Ballston Common Mall

They need to put some better stores in this mall! It’s SO dead. There’s not much you can do/​buy here.

Ok Ballston Mall… i work up the street from you and its walking distance. One day i was in a hurry and parked in your garage… it was so confusing i was trying to get out and the signs were unclear. I went to Macys to get an o line order i had made and had a chance to walk around a bit. This mall could use the upgrade. Its falling behind from all the nice constructions and beautiful stores opening around this area. This mall is looking a bit old. I didnot have a great experience at Macy’s but thats another review in itself. I do belive that this mall has a lot of good stores… its just looking a little bit tired.

The only keeps me going back to this mall is Chick-​FilA, which probably is an anchor restaurant for this mall. If you are a hockey fan, then on top is the Kettler rink where the Caps practice. This mall’s design is a remnant of the 1980s and needs a renovation to compete with CityCenter and the like.

In my hometown there are three different malls, one of which is the third largest mall in my state. Where I live now, there is an average mall. I have been to many many malls in my life and I’ve never been so confused as to why a structure was still in place like I was when I visited the Ballston Common Mall. They have a lot of great places but honestly I think that’s the only reason why the structure is still around. My assumption is probably for the people who work in the area they grab lunch here.
This mall reminded me of the type of malls that you find in an inner city area that once wasn’t inner city. This mall had everything I could expected more from such a bad mall: bootleg knock off clothing stores from China, stores where the shoes were wrapped in plastic on the shelf, several cell phone stores, the one of my personal favorites; an arcade that had a claw machine where the prizes were the free plastic cups that Starbucks will give out at promotional events. The selling point was supposed to be at Macys but considering their shoe section was about the size of my bedroom I had no interest in perusing what they had.
My boyfriend took me to this mall to try chick-​fil-​a since I had never had it and then he suggested we go for a stroll around the mall. I now realize he just wanted to show me how bad it was but didn’t want to tell me, so as we continue to go from floorto floor my excitment as to what God awful store would be around the corner only grew. Needless to say it was the most exciting adventure I’ve had in such a horrible horrible mall. There’s absolutely no reason to ever consider this small for actual shopping.

Oh, Ballston Common Mall.
Where do I begin? I walk through the mall every day going to the metro so I see it alllll the time. Unfortunately, this place could use an upgrade. Actually, when I think about it, the most use I get out of the mall is to get some AC on a hot day or to avoid the rain for a couple minutes walking to and from the metro.
It’s got a few stores that are of interest to a lot of people: Starbucks, Panera, Gamestop, Macy’s, a Footlocker, Victoria’s Secret, and it’s got a gym and movie theater on the top floor of the mall.
There are a lot of empty store spaces on all of the floors and hopefully it’s just a matter of time until they decide to completely makeover the mall. This mall is in a pretty good location so it has some potential — we’ll just have to see what happens with it in the future.

One of the worst and most depressing malls I’ve ever steped foot in. On the top floor is a gym… That’s not a typo there’s a gym. The fact that there’s a gym in a mall says it all. The really sad part is that’s probably the most thriving business in the mall.

This place is crappy. In its defense it has always been crappy, it is nothing new. It is not like it was a happening mall that has gotten run down it has just always sucked. I know they are working to try a fix it and the area with Ballston BID but I am still not seeing any positive effect on the mall, in fact I think it actually gotten worse in the past two or three years. I secretly hope by getting worse it is getting closer to its breaking point and about to become something new and great, but I am not holding my breath.
Where to start: 1) Macy’s uses one side of this mall to hold furniture partly because no other large stores want in; 2) Chevy’s left (used to love their happy hour); 3) Union Jack’s closed (health code but was fun for trivia); 4) Bailey’s closed; 5) the elevators are strange (& slow); 6) the parking garage and mall are not aligned; 7) only parking garage I have ever been chased in (granted it was a long time ago & is partly why I feel confident saying it has always been crappy).
The only places I have regularly visited that did not have outside entry are Modern Nails (really like this place), American Greetings; Express Jewelry; Comedy Spot (closed); Shiki Sushi; a massage place that closed and whose name I cannot recall; Cold Stone Creamery.
Honestly I am impressed both American Greetings & Express Jewelry are still around and I am routing for both of them.
The only folks who seem to frequent the inside portion of the mall are tween boys who patrol in small herds in summer months and on weekends. The food court may have some decent selections but is oddly designed and dark and is someplace I have always avoided.
Thankfully, Panera, CVS, Macy’s, and Rock Bottom can be entered from the outside.

I guess none of the locals really like this mall and it’s due for an upgrade, but as an out of towner it was actually kind of impressive at first. It’s huge compared to Atlanta malls, but the selection of stores was small. Their food court had a lot of diversity though. I saw Indian Food, Sushi, smoothies, common mall stores such as Auntie Anne’s, and many other selections. I did notice some cool eateries such as a place called «noodles». They have a Starbucks here and a movie theater. The mall was helpful for me because they had a CVS Drugstore. With four different levels, there is a lot of potential here to grow and become a better shopping mall.

A depressing mall that takes up a fair amount of real estate and offers a sub par shopping experience.
I imagine the train is the only thing that keeps this place alive.
Few national chain stores, but the individually opened ones aren’t special enough to justify a trip. Has movie theatre and a sports club inside as well as ice rink.

Mall needs major work, a few nice things like chick fila a, noodles and co, panera… but then a lot of random independents that remind me of inner city retail
Conveniently connected to ballston metro

If you ever need to run and hide from somebody, the Ballston Common Mall is a bad place to go because you might likely be the only person in the mall, and thus there wouldn’t be a crowd to hide in. This place needs to be put out of its misery. I feel miserable when I come here, which isn’t often. There’s hardly anything worthwhile beyond the Chick-​fil-​A, which like at the similarly-​depressing Landmark Mall is perhaps the mall’s biggest selling point.

They need to take advantage of the excellent location.
The place is dead, the majority of people are employees. Their store selection is just bad, The 2 big stores they have are Macy’s and CVS !!
I only come here for the tailors, their tailors are pretty good.

Can I give 2 stars because they have CVS? Lol
This is such a deadbeAt mall! Stores are like just some random stores and the big name stores ie. Macy’s and Victoria’s Secrets are messy and small. I don’t know, I would come here for the ice skating and movie theater. Oh yes, CVS!

This is a three level mall (four counting the food court on the bottom) that has definitely seen better days. I forget why I stopped here. I remember the area around the facility being interesting with a lot of pedestrian friendly shops but once you get inside it’s like a scene from The Walking Dead. Not that there were any zombies to be had but it was pretty much deserted during the middle of the day. I could see using the place as a fortress during the apocalypse.
There isn’t very much to get excited about but the potential is there if they want to do something with the place. Empty storefronts inside a mall are never a good thing.
I did read something about plans for a major redevelopment and that’s a positive.

This mall needs an upgrade soon, otherwise it hurts.
Love — Great location off Wilson, clean walkways. I didn’t come here in a car, but I hear the parking onsite is cheap.
Not so love — The inside isn’t entirely dead… but it is. The majority of the people here are the employees. The store selection also leaves a lot to be desired, with the best and most well-​known stores being Macy’s and CVS which is accessible from the street.

Ballston Common Mall is like the MySpace of malls. The only big retail clothing store left is Macys?
I think if Lord & Taylor opened in one of the abandoned spaces, people would come and shop more.
It’s tricky because office buildings are attached to the mall and the business district area brings in foot traffic for the food court. The other draw is the big chain store restaurants like Starbucks, Panera Bread, a comedy club as well as a movie theater? It’s nice but I’ve been looking all week, where does everyone shop for business clothing in the business district??? Don’t tell me Macys…
Here’s the Ballston Common Mall Song:
(From Echosmith)
«I wish that I could be like the cool Malls,
‘Cause all the cool Malls, they seem to fit in.»
Sorry Ballston Common Mall, I can only make suggestions. More business clothing stores and add a few more retail chain stores so you can change your tune

This is the redheaded stepchild of Northern VA Malls. No one understands why it is the way it is, and only goes to see it when there’s no other options.
Okay, enough with the punnies. This mall made me SO sad. There were sections of the mall that used to be stores that are no longer… They are now just black, lonely spaces that look spooky. The most happening store in this mall was the Halloween Store, which is a little sad if you ask me. It seems like even the employees at Ballston know what they’re dealing with because at the Victoria’s Secret I was forewarned that «most items are not available at this location!» Sadsauce, my friends.
Not to mention, you have to pay $ 1 to park. Now I know it’s just a dollar and I know that most other malls also have paid parking now, (including Tyson’s soon… :(((((() but still! Like others have said, the garage is not so great at all though and it takes forever to use the elevators to get into the mall.
Now that there is a metro available at Tyson’s, Ballston might be off the radar more than ever. I’d recommend the area revamping the mall with better stores, though!

There is always something I find that makes me rethink things.
This mall is not that bad… I felt like it was an A ok place…
I felt like the stores are too small… there’s more food courts then shopping stores… So Don’t aspect a good shopping experience here… This place is limited… but at least it’s something… There’s actually alot of people comeing in and out of the mall during the weekdays due to work or grab a quick lunch… Iv only been to three floors… I spent about an hour at this mall and I was already done… The lines in the food court are insane… Expicaly during lunch hours… There’s a small movie theater…
Lots of people come here for the convenience of parking… Washington DC is extremely hard to find parking so your best bet is here… You can always drive to Arlington… VA and park your car at the Ballston Common mall… Walk over to the metro via the skywalk… which is two blocks away… The mall parking garage has Patrolled Security… it’s convenient, and it’s about $ 8 max for parking…

haha all these witty reviews. And Kelly G (miss ya girl) for the weird parking garage swirls.
This mall is crap. It fits in so well with all the other malls of Northern Virginia.

I gave it two star but there only one place I need to get my smartphone repair.
History: This was one of the most popular shopping center back in the really 80’s. Out door shopping. Parking space in the medial. So many deck high. Has a old time department store with a eating place. Wooden floor and more. Hecht’s was the only place was not torn down. It was so many years. Then the number one shopping mall open.
Small book store. Food court. Movie theater. Then Fashion center open up and every thing started moving out.
They had a good sushi place in the court and it started to down grade it self. To Mall sushi. They had a weighting dim sum place and down hill it go. McDonalds out live them all.
No more book stores. A lot of teen clothing. Some good restaurant started. Starbucks still there. A good sushi place open. This place only has one thing I wanted after I wood not come here again. Sad mall.