Fair Oaks mall is closer than Tysons and isn't run-down. actually quite nice. but then again I've never been much of a mall person and dont go much. I prefer Fair Oaks to Tysons though, because those malls in Tysons are _too_ packed!
That was "our" mall in the 90's/very early 2000's. You're spot on the description. "The walmart's moving to the mall!?" was the death rattle of 'assas.
I used to work in that little business park across from where they put the UNO's up on the north end.
I hadn't been there in years, and went back recently and really found it depressing.
The city, Manassas, has a bigger population than ever, but can't sustain the mall. The mall is in a death spiral. Nobody goes there because it's a dump with no place to shop, and they can't get businesses there because nobody goes there and it's a dump. People from Manassas don't even go there, they just go to other nearby malls for their mall-style shopping when they need something.
At this point, the city would be better served to tear the mall down and replace it with a large outdoor style town center. Cost of living in Manassas is relatively cheap compared to other places in NoVA and with enough mixed-use zoning there, could turn it into an attractive place.
I didn't really dig into the city too much, but over the last 20-ish years, the entire city has death spiraled. Grocery stores closed and were reopened as barely maintained "global marts" that made me want to take a bath after I left, franchise restaurants have closed up. etc.
Manassas is an example of white flight (which is a big theme of the communities in NoVA period). Mike O'Meara refers to it as "deviltown" for a reason: it's pretty much been abandoned by its residents.
Though many communities in that region suffer from it, I think Manassas has had very very bad urban planning. Very little is walkable, there's no character to the town, and you see very little green space. It's a case of suburban decay.
The downtown of Manassas is nice enough, but almost nobody thinks of that as "Manassas". Locals almost all call that strip of old Sudly Rd. from 66 to 28 "Manassas" even though I don't think it's part of the municipality in any meaningful way and hence grew without plan or structure. I think probably the only groups with any say-so in the direction it grew were the Battlefield protectionist groups.
But all that was very much a product of the Western expansion of 66. Most of the older folks in the area remember when 66 didn't come out that far and Manassas was just the 234/28 intersection and 28 East to Manassas Park.
When something was done, we end up with bizarreness like two entirely different roads called "234", one that goes through the main strip of town, and the other that goes through countryside and bypasses the commercial center entirely...which no doubt hasn't helped the commercial interests of that area at all.
I know from growing up out there that the anti-battlefield people put a really bad taste in lots of big commercial company's mouths. For example, just a few miles away near Haymarket, the Walt Disney company was even going to open up a theme park and were basically driven out of town.
haven't been there in years, but I work near there and see some construction.. location-wise it's really a very good location. right off the highway, lots of businesses nearby and lots of residential too. i bet if they make a really good food court a lot of the local business folks would go there.. if getting in and out were easy. might be more of a civil engineering/architecture type issue...
