is a (public-private partnership), meaning the roadway will be owned and maintained by the state but paid for by the private party. — Samie Lee
• If it works, great. We travel an hour and tolls/gas to Christiana. Go south to Salisbury you pay sales tax. Outlets aren’t exactly great especially with summer traffic. Homes are continuing to be built. The mall should bring tons of jobs. Everything has pros and cons. — Valerie Byerley Mont
• Why not just redo the entire mall and add to it? — Tyronda Browne-Harmon
• If they can’t keep stores now, how is more space going to help? — Dawn C. Windett
• Waste of money. I’m still going to shop Amazon, which keeps enough local folks employed. — Mark Guiteras
• What will this do to downtown Dover? — Sally Verma
• As long as it doesn’t cost the taxpayer any money. — Peter Servon
• Great idea since there are NO empty buildings around! SMH. — Jayne Muchler Dick
• This is ridiculous. The mall is broke and it can’t be fixed. — Richard Mares
• Went to the mall the other day for the first time in years. It’s practically a ghost town. Very dirty floors inside. I thought they had them redone with a speckled epoxy, but when I stopped and actually looked, it was just crud! They also have cracks in the tiles. Lots of empty store spaces. Hey! I have an idea! Let’s build another one right behind this one! — Mark McGhee
• I say make it another Main Event! Gives us something closer then going one hour-plus away for our kids to have fun. — Tina Hastings
• I agree. If the stores there now are closing why go bigger. Little stores cannot afford the rent. — Rella Goodson
• It’s called wasting money when the internet has taken over as the shopper’s choice. — Jym Sawchak
• This is very far from happening! — Dawne Nickerson-Banez
• What are they going to do with all the deer that live back there? — Becca Brown
• Want to make Dover, Kent County, Delaware a destination spot? Tear the whole mall down, sell the lot to Dover Motorsports. Then they build a world-class NHRA drag racing complex next door to the NASCAR venue. That should pull some serious dollars into the area. — Alan McClements
• While it’s great to offer more shopping choices, there are plenty of empty spaces in the Dover Mall right now that they should focus on filling. Truthfully though, Kent County doesn’t really have the population to support similar buildings like around the Christiana and King of Prussia malls. People are not going to drive down from New Castle, unless there is something unique that is not available elsewhere. — Michele Lapinski
• Kent County doesn’t have the population and overall income level of New Castle County. Like you mentioned, they can’t even keep stores in the existing mall with the ridiculously high rent. — Susan Powell Collins
• Will the mall still be open when this is built? It’s beginning to look like downtown Dover. Isn’t this access road supposed to be a toll road? — Citizen Soldier
• Give the pedestrians a bridge over 13. Save a life or two. — George Houck
• Don’t forget to put a place in the master plan for a cemetery to bury all of the retailers who are fleeing malls in droves around the country and in Dover. Has anyone on the Planning Commission ever heard of internet shopping? It’s all the rage they say. — Bob Skuse
• The idea is to turn the mall into a destination location. It is taking regional malls and upgrading them into something akin to an entertainment complex. I live in SoCal now, and the mall near me is called the Del Amo Mall. It was at one time, the biggest mall in the USA. That was a long time ago, but they added a huge outdoor component and remodeled many parts of the old mall, remaking the food court and such. The place is constantly busy ... impressive turnaround. — Andy Bogus
• Sometimes, people want to get out of the house. Brick and mortar retailers can survive if they rethink their business model. Walmart is one example. Smaller stores could limit their stock to items in demand, with an occasional non-demand item to keep browsing interesting, and have a kiosk for online ordering. — Charles Miller