West Manchester Town Center

Crown American opened the enclosed West Manchester Mall in 1981 in West Manchester Township, York County, Pennsylvania, along Loucks Road west of downtown York, anchored by Hess’s, The Bon-Ton and Gee Bee Department Stores, with Chick-fil-A, Orange Julius and McDonald’s among the original food tenants. Gee Bee became Value City in 1992, and Hecht’s joined as a fourth anchor in 1995, later closing in 2006.

The mall began a steady decline once York Galleria opened on the eastern side of York, and Hess’s closed in 1993, replaced that same year by Walmart. Beginning in 2014, under a subsequent owner (Crown American itself had exited the property years earlier), a roughly $47 million project demolished much of the enclosed structure’s interior, including the former Hecht’s building, and rebuilt it as an open-air lifestyle center, rebranded West Manchester Town Center, with construction on the outdoor-plaza conversion starting that June.

At roughly 722,975 sqft on 58 acres, the property is co-anchored by Walmart, Kohl’s, Regal Cinemas and At Home, with Petco and DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse among the broader tenant base, alongside restaurants including Outback Steakhouse and Metro Diner. ATR Corinth Partners bought the property in May 2022 for $42.5 million.

That full enclosed-to-open-air demolition and rebuild, a $47 million project explicitly necessitating the closure of most of the original structure rather than a simple re-tenanting, reflects one of the more capital-intensive redevelopment paths available to aging 1980s regional malls once a newer competing property (York Galleria) captured the surrounding market’s department-store demand.