Ballston Quarter is mostly open and I wanted to see what the excitement is all about so I drove to Ballston on Saturday, found a metered parking spot, and walked a couple blocks to the Mall.
As almost everyone knows, Arlington County bailed out the Mall's longtime owner and operator, Forest City, when Ballston Quarter's predecessor, Ballston Common, was allowed to deteriorate to the point it became a dump.
So what's the attraction, or attractions, of Ballston Quarter? First, everything is brand new. Second, unlike Ballston Common there are activities ranging from ice skating to fantasy game playing. But they're expensive.
Most of the food available at Ballston Quarter is (or will be) high fat, high salt, high sugar.
Appears that the only retail that will provide essentials for the neighborhoods that surround Ballston Quarter are CVS, Macys, and Lenscrafters, holdovers from Ballston Common. Rest of the retail is boutique and expensive. Someone raised the question in another blog about how many Amazon employees will shop local retail. Guess we'll see in the not-too-distant future.
Finally, there's employment. Based on asking several retail and restaurant managers about Summer employment for my college age son, appears the retail pay is about $9 per hour and many employees are part-time. Appears servers in most restaurants earn about $12 per hour. Probably more on weekends. So why are so many adults over 30 employed by Ballston Quarter's's restaurants and retail?
Downside of Ballston Quarter is like its predecessor and other malls (e.g., Pentagon City) a large number of people who have about zero disposable income are already hanging out at the Mall as a place to just socialize, or whatever.
Ballston Quarter is only what we deserve for tolerating County Government that's big on corporate welfare to big corporations like Forest City. It will be interesting to see how long the ethnic restaurants and boutique retail stay in business.
Terri, 22207
