Get slimed at the mall. Shopping hubs near DC, nationwide transform into entertainment centers
A former Pottery Barn at Tysons Corner Center is being transformed into a candy-themed play land, with a Twizzlers maze and cannons that launch balls into holes shaped like Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Hershey Super Sweet Adventure opens at Tysons on March 6, and it’s part of an accelerating transformation of the Virginia shopping mall.
“Nationwide, we’re seeing a variety of entertainment establishments now setting up shops in shopping malls, using the spaces that have been vacated by traditional retailers,” said Jie Zhang, retail and marketing professor at University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.
Popular examples include pickleball courts, bowling alleys and game arcades, she said.
The trend started two decades ago when online stores began replacing many in-person shopping experiences. The COVID-19 pandemic also accelerated the changes.
“Because consumers’ purchase behaviors have changed, you cannot force people to go back to shopping malls just to buy things,” Zhang said. “And if retail is no longer as powerful as it used to be, then they need to convert or transform their places into destinations for other purposes.”
Studies have shown that malls that add more entertainment and dining offerings see significant rebounds in foot traffic.
Experiences are in
The Macerich-owned Tysons Corner Center is welcoming two new attractions this year — both pitched as immersive and family friendly.
“Our guests will step into a whimsical workshop where an interactive journey unfolds through hands-on games, multisensory experiences, playful moments,” Kelly Easterling, senior vice president at Original X Productions, said.
OGX previously brought the Friends Experience and The Office Experience to the D.C. area.
Hershey Super Sweet Adventure is a partnership with The Hershey Company.
“We’re really inviting families to come in and explore together and have an adventure together, create memories and trigger those imaginations,” Easterling said.
The other incoming Tysons attraction is centered on slime.
This site will either be the eighth or ninth Sloomoo Institute location, depending on the pace of construction of another new Sloomoo outpost in Charlotte, North Carolina.
“You’re able to do things that you could never do at home,” Sloomoo co-founder and CEO Karen Robinovitz told WTOP. “You’re smearing slime on a wall. You’re walking on hundreds of gallons of slime. Your elbows-deep in slime. You’re designing your own slime.”
Easterling and Robinovitz also said their respective attractions have a lot to offer their landlords.
“We find those families, while they’re coming to the Hershey Super Sweet Adventure and having a great experience there, they’re also enjoying the rest of what Tysons Corner has to offer, whether that’s shopping or going out to dinner,” Easterling said.
“We will definitely attract tourism,” Sloomoo’s Robinovitz said. “About 50% of our audiences in all of our locations are tourists.”
Sloomoo will occupy two levels by Nordstrom. A previous tenant was the Paul Mitchell beauty school, which closed in 2024.
Pickleball at Potomac Mills
Potomac Mills, a Simon Malls property, recently opened the indoor Kids Jungle Playground. Slick City Action Park, a waterless slides attraction, is expected to open by summer. And in the second half of 2026, Ace Pickleball Club is opening a location at the Woodbridge, Virginia, outlet mall.
They’re joining Round1 Bowling and Arcade, Aim Point (an air-soft shooting range) and Off Limitz Adventure Park, which has Ninja Warrior and ropes courses.
“As malls are evolving, we really felt the need, that the entertainment component is what we were missing,” said Bethany Webb, director of marketing and business development at Potomac Mills.
Webb said the Kids Jungle Playground replaced a women’s clothing store. Slick City is taking over the spaces previously leased to andThat! and Buy Buy Baby, chains that were shuttered in 2023 and 2024. Ace Pickleball is moving into the former American Freight furniture store.
“Our shoppers have really, really enjoyed that. You can bring your entire family, so everyone has something to do, right? And you can spend hours here, you can spend all day here,” Webb said.
Even retailers are becoming more entertaining.
DICK’S Sporting Goods started opening DICK’S House of Sport mega stores in 2021, with climbing walls, batting cages, playing fields, and at some locations, ice rinks. One is coming to Annapolis Mall.
“Unfortunately, the mall had some hard times in recent years,” Zhang said. “The new ownership of the Annapolis Mall is investing heavily in, really, all kinds of transformations.”
A new view of the mall
The U.S. has about 1,000 regional shopping malls remaining. A quarter of them, Zhang said, are in “excellent” condition and should continue to do well.
The rest need to transform to survive, and Zhang said the entertainment options available are promising.
“Personally, I’m optimistic that many of the remaining shopping malls will be able to successfully transform themselves,” she said.
Zhang predicts the way we view malls will also evolve over the next 10 to 20 years, from primarily shopping destinations to activity centers.
Even retail experts are rethinking what makes for a healthy business.
“Shopping malls traditionally would allocate about 70% of their space for retail purposes, to retail stores, and the 30% for nonretail. That included entertainment, dining services and so on,” Zhang said.
Now, the experts are pushing to reserve as much as half the space for nonretail uses.
“I think this might be just a necessary trend for shopping mall property management to not only survive, but thrive,” Zhang said.