Salem Mall

Salem Mall was the first enclosed shopping center in the Dayton, Ohio area. It was located at the intersection of Shiloh Springs Road and Salem Avenue, in the northwest Dayton suburb of Trotwood, Ohio. The mall was built on the site of the former Roscoe Filburn farm; Filburn was a party in the famous Wickard v. Filburn case dealing with the growing of wheat and its effect on interstate commerce. The Rouse Company opened the mall in October 1966.[1] In its early stages it had 60 retailers; the original mall was anchored by Rike's and Sears department stores. There was also a Liberal supermarket, a smaller department store called The Metropolitan, and a multi-screen cinema.

Salem Mall
LocationTrotwood, Ohio, U.S.
Address5200 Salem Avenue
Opening date1966
Closing date2005
DeveloperThe Rouse Company
No. of stores and services100+
No. of anchor tenants3
Total retail floor area871,000 square feet (80,900 m2)
No. of floors2
JCPenney wing
Main wing

A large-scale renovation was completed in 1981 with the construction of a two-story concourse capped by a new JCPenney anchor store (relocated from the nearby Forest Park Plaza). The supermarket, which was closed by 1979, had its space subdivided into inline stores. While the expansion included a food court, it was pretty much an afterthought and had limited seating. So when The Metropolitan closed in the mid-1980s, its space was extensively reworked to form a much larger food court adjacent to the center court. The mall, which by that time featured over 110 retailers, was prosperous throughout the remainder of the 1980s.

By the mid-1980s poor mall management affected the mall's ability to attract new tenants, renew existing leases, and most importantly, attract serious shoppers. By the mid- to late-1990s, the mall was well on its way to becoming a so-called "dead mall". In spring 1998, Rouse sold its interest in the mall to its financial partner, Cigna. Cigna in turn hired General Growth Properties (GGP) to manage the mall.[2] In the same year, anchor store Lazarus (formerly Rike's) left the mall, and later that year JCPenney also closed. The Loews Cinema and many of the mall's restaurants also went out of business, leaving Sears and a newly built Home Depot (in a separate building) as the only anchors. The mall closed permanently in early 2005.

Demolition of the mall began on May 15, 2006, but the Sears building was retained, with Sears becoming a freestanding store. The city of Trotwood purchased the mall site, with the exception of Sears and Home Depot, in 2004, and began working with GGP to redevelop the area as the Landmark Town Center, an upscale, open-air, "lifestyle" complex, intended to resemble the Easton Town Center in Columbus.[3] The new center suffered delays, with GGP leaving the project in 2007,[4] and its completion date was repeatedly extended. By 2010/2011, Trotwood had reenvisioned the mall site as the TechConnection Business Park, a mixed-use technology campus.[5][6] As of October 2013, no physical progress had been made on the business park. After an October 2013 announcement, Sears closed in January 2014, with no word on the fate of its former building.[7][8] In June 2018, Trotwood received a $200,0000 federal grant, which together with $200.000 of the city's own funds, will be used to demolish the Sears building and clean up the former mall site for future expected mixed-use development. The cleanup is expected to take at least a year.[9] In 2019, the city became involved in a bidding war for the old Sears building, which was placed up for auction by a bankruptcy court. Having made an initial offer of $70,000, they were outbid by an investor, but ultimately purchased the property for $225,000 in the second round of bidding.[10]

Former Sears department store, 2014

References
  1. "Form 10-K" (PDF). The Rouse Company. March 31, 1994. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  2. Bollinger, Julie (July 27, 1998). "Salem Mall walks the walk". Dayton Business Journal. Archived from the original on July 3, 2018. Retrieved July 11, 2018.
  3. Fox, Ryan Justin (December 13, 2005). "Plans form for Salem Mall site". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  4. Demeropolis, Tom (February 23, 2009). "Trotwood to redevelop Salem Mall". Dayton Business Journal. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  5. Coleman, Toni (April 14, 2011). "Former Salem Mall site focus of plan". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  6. Coleman, Toni (October 20, 2011). "Trotwood seeks grant for project". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  7. Wynn, Kelli (October 16, 2013). "Local Sears store to close". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  8. Wynn, Kelli; Davis, Clint (January 11, 2014). "Target to close local stores". Springfield News-Sun. Archived from the original on 2018-06-15. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  9. Gallion, Bailey (June 8, 2018). "Trotwood seeks redevelopment of former Salem Mall site". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved June 15, 2018.
  10. Shively, Holly (August 19, 2019). "Trotwood wins bid for former Salem Mall Sears property". Dayton Daily News. Retrieved August 20, 2019.

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