River Ridge Mall Revamps With Renovated Exterior And New Stores

River Ridge mall is a Lynchburg staple, but often left the community wanting more due to a lack of entertainment and shopping choices. In the last few years, however, the mall has become unrecognizable to long-term Lynchburg residents due to the drastic improvements.

Dmitri Walker, a Liberty junior, recounted some of the mall’s notable problems, located off of Candlers Mountain Road, had before the upgrades began.

“There was a lot of water damage in the ceilings, in like the main area,” Walker said. “The place just generally had an abandoned feel—I mean, it was clear that there just wasn’t much maintenance going on.”

These problems drove River Ridge to begin renovations in 2019. According to a press release from January 8 this year, the redevelopment was divided into three phases: the east end, the center court, and the west end. 

Katie Farris, spokeswoman for the mall, described the success of the first two phases.

“We’ve made a lot of improvements at River Ridge since we began the redevelopment in 2019, with the opening of Dick’s Sporting Goods, SeaQuest, Philanthropy, just to name a few,” Farris said. 

The mall’s facelift is very apparent, and is in part due to the change in ownership. According to River Ridge’s press page, Liberty University has owned a controlling interest in the property since 2016. 

Farris also discussed the next phase of the redevelopment, a phase that will focus primarily on the west side of the mall. 

“(The west end) will be a lifestyle area,” Farris said. “Which will feature shopping, dining, and entertainment options.” 

One of the largest attractions on the western side of the mall, Regal Cinema, is currently closed but will continue on in the future as one of the mall’s entertainment options.

Another part of the mall’s west end is the food court. 

“We’re working on an all new and improved modern urban food hall,” Farris said. “If you visit the property right now, you’ll notice that in the existing food hall we’ve got a large barricade up as we work on that.”

Currently, out of the seven spots in the food court, only three are open, and there is a large drywall barrier over the others.

“The pictures they had up there of what it’s supposed to look like, they looked like the style they’ve chosen will fit with the rest of the mall,” Walker notices.

As part of this focus on the food hall, River Ridge recently signed contracts with Auntie Anne’s and Cinnabon. Farris says these newest additions are set to open this summer and they will be outside of the food court in the west end. 

The food court update is planned to finish before the end of 2021, and the west end is expected to be fully completed in 2022. The renovation, Farris says, has gone largely according to schedule, despite pandemic-related setbacks. 

“Of course, there’s always delays… but I think, overall, we’re very happy with the progress that we’ve made,” Farris said. “We’ve got exciting things coming in the future.”

Christine Walker is a News Reporter.