The national developer, Hillwood, with Cincinnati area offices, believes it has a recipe to make it financially productive for the cities. However, the primary use wouldn’t be retail, though Kohl’s ― the soon-to-be last remaining retailer of the mall ― will be a part of the plans. The only other tenant, Bass Pro Shop, will vacate its location to move to a new one being built in West Chester Twp.
Hillwood officials shared the conceptual ideas for the site with Fairfield City Council on Monday, and Forest Park’s city manager and mayor attended the presentation. The idea will be to reinvent the 90.5-acre single-owner property with 1.5 million square feet of retail space into a mixed-use site that will cater mostly to light industrial uses.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean manufacturing, said Ben Davis, Hillwood vice president of marketing and business development.
“We tried to use common sense when we spend time and effort and money to pursue sites,” he said. “We do believe in this plan, and we do believe it will be successful here.”
The plan would be to invest a total of $150 million, which would include the acquisition of the property, paying off the tax increment financing debt, new construction, and all other associated costs.
Most of the property would be four speculative buildings constructed closest to Interstate 275. Speculative buildings, which are built to be customized later for a business, are in-demand as they are popping up in communities around the Tri-State, including more than a dozen in Fairfield.
The mixed-use site will still retain partial retail as the northern portion would retain the existing Kohl’s, which would see about $3 million in interior improvements alone, and exterior building and parking lot improvements. There would also be a section, where the condemned garage now sits, for an out lot for a future development.
Though Davis didn’t state a timeline for the project, it would be done in phases, and the two buildings closest to I-275 would be constructed first. One would be a 300,000-plus-square-foot building, and the other would be a 262,000-square-foot building. The other two buildings would be nearly 354,000 and nearly 269,000 square feet.
“These buildings are prominent in Fairfield and West Chester,” Davis said. “(It’ll) be a very similar look and feel and function of the buildings we would deliver.”
These buildings would provide a broad type of potential tenants, and the smaller buildings would be “softer, lighter users” and would most likely attract businesses in need of space for manufacturing, advance manufacturing, light assembly, or lab space.
The challenges
The biggest challenge for the mall, now known as Forest Fair Village, is it crosses multiple jurisdictional lines. The 90.5-acre property is in two counties (Butler and Hamilton counties), two cities (Fairfield and Forest Park), and three school districts (Fairfield City, Northwest Local, and Winton Woods City schools).
“It’s a complicated site, in part, because of those challenges,” Fairfield Development Services Director Greg Kathman said.
Credit: Provided/city of Fairfield
Credit: Provided/city of Fairfield
Most of the property, just more than 75%, is in the Hamilton County/Forest Park jurisdiction with the remainder inside Butler County and Fairfield. The property is zoned retail in both communities, but the developer would need to submit rezoning requests to Fairfield and Forest Park, then present them to the respective planning commissions, achieve recommendations to their city councils, and receive approval from those councils.
Kathman said while challenging, it could be accomplished through some joint agreement, which will take time.
“The school districts adds another layer of complexity,” he said.
This is because of incentive packages. Schools get a preponderance of property tax dollars, so when negotiating a redevelopment that includes property tax abatement. A developer would want to offer a standard cost across the property, which is a challenge with different tax structures.
But navigating tax issues is just one complexity. Kathman said there are “significant redevelopment hurdles” any developer would face.
The cost of the acquisition is what Kathman called “a true price,” as it’s not in foreclosure and the owner “is not looking to get pennies on the dollar,” he said. Though the sale price isn’t advertised, Cincinnati Holding Co. LLC acquired the property in 2010 for nearly $6 million, according to the Hamilton and Butler county auditors’ sites.
Additionally, there’s an outstanding debt on the property. The Cincinnati Port Authority issued two decades earlier a 30-year TIF on the property, and with a decade more to go, Kathman said, “that’s a significant figure that would probably need to continue to be paid or, more likely, be paid off and wiped clean for any redevelopment.”
Then there’s the demolition of the site. Through the state, Hillwood will receive $7.9 million for the demolition cost, which would be around $10.5 million.
In all, just to get the side ready for redevelopment could cost in excess of $50 million, Kathman said, “which is a significant redevelopment hurdle for any developer looking at this project.”
Councilman ‘really struggling’ with project
Whatever is done for the unproductive property, Forest Park City Manager Don Jones said it would be a joint endeavor with Fairfield.
“We want to make sure it looks right and we’re going to work with Fairfield to make sure we get a common theme and a common type of development that we’d both be proud of,” he said of the property that’s been a financially unproductive property for decades for both cities.
Hillwood plans to make a similar presentation to the Forest Park City Council to the presentation it gave to Fairfield’s council.
Credit: Nick Graham
Credit: Nick Graham
Forest Park Mayor Ahron Brown said the community has been speculating about what could become of the property that’s essentially abandoned.
“We’re just excited to hear there’s investment in general,” he said.
Vice Mayor Tim Meyers said he’s happy there’s a possible development “to get rid of an eyesore” and “needs to come down, but was also “really struggling” with the presented project.
“I look at what value,” he said, "is this exciting for the residents of Fairfield? Is it something people can sink their teeth into and say, ‘Yes, this is going to bring in X amount of jobs, it’s gong to be retail, It’ll be entertainment, it’ll be food, whatever that might be.’ And in this case, it’s really not. For that, I’m still struggling with the whole concept.”
However, he is hopeful, if this project does happen, “you’re going to make a change to the whole site, which is sorely needed. There’s no doubt about that.”
Councilman Terry Senger said it if were up to him, he’d say, “this is great.”
“Anything to get rid of what we have there right now, because it really needs to be improved,” he said of the mall site. “But where my support would come is our largest employer just to the north of your property, if we get any feedback from there, if they are supportive of this type of development or if they’re not supportive of this type of development, that’s where I’ll make my decision.”
Davis said they’d had multiple conversations, and continue to have conversations, with Cincinnati Financial Corp., which is just north of South Gilmore Road and is Butler County’s largest private employer.
Next steps
Hillwood plans to submit a formal rezoning application to Fairfield and Forest Park within 60 to 90 days, but Davis said they see a five-to-six-month rezoning process.
They hope to take title of the property, which was put under contract in October 2021, by the end of the year. demolition would start “as soon as we can,” Davis said.
Phase would of the construction is projected to begin in late 2024 and they plan to deliver buildings by mid-third quarter of 2025.
The mall’s storied history
After the first phase of construction was complete, the property opened in July 1988 as Forest Fair Mall, a melding of the two cities the property resides: Forest Park and Fairfield. The next phase opened the following year. But within 15 years of its opening, and multiple attempts of redevelopment to fight decline, the property was sold, resold and resold again.
In late 2002, the Mills Corporation announced it bought the mall and would continue the redevelopment and reinvention, which included a name change to Cincinnati Mills. But the new paint, floors and signage didn’t help the property as businesses closed or relocated during the company’s five-year ownership.
In 2007, the Simon Property Group acquired the property with other Mills Corporation properties. But Simon Property sold it not even two years later in January 2009 to North Star Realty and renamed it Cincinnati Mall.
Under North Star’s short ownership tenure, most of the businesses that left relocated to Cincinnati Premium Outlets in Monroe. Others went out of business.
The owners became delinquent on their property taxes, and Cincinnati Holding Co. LLC bought the property and has owned it ever since. But under the current ownership, the mall has fallen into further decline. The Fairfield Fire Department closed the parking garage in 2018 because the fire suppression system continually failed and thus unsafe. The Forest Park Fire Department closed the interior of the 1.5 million-square-foot mall at the end of last year for the same reason.
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