Redeveloping shopping mall space into apartments is happening across the United States. Reading about a local mall adding a 271 apartment building on the former site of the parking lot outside a department store led to some reflection on the name of this new development:

A crop of new restaurants and a Dave & Buster’s have been added to the mix. A grocery store is slated to open next year. In the clearest sign of the mall’s resurgence, a developer has kicked off the first phase of a luxury apartment project called “Yorktown Reserve.”

The old Carson’s department store will be dismantled to pave the way for public green space between the mall and the apartments. Inward-facing mall spaces will be turned outward. Facing the park will be a new, two-story entrance directly into the center of the mall.

What does “Reserve” refer to? The first thought that came to mind: wine. Quoting a possible definition of reserve in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

9: a wine made from select grapes, bottled on the maker’s premises, and aged differently from the maker’s other wines of the same vintage

Upon further thought, this does not strike me as the meaning. Apartments tasting like a fine wine? How about a different definition of reserve:

1: something reserved or set aside for a particular purpose, use, or reason: such as…

b: a tract (as of public land) set apart : reservation

A reserve as in a set apart piece of land? This seems more like the meaning with the apartments next to a new “public green space” and the mall.

Once the apartments are constructed, I would be interested to hear residents and neighbors reflect on this name. Does it feel like a reserve? Does the name imply a certain price point and residential experience?