How about this...some Jefferson County news for a change:

from wepm.com (and apparently The Journal, too):

A mall to rival any local mall is being envisioned for a parcel of land in Ranson.
The Ranson Planning Commission has tentatively approved plans for the Potomac Marketplace, a retail site that could have up to a half-million square feet under roof. The Journal reports the new mall would be along the Route 9 bypass near Oak Lee Drive. That's about halfway between where the bypass connects with Route 340, and the old Route 9 exit into the north end of Ranson.
The paper reports a company called Ranson Retail, based in Olney, Maryland, plans to spend 30 million dollars on the shopping complex.

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This would be great for me, since I'll be moving to JeffCo in the
near future, and won't have to venture to Martinsburg or Winchester....
(ok, I can dream a little, can't I ???) The Martinsburg Mall is a little
over a half-million square feet, so this would be comparable in size...
I wonder what tenants they could get to move in, since much of
the Martinsburg Mall is vacant....

It's amazing that they can't get Route 9 widened but I bet this
commercial venture will be open in less than two years.

I wouldn't think that the Martinsburg Mall would lose anybody to Ranson, there's just not the amount of people in Ranson or Jeff Co as there are in Martinsburg (Berkeley Co pop 79,202 & Jeff Co pop at 43,545). Plus the Martinsburg Mall is centrally located on I-81. I don't really see a market for a mall in the Charles Town/Ranson area.

The Journal made it sound more like a shopping center, comparable to something you would find in Leesburg or Frederick. It said it would have up to 17 buildings, with various sized stores, restaurants, and maybe atleast one major food chain.

I agree with WVU, I really don't think Jefferson County has the traffic for a regular shopping mall, like Martinsburg Mall or Valley Mall. But we do need more places to shop around here in the Charles Town area. It would be nice not having to spend a Saturday out of town getting some of the things you need.

I didn't say that Martinsburg Mall would lose tenants
to whatever they build in Ranson....I was just pointing
out the large number of vacancies there, and if they
can't fill their building, how can Ranson expect to
attract others ??

I also read somewhere that Lowes is considering a
store along Route 340...

Ranson (I believe) is hoping to attract some of the
customers from the racetrack/slots, I'll bet...plus,
if you read The Journal, you'd note that the site for
the center is next to the still-to-be-built-out Briar Run
subdivision, and there are approved plans for some
900 homes on the other side of Route 9...plus, you
have Huntfield going in with homes from $300K and
up...there will be plenty of customers looking for
places to shop w/o having to go to Winchester or
Leesburg or Frederick...pretty much their only alternative
right now is the woefully inadequate Wal-mart north
of town...(how much you wanna bet that they move
to a new location within the next 5 years ???)

And just think !!! Maybe JeffCo will get their very own
MOVIE HOUSE !!!

I'm sorry 5scar, I thought you meant that tenants in the Martinsburg Mall would come to Ranson. To tell you the truth the Martinsburg Mall ain't much, and I really only go to Sears and The Bon-Ton with all the people moving here maybe we'll get some regular chain stores like Gap or A&F. I'm also very surprised that Jeff Co doesn't already have a movie theatre (unless you count The Opera House in Shepherdstown), or even a JCPenney or Sears. All well, hopefully you people out in Jeff Co will one day be able to go to the movies and go shopping in your own county.

I also read in the paper where they expect stores typically found in Frederick and Hagerstown, and I just don't see Ranson or Jeff Co to be that kind of retail market. Plus unlike Martinsburg, Hagerstown, and Frederick Jefferson Co has no interstates interstate traffic, like I-81 or I-70.

I agree that the Martinsburg Mall doesn't have
much to offer, although I will be there this
weekend for the Home Show...

One other thing you cited was the difference
in the population of the two counties...granted,
Berkeley does have the interstate, although
I can't believe that travelers would be drawn
to the mall just by seeing it, and all the locals
know what a PITA is is getting in and out of
it...but my question is, what was the population
of Berkeley County back when the M-burg mall
opened? My guess is probably close to what
JeffCo is today, or maybe even less...with that
said, I think JeffCo can support something of
this scale...

If they put in better quality stores than what Mart. has then I wouldn't have a problem driving down to Ranson to shop. I already drive over to Hag. to shop at least twice a week, and it's about 25-30 mins. drive depending on which neighbor I get behind on the road. Hopefully whoever puts in this shopping center/mall will also upgrade the roads and traffic patterns. I ain't gonna hold my breath tho.

Just saw a rumor that a Target might be coming to JeffCo
somewhere along Rt. 340 also...

5Scar when the Martinsburg Mall was built in the early 90's Berkley County had a population of around 56,000, but we had Berkeley Plaza before that which was kinda like a mall which I think was built in the late 60's. I agree that people won't stop off the freeway to go to the mall, but it makes it easier for people coming from other towns to shop to be right off the interstate.

It's inevitable : City dweller lives in crowded city, moves to quiet little city (Jefferson co. or any place west of Frederick) west of big city, wants all the convinences of big city, quiet little city grows, gets crowded, City dweller moves further west, rinse, wash, repeat.

Unfortunatly, this is what is happening in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. Don't be suprised within a few years that Charles Town will start to look like Northern Virginia. Charles town = Leesburg Jr.

More shopping options are nice but at what price are the folks of Jefferson county willing to risk?