If you've asked a neighbor this question in the last month, you've probably gotten a shrug. The mall's Route 38 side has looked like a construction zone for over a year, PREIT keeps announcing new stores, and the local news cycle keeps covering it like the grand opening already happened. It hasn't. Not for the store most people are actually asking about.
Here's the thing that gets lost in the headlines: Cherry Hill Mall put out a press release on July 7 announcing six new retailers, and by the time reporters were writing about it, one of those six was already open. The other five are strung out across a timeline that runs into 2027. That gap between "announced" and "open" is the actual story if you live here and are deciding whether this weekend's mall trip is worth the parking headache.
The Announcement and the Parking Lot Don't Match
PREIT's July 7 release named Aritzia, Crocs, Timberland, True Religion, Indochino, and gorjana as new tenants. Crocs had opened its 2,090-square-foot store the previous month. Everything else was still a lease, not a storefront.
Here's where each one actually stood as of that announcement:
| Retailer | Status (per PREIT, July 2026) | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Crocs | Open (opened June 2026) | — |
| Timberland | Targeting a summer 2026 opening | Wing near Dick's House of Sport |
| Indochino | Targeting before the 2026 holiday season | Grand Court, near American Eagle and Pop Mart |
| True Religion | Targeting early 2027 | Wing near Dick's House of Sport |
| gorjana | Targeting the 2027 holiday season | Grand Court |
| Aritzia (with A-OK Cafe) | Targeting spring 2027 | Grand Court, 20,000+ square feet |
That's not a rolling wave of openings. It's one open store and a leasing announcement that stretches out eighteen months. Aritzia's Grand Court space alone will run more than 20,000 square feet, and the brand's A-OK Cafe concept inside it will be only the eighth in the country. That's worth the wait if you're a fan, but it's not a this-fall thing.
The Anchor Everyone's Actually Waiting On
The store generating the most driveway conversation is Dick's House of Sport, and it's also the one furthest from a confirmed date. The 120,000-square-foot store is going up where the nine-story One Cherry Hill office tower used to sit, demolished in the summer of 2025 to make room. A PREIT representative described the project last September this way:
"Now that demolition of the office building is complete, next steps focus on permits and site preparation. Construction is tentatively expected to begin this fall."
A year later, the building has come a long way. A site visit documented by 42 Freeway in late July found the structure largely enclosed, with the roof on, rooftop HVAC equipment installed, and most of the exterior facade complete. The outdoor athletic field, the piece with the turf and the track, was further behind. PREIT's own language as of that visit was that the store is "still expected to open later this year," with no official date set. If you want the plain version: before the holidays, but nobody's promising a month.
One thing worth knowing if you're headed to that side of the mall in the meantime: the entrance near the Food Court is closed for the duration of construction. The Food Court itself is still reachable, just from inside the mall rather than that outer door. It's a minor detour, but it's the kind of thing that ruins a trip if you don't know it ahead of time.
The Food Hall Beat the Fashion Side to the Finish Line
While the retail side of this expansion has been mostly signage and plywood, the food side already happened, and it happened bigger than most people expected.
H Mart's Cherry Hill location, tucked into the D&Q Plaza at 1720 Route 70, closed for renovations in the summer of 2025 and reopened in the spring of 2026 with double the footprint: a fully rebuilt 39,000-square-foot grocery store on the ground floor and an entirely new second level with a Market Eatery food hall. Six restaurants opened there, including Kyodong Noodles, Daily Seoul, and Mirim, along with an adjacent Paris Baguette bakery cafe. The Inquirer's June visit described a store that had served the community since 2001 finally catching up to the brand's newer locations elsewhere. Opening day drew a line that reportedly stretched from the back of the plaza to the far end near Route 70, with Cherry Hill police handling the traffic in the parking lot.
That's a genuinely finished project sitting less than a mile from a mall where the marquee anchor is still waiting on a permit inspection. If you're weighing where to actually go eat something new in Cherry Hill this month, that's your answer, and it's been your answer since spring.
The Moves Nobody Put Out a Press Release For
Not every change at the mall came with a ribbon cutting or a reporter on-site. Some of the more telling shifts are the quiet relocations happening around the Dick's construction site, the kind that only make sense once you know what's coming next door.
Spencer's, which has held a spot in Cherry Hill Mall since it opened in 1961, moved into a larger space in late May, positioning itself closer to where the new House of Sport entrances will connect. Famous Footwear relocated to a second-floor spot next to JCPenney to make room for new walkways tying into the same project. American Eagle finished a full renovation of its longtime storefront near JCPenney, and Pandora moved into a bigger location of its own. Lululemon is set to shift into an expanded Grand Court space before the 2026 holidays, following its own announcement earlier this year.
Further back, in January, four smaller openings landed with less fanfare: Coach, OFFLINE by Aerie, POP MART, and Suki Hana, a fast-casual Japanese spot serving teriyaki bowls, sushi, and hibachi. Those four have been open and running for the better part of this year, quietly, while the bigger announcements got the headlines.
What This Actually Means for a Trip to the Mall This Weekend
If you're planning to stop by Cherry Hill Mall in the next few weeks, here's the honest rundown of what you'll find versus what's still just a sign.
Open and shoppable right now: Crocs, Coach, OFFLINE by Aerie, POP MART, Suki Hana, and the whole H Mart Market Eatery lineup a short drive down Route 70, including Kyodong Noodles, Daily Seoul, Mirim, and the Paris Baguette cafe.
Under construction with no confirmed date: Dick's House of Sport, targeted for sometime before the 2026 holidays but unannounced as of the most recent site update, plus Timberland, which was aiming for a summer opening.
Announced but genuinely months or years out: Indochino before the 2026 holidays, gorjana and True Religion in 2027, and Aritzia with its A-OK Cafe in spring 2027.
None of this is a knock on the mall. A 1.3-million-square-foot property turning 65 years old this October, as Cherry Hill Mall will, doesn't reinvent itself overnight, and a project the size of Dick's House of Sport, the largest single-tenant addition to the property in over a decade, was never going to move fast. What's useful is knowing which parts of the story are finished and which parts are still a rendering on a fence, so you're not driving over expecting a ribbon cutting that hasn't happened yet.
Cherry Hill has always been a town where the mall functions as a kind of town square, a place people default to without thinking much about it. Right now it's mid-renovation, and that's a fine time to be a regular there. Just bring an appetite for H Mart's food hall before you go looking for a climbing wall that isn't open yet.
If you're weighing a move to Cherry Hill or just want a local read on how a neighborhood is actually changing, not just what the press release says, Quandell Iglesia is always glad to talk it through. Let's Connect.
