By Dan Hounsell, Senior Editor, Facility Market

Institutional and commercial facilities of all kinds have bought into the repurposing movement in real estate by taking over outdated, often abandoned buildings and upgrading them to meet their business goals and in the process avoiding the huge cost of new construction. One Virginia city is planning to take repurposing to a new level.  

The Alexandria, Virginia, City Council unanimously approved plans to replace the all-but-abandoned Landmark Mall with a massive new medical campus, a walkable urban village, scores of multi-family homes, and promises of 2,000 new healthcare jobs, according to WUSA.

Construction on the $2 billion project could start as soon as 2023, with some of the buildings opening by 2025. The 52-acre site will include a new Inova Alexandria hospital, medical office buildings, multi-family residential units, retail, commercial and entertainment spaces, outdoor parks, a new fire station, affordable housing, and a new transit hub.

The Landmark Mall closed in 2017 after its anchor tenants ran into financial trouble. The Howard Hughes Corporation first announced plans to redevelop it into an urban town in 2013.

It has since served as a place to house people without homes and as a COVID-19 testing site.