Big real estate news hit NoVA in December: The largest mall in Loudoun County had a new owner. Chantilly resident Srinivas Chavali, the 50-year-old CEO of Virginia Investment Properties, had purchased Dulles Town Center from New York Life Insurance Company for $46 million. At a time when the traditional American mall is dying out (Dulles Town Center’s market value in 2008 was more than $300 million), one wonders — even at a great deal, why have faith in a shopping mall now?
Chavali, who says he moved to Northern Virginia from India in 1999 with $100 in his pocket and a job as a software engineer, had long had his eye on the 1.5-million-square-foot suburban destination. “I attended the grand opening of Dulles Town Center. It was a brand-new mall. I was really amazed. … I’d just come from India, and we didn’t have these huge malls in India,” he says. “I decided, you know, I wish one day I could own one of these malls.”
The mall became his motivation. New to real estate when he moved to the U.S., Chavali looked to the careers of local leaders like Ted Lerner, Gary Rappaport, and Milt Peterson, who “all started with very little money,” for inspiration. He built his real estate business on the side while working for the federal government for 15 years; he started selling homes on weekends and eventually moved into commercial real estate. “Real estate is my passion,” Chavali says. “People ask me the same question, ‘Hey, what do you do for fun?’ I say, ‘You know, I buy buildings for fun.’”
The father of three brings an insider’s perspective on what his fellow NoVA residents want from their shopping centers. “I’ve been in the area for 25 years. I know the market conditions here. I know what works and what doesn’t work,” he says.
While Dulles Town Center has a lot going for it, Chavali points to two missing ingredients: fine dining and entertainment. “We need to create a family environment, where kids can go and play and have fun, and where they can have nice fine-dining options. It’s not just the department stores anymore.”
Later this year, South Carolina–based 810 Billiards & Bowling, a venue that features bowling, laser tag, and axe-throwing, will open at the mall.
“In the next three or four years, people will see a new Dulles Town Center,” Chavali says. The new model is poised to wow beholders like it did a young Chavali in 1999. “I’m sure we can bring back the glory days of this mall,” he says. “I’m 100 percent confident of it.”
Feature image courtesy Dulles Town Center
This story originally ran in our April issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
