More tenants exit Middletown’s Towne Mall

All About You Catering opened a storefront at the mall in February 2013. Palmer has voiced support for the Middletown mall’s redevelopment until recently. Now she’s saying promises to repave the parking lot, and to sign leases with major foot-traffic tenants have been empty.

“If you don’t stand behind your promises, you can’t get people to move in here. You’ve got to say what you mean and follow through,” Palmer said.

All About You Catering will close its mall location by July 1, unless a “miracle” happens to change her mind, Palmer said. When the mall location closes, All About You Catering will move back to a test kitchen and the eight-year-old catering business will remain open regardless, she said.

The catering and bakery business joins a growing list of other shops to announce their departures so far in 2014 from the struggling mall, including Worthmore Clothes Shop, Finish Line, Wigs for a Change and Home Connection.

Towne Mall tenant Game-Lan(d) & PCs posted this on its Facebook page March 29: “Anyone who has stopped by in the last week may have noticed we are packing things up. Like many businesses in that mall we are closing our doors.”

Kay Jewelers also shut its doors in April. A spokesperson for Kay Jewelers declined comment.

“Every time a business leaves, we’re all hurt,” Palmer said. “If I stand out in the middle of the mall, there’s not one person in this mall.”

Remaining Towne Mall tenants include Elder-Beerman, Miss Selby’s Soap, Bath & Body Works, Rogers Jewelers and others.

“I do plan to stay open for now. I do have a strong customer base in the community, and they do support the store in there,” said Renee Selby, owner of Miss Selby’s Soap, which opened at Towne Mall in April 2013.

“Obviously I would like to see more stores in there as we all would, but I know we’re in a very depressed economy and the owners are doing everything they can,” Selby said.

Owner George Ragheb, of California, whose business entity SA Mary Ohio LLC purchased Towne Mall in October 2012, promised good news soon.

“I don’t have any news, but we will maybe make some news soon,” Ragheb told this news outlet on Thursday.

Ragheb has made similar promises since purchasing the enclosed the mall, telling merchants that major tenant announcements would come by the end of 2013. From 2012 to 2013, 11 small businesses opened. However, some of those same businesses have since closed such as Wigs for A Change and Home Connection.

Last year passed, and no new anchor tenants have signed leases.

Then in January, mass retailer Target announced plans to close eight underperforming stores nationwide due to declining sales, including one in Middletown located across Ohio 122 from Towne Mall.

“It’s difficult to revitalize a mall, this mall in particular. One of the biggest problems we have is Target closing,” Ragheb said. “New national tenants are very afraid to enter the market when a Target is leaving.”

In attracting retailers, Towne Mall is competing with new developments such as Austin Landing in Miami Twp. and Liberty Center, under construction in Liberty Twp.; Cincinnati Premium Outlets in Monroe; and Bridgewater Falls Lifestyle Shopping Center in Fairfield Twp. In a similar situation, Forest Fair Mall in Fairfield and Forest Park is a 1.5 million-square-foot mall also sitting mostly empty as owners pay off delinquent property tax bills. Forest Fair Mall was bought in 2010 and plans by new owners to redevelop it as a family attraction with a hotel, ice arena and amusement center have yet to come to fruition.

While saying that leasing the property has been a lot of hard work, Ragheb still offered reassurances that Towne Mall will be “100 percent successful.”

“We have to find tenants that believe that the Middletown people will buy from local retailers that open up in the area, and it’s a great market to be in,” he said.

“You have been patient for a while, please be patient for just a little bit more,” he said. “We will soon have updates about the mall.”

City Economic Development Director Denise Hamet said she’s been in contact with the mall owners.

“I anticipate an announcement prior to June 1 of an anchor tenant in the Dillard’s building as well as some possible outlot tenants. I also anticipate seeing some construction renovations starting in the next two months and that’s going to potentially include some sustainable energy improvements to the building,” Hamet said.

“The image of the interchange is very critical. We recently sent a proposal on a large scale office project and I intend to step that up,” Hamet said.

Towne Mall Galleria is located on Towne Boulevard in the Warren County portion of Middletown, in the section of the city referred to as the Renaissance District near the Ohio 122-Interstate 75 interchange. The more than 465,000-square-foot mall first opened in 1977.

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. Dillard’s department store closed in 2008.

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About the Author

Chelsey Levingston