Ballston Quarter Misses Proposed Opening Date for New Food Court, Targets Early March

(Updated at 1:50 p.m.) A potential opening date for Ballston Quarter’s revamped food court has arrived, but its new restaurants still aren’t open to diners.

Representatives for the overhauled Ballston Common mall previously told ARLnow that the new “Quarter Market” would open today (Wednesday). But barriers and signs still block off all entrances to the new, so-called “food hall.”

Several hungry would-be patrons arrived to make such a discovery as lunchtime neared today, only to be disappointed.

@BallstonQuarter @ARLnowDOTcom Many people trying to get to the food court that was reported to open today. Still all blocked off. Sad! https://t.co/S8tqCymcTh

— George Elias (@georgejelias) February 27, 2019

@BallstonQuarter I couldn’t find an open staircase or escalator. https://t.co/Fhf5v1asP3

— William McGovern (@B_Willly) February 27, 2019

Ballston Quarter’s Twitter account tweeted shortly afterward that the 14-restaurant food court will “begin to open within the next week,” pledging to announce the move on its social media channels.

Rachel Buckly, a public relations representative for Ballston Quarter developer Forest City, said late last week that Quarter Market would begin to open Feb. 27. Signs around the development have promised a February opening date for months.

Shortly after ARLnow published a story to that effect, Buckly reversed herself and wrote in an email that “the first restaurants will begin to open their doors at Quarter Market in early March.” But she did not answer questions about what prompted the sudden delay.

Signs around the property now merely list a “spring 2019” opening date for Quarter Market. (Spring starts March 20.)

This is far from the first delay the development’s experienced since it first neared opening late last year.

Initially, its backers promised to open some stores to the public in late October. But the proposed opening date came and went without any news on the mall’s status, before some stores finally opened in mid-November.

Plans for a new pedestrian bridge stretching over Wilson Blvd also encountered some construction delays last year. Workers mounted the bridge on its supports earlier this month, but it’s not quite ready for use just yet.