This comes on the heels of a July announcement that Burlington Coat Factory plans to open this fall an anchor store at Towne Mall. Burlington will lease space formerly occupied by Dillard's at 3455 Towne Blvd., said George Ragheb, one of the investors behind the California group, SA Mary Ohio LLC, that bought the mall in October 2012. Dillard's department store closed in 2008.
SA Mary Ohio does not own the Cincinnati Bell property where Mattress Firm will be constructed, but Ragheb said the deal is “very important because it brings traffic into the project.”
“It’s an adjacent parcel of land under the same development agreement,” Ragheb said.
“Cincinnati Bell was closed long ago and I applaud Anchor Retail for buying that parcel and bringing Mattress Firm into it and turning that into a viable retail outlet rather than another closed store,” he said.
Plans for the new Mattress Firm are still in early stages, so more information about the store’s size, opening date or hiring are not yet available, Hardcastle said.
The current building sitting at the 3363 Towne Blvd. site does not suit Mattress Firm’s use. They’re proposing to demolish it and replace it with a larger building with more parking, according to the minutes of a July planning commission meeting of the city.
Also, Ragheb was scheduled to speak at Wednesday’s planning commission meeting about the construction of seven new out lot parcel buildings in areas currently used for parking at Towne Mall.
Currently Towne Mall, located near the city's Ohio 122 interchange with Interstate 75, sits half empty. A group of California investors including Ragheb bought the property for $850,000 in 2012, and later bought the adjoining Elder-Beerman and former Dillard's properties.
“This area is a strong regional area and it will be successful,” Ragheb said.
Mattress Firm is a good fit for Towne Mall, whose tenants include Elder-Beerman, Sears and Rogers Jewelers, said Denise Hamet, Middletown economic development director. Other adjacent out parcels to the mall are PNC Bank and Kentucky Fried Chicken.
“I have driven the area to look at various Mattress Firm sites, and they are nicely constructed and seem to fit in well and drive foot traffic to the other tenants where they locate,” Hamet said.
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