Randall Park Mall

Randall Park Mall
Location 20801 Miles Road
North Randall, Ohio, United States
Opening date 1976
Closing date March 2009
Developer Edward J. DeBartolo, Sr. (DeBartolo Corporation)
Management Whichard Real Estate
Owner Whichard Real Estate[1]
No. of stores and services 1 Power Sport Institute
No. of anchor tenants 1 (formerly 2), Burlington Coat Factory closed January 16 2015. Power Sport Institute is currently the only operating business that resides in the mall
Total retail floor area 2,000,000 square feet (190,000 m2)
No. of floors 2
Website closed

Randall Park Mall was a shopping mall located in the village of North Randall, Ohio. Despite the mall's importance to the town - it is represented by the two shopping bags appearing in the municipal seal - Randall Park Mall closed in March 2009. Demolition began December 29, 2014 on the former Higbee's/Dillard's building.

History

In 1966, Dominic Visconsi proposed building Garfield Mall in nearby Garfield Heights. In 1968, voters gave their blessing to the project, and the next year a proposal was revealed. Garfield Mall was to have heated underground parking and elevator and escalator access to stores such as JCPenney, Sears, Higbee's, and Halle's. In 1971, there were rumblings that Youngstown developer Edward J. DeBartolo was to build a shopping-apartment-office complex nearby, so Garfield Mall was scaled down and the proposed department stores signed with DeBartolo.

Randall Park Mall was built on the site of the Randall Race Track, a horse racing park immediately south of Thistledown Race Track. During construction, DeBartolo was very flamboyant; he would arrive at the construction site in a helicopter. During tours, he entertained the media with lavish Italian dinners of pizza and pasta from top chefs. DeBartolo envisioned Randall Park as a "city within a city", with the mall, boasting 200 shops, three 14-story apartments, two 20-story office buildings and a performing arts center (intended to compete with the Front Row Theater). At the time of its opening, it was the "world's largest shopping center",[2] although the title was short-lived. The mall's architect, Frank DeBartolo (Edward's younger brother), opened the mall with actress Dina Merrill in 1976. At the time of its opening, North Randall's population was 1,500 and the mall's employee population was 5,000.[3] The original department store anchors were Sears, JCPenney, May Company, Higbee's, and Horne's. Halle's maintained an option to build a store, but went out of business in 1982.

Great Northern Mall in the west side suburb of North Olmsted, opened at about the same time as Randall Park. Nearby Euclid Square Mall is also a product of the mid-1970s mall building boom.

Movie theaters

When opened in 1976, Randall Park had a three-screen cinema run by General Cinema Corporation. The theater's "lobby" was one storefront wide, with steep steps leading to the concession stand. The screens themselves were in three auditoriums side by side that opened off the concession stand level. More steps led up a second story to restrooms, projection booth and GCC office space. From the exterior, it looks as though a separate building had been grafted onto the mall.

The cinema became a second-run theater in 1991, and closed in 1993. After that, and until the mall's closure, it was used as storage for Diamond's Men's Store, its adjoining neighbor in the mall. By the 2000s, Diamond's had extended their display window in front of the theater's entrance, and the cinema's steep blue steps could still be seen by looking through a door in the display.

In 1999, Loews Cineplex Entertainment opened a 12-screen Magic Johnson Theatres in the space originally designated for the never-built Halle's anchor. The theater was sold by Loew's successor, AMC Theatres in 2007, becoming "O Theater" (with the slogan "O what a bargain!"). O Theater offered first-run movies at matinee prices, but their website and phone number were offline by late 2008 and the theater closed at some point after that.

Decline

The JCPenney, when open, was a 207,000-square-foot (19,200 m2), two-story store.[4] JCPenney converted to an outlet store format in October 1998, but closed in January 2001 due to falling sales.[4] Dillard's closed its Randall Park Mall Store in 2002, shortly after, but not related to, an incident in which a suspected shoplifter died from injuries related to his apprehension within the store after being released from the hospital. During the incident, an off-duty police officer who was moonlighting as a security guard apprehended a suspected shoplifter and injured him. The suspected shoplifter was treated in a hospital for injuries from the incident and later died after he was released. By 2003, about half the mall remained vacant, including the former Dillard's and JCPenney. In June 2007, it was announced that Cleveland-based trade school Ohio Technical College would acquire more than 200,000 square feet (19,000 m2) of space at the mall. The school's Power Sports Institute would occupy the former JCPenney and Firestone Complete Auto Care areas.[5] Macy's shuttered its Randall Park Mall store in February 2008 due to poor sales.[6]

On May 21, 2008, North Randall mayor David Smith announced that Whichard Real Estate had decided to close the mall by June 12, 2008. The few dozen small stores inside the sprawling, mostly empty mall had until June 12 to close or move into empty storefronts on nearby roads. Burlington Coat Factory and Sears, which could be accessed from outside the mall, would stay open, as would the movie theater and Ohio Technical College's PowerSport Institute.[7]

County records showed the company owed more than $200,000 in unpaid property taxes and had taken out multiple mortgages on the mall. On June 5, 2008, it was announced that Randall Park Mall was being sold for an undisclosed sum to United Church Builders. The deal was expected to be finalized in the next 30 to 90 days. Ken Geis, CEO of UCB, felt it could be best suited for housing, education, research, and medical operations. As of May, 2009, UCB had not finalized the deal for the mall.

On February 26, 2009, Sears announced that it would close its Randall Park location, as part of an effort to close 24 under-performing Sears and Kmart locations across the country. This would be the last traditional anchor store to shutter its location at Randall Park. The store's last day of business was Sunday, June 14, 2009.

The last of the remaining small inside stores closed or moved out in March 2009, leaving the mall empty aside from Burlington Coat Factory, Ohio Technical College's satellite campus, and Furniture Mattress Liquidators, all of which have direct external access. All power to the mall was turned off in May 2009.

As of January 16th 2015 Burlington Coat Factory had officially closed its doors to the public.

In March 2014, it was announced that the vacant mall would be demolished for an industrial park.[8] Property transfer occurred mid-July of that year;[9] demolition began the following December 29.[2][10]

Randall Park Mall, 2014
Randall Park Mall, 2014

Demolition

Demolition of the mall began December 29, 2014 on the former Higbee's/Dillard's anchor store, followed by the mall interior. The demolition and excavation company Sitetech Inc. of Grafton, Ohio was hired to do the work. As of November 2015, only the former anchor buildings (excluding the former Dillard's) remain standing.

Former anchors

References

  1. ↑ Thomas, Corwin. "Randall Park Mall’s new owner seeks to sell attached Loews movie theater." The Plain Dealer. 7 November 2004: G4.
  2. 1 2 Smith, Aaron (December 30, 2014). "Once the world's biggest mall is being torn down today". CNN Money. CNN. Retrieved December 30, 2014.
  3. ↑ "Randall Park: Is It Savior Of The Super-Regional Idea?" Chain Store Age. May 1976. p. 25–26.
  4. 1 2 Lubinger, Bill and Patrick O'Donnell. "On Heels of Revival, Randall Park Mall to Lose J.C. Penney." The Plain Dealer. 16 March 2000: A1.
  5. ↑ Gomez, Henry J."Ohio Technical buys Randall Park property." The Plain Dealer. 19 June 2007: http://blog.cleveland.com/business/2007/06/ohio_technical_buys_randall_pa.html
  6. ↑ Macy's closing nine stores - Business First of Louisville:
  7. ↑ Randall Park Mall to close by June 12 - Cleveland Business News – The Latest Breaking News, Earnings Reports and Stories from The Plain Dealer
  8. ↑ http://fox8.com/2014/03/19/big-plans-randall-park-mall-to-be-transformed/ WJW-TV
  9. ↑ Jarboe, Michelle (2014-12-27). "Randall Park Mall demolition will start Monday, as village bets on industrial park". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved 2014-12-29.
  10. ↑ Jarboe, Michelle (2014-12-29). "Randall Park Mall demolition under way, as crew tears into former Dillard's store". The Plain Dealer. Retrieved 2014-12-29.

External links

Coordinates: 41°25′54″N 81°31′52″W / 41.431691°N 81.531086°W / 41.431691; -81.531086

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