“The soul of Tri-County was a grocery store,” said Council member David Gleaves. “And Tri-County Mall had Kroger, a major grocery store. You would stay there all day with mama and go everywhere from there.”
“I’d like to know about a grocery store, too,” said council member LaVonne Webster. “The old Tri-County, the Tri-County Mall, had Krogers in there for years … and it really was a plus.”
Kroger was an original tenant when Tri-County Mall opened in 1960.
The development group that acquired the mall property in August wants to break the site into smaller pieces that form a cohesive community when completed.
A large Kroger store would conflict with that strategy, said John Rickert, a principal at Lee & Associates who is managing the redevelopment for AV Cincinnati Acquisition LLC.
“A large format grocery store like a Kroger really consumes a ton of land and it would be very difficult for us to create the sense of community with that,” Rickert told council. “Something that’s a little bit smaller like a Fresh Thyme, that’s a lot more feasible on this site.”
Council voted 7-0 in favor of a major modification to the planned unit development zoning they previously approved for Artisan Village in December 2021. It’s an important first step toward restarting the stalled project announced by Texas developers as a $1.2 billion makeover for Cincinnati’s second-largest mall.
That project ran aground last November, when a Utah lender sued to foreclose on a $28 million loan that was used to acquire the site in 2022. The current investment group is led by Dr. Sunil Gupta, a gastroenterology specialist from New York who has invested in real estate for decades and was introduced at night’s council meeting.
Rickert told council the new development is pursuing a syndicated development model for Springdale City Center. That’s an ownership structure in which investors commit cash or equity to a project in exchange for a share of the income it generates over time. That structure, enhanced by tax breaks previously approved for the Tri-County Mall redevelopment, should help City Center Springdale avoid the cash-flow problems that killed Artisan Village.
“With the way the development is currently capitalized, we have sufficient resources to go forward and we have sufficient resources to carry it for the long haul,” Rickert told council.
Wednesday’s vote means the city will negotiate a development agreement with the new ownership group, while it works to refine architectural designs and establishes a New Community Authority for the mall site. That’s a financing tool that allows a project to pay off improvements with fees paid by tenants, owners and customers.
In the meantime, the development team will chew on the non-binding advice of council members, who not only requested a Kroger store for the project, but also fewer parking lots and restaurant concepts that don’t already exist in Greater Cincinnati.
“Pappadeaux’s is in here in Springdale,” Gleaves said. “There are people who drive from Indiana, Columbus, Kentucky because there’s not one in the area. What I’d like to see is the marketing for things and entities that we don’t have here.”
The preliminary site plan for Springdale City Center shows a 25,000 sq. ft. brewery space and 15,000 sq. ft. pickleball facility plus 109,000 square feet of retail space. No specific tenants were identified. But Barry Bayer, an architectural consultant for the project, told council that Columbus developer Yaromir Steiner has offered to help recruit destination tenants.
Steiner, best known for developing Easton Town Center, also led the development of Liberty Town Center in 2015 and Newport on the Levee in 2001.
“He actually offered to help us with connecting us to retail organizations … from the west coast, east coast, Denver. We definitely want to take (him) up on that opportunity,” Bayer told council.
On the parking issue, Council Member Tom Vanover criticized the “massive parking field” that preliminary site plans depict for Springdale City Center. The new development team plans to demolish everything on the site except two garages totaling 3,160 spaces and a ring road surrounding the existing mall structure. The plan also called for surface lots with room for about 1,000 additional vehicles.
“The huge parking fields just jump right at me and I hope we can do something about that,” Vanover said.
Bayer told Vanover that developers will convert existing surface lots to green space on parcels where construction won’t happen in the project’s first phase. He also said trees and grass will be planted quickly on a 2.6 acre parcel that will serve as the site’s main public gathering space.
But ultimately, Bayer said large surface lots are required by Springdale’s zoning code, which calls for a certain number of spaces for the expected number of hotel guests, office workers and restaurant customers.
“We don’t really want people walking across that primary loop road to get to parking,” Bayer explained. “Those lots need to be able to park to the zoning code.”
Council President Jeff Anderson said the city can be flexible with parking rules under the planned unit development zoning it authorized for Tri-County Mall.
“We can make intelligent decisions and partner with you to take away some of that concrete jungle that I think is a direct attack against the community feel that we are looking for,” Anderson said.
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