Valley View Mall

For a city of the size of Roanoke I would expect a bit more from the mall, but overall it’s not bad, somewhat dated, but certainly not horrible. It has all the teen and college age stores you’d expect like Zumiez and Vans plus a Barnes and Noble and major department stores. The food court however is small and weak but really, for average needs you’ll find what you’re seeking here most likely.

70% of the mall is clothing stores for women. Not a bad thing but its boring for us guys.

Mall was empty (it was spring break week). Selection of stores is OK for the area. If you’re looking for a «real» mall, you will be disappointed, but it’s kind of the only game in town for SWVA.

coming to this mall was just sad. like ½ the stores were closed or closing down.
i counted maybe like a total of 10 people shopping on a sunday evening.
food and styles were both out of whack… ugh

I came to visit my fiancé and we ran to Valley View Mall to pick up some clothes for him.
For a smaller city, the stores aren’t too bad. They have your standard issue ‘mall’ stores (American Eagle, The Gap, Bath & Body Works, etc) as well as a few larger anchors (JC Penney’s, Macy’s, etc).
It’s not going to be your 300 store location but it definitely had the ‘staples’ of stores you’d be looking for. Some mentioned it’s the ‘ghetto’ part of town and I did not feel that way at all. Some shops/​places were closed but a lot of cities have that with businesses just not doing as much as they used to.

I’m rating Valley View on it’s merits within the context of a small southern town.
It’s a good mall, not a great one, and if I were in a major city, I’d laugh and never visit. But when I’m in Roanoke, the place is pretty solid and allows me to shop clothing at several stores, buy music, check out some decent chain dining options (oh, Panera, we got to know each other so well when I was a broke college student looking for a day out), and stop by a sort of vitamin shop/​health food store. Apparently, they even got an Aveda store after I left.
In many ways, this mall was better than the big ones I grew up with. In part, this is because the major chains (be they Hot Topic or Ben and Jerry’s) hadn’t expanded this far east when I was still a kid, and now they are. I think also that this is a sign that Roanoke is growing and businesses are willing to invest in the little city that could. Also, I believe there’s a certain aspect of, «Well, we’ve opened stores everywhere major — now what?» to the expansion. Still, what was barely worth stopping by when I was a sophomore was pretty cool by the time I left it as a senior.
Maybe there’s no Urban Outfitters or other truly «hip» store, but it is a decent enough place to pick up the basics and wandering around people watching with some cheap as hell sushi and a smoothie.
By the way, how is anyone, especially anyone who’s ever lived in Los Angeles, calling any part of Roanoke ghetto? I grew up in Atlanta and I live in Chicago, I’ve seen the ghetto, this ain’t it.

Valley View Mall was built near the Roanoke Airport on the northern side of town. This part of town is considered a «ghetto» by those who live elsewhere because there is so much diversity there. It is truly the only Mall in Roanoke. It is owned by CBL, who own most of the major malls in America. It has all of the standard 130+ stores and on the periphery of the Mall, major dept stores. Roanoke is not a chain restaurant town but if you need one VVM is the place to visit. This place stays very busy year round and few stores close there like at Tanglewood (on the southside).