Eastwood Complex Keeps Expanding, 'Repurposing'
NILES, Ohio -- Within days, Ken Kollar expects the fourth floor of the new Residence Inn by Marriott being developed at the Eastwood Mall to be in place. Supports for the level are being installed to be followed by the walls, and the roof of the building should be completed within weeks.
The work on the hotel, which is expected to open in early next year, is far from the only project under way at the Eastwood Mall Complex. Contractors are been busy building a Texas Roadhouse on a site at the front of the Howland Commons property, where Kohl’s and Kmart are located, for an anticipated October opening. Optiview Vision Center has moved into the former Hollywood Video store on the site, and not far away from there, the former Borders book store is being partially repurposed as an Ulta Salon cosmetics and fragrance store, with additional spaces available to be leased.
The mall complex also recently saw the opening of its latest restaurant offering, a new Dairy Queen Grill and Chill. Opened and operated by Warren-based Covelli Enterprises, the DQ joins two other Covelli-owned restaurants, the Panera Bread café that opened in 2010 and the O’Charley’s restaurant that opened in 2006, all three within yards of each other.
“It’s a great time for the Eastwood Mall Complex, said Kollar, property manager since 1992. “The mall is really booming.” In addition to the DQ opening, hotel project, Texas Roadhouse and Ulta, which is expected to open in about a month, a 1,000-person banquet center is being developed in conjunction with the hotel. “In Trumbull County, there’s really nothing like it,” he said.
Since the original mall was built in 1969, the Eastwood Complex has grown to about 3.5 million square feet, about 95% of which is leased, Kollar said. “If not the biggest, we’re one of the biggest [shopping centers] in the country,” he observed.
Kollar is impressed with how the mall has grown over the years. The complex has expanded beyond the initial mall building to encompass the adjacent Great East Plaza, added in1976; Boulevard Centre in 1990; McKinley Centre, located across Route 422; Howland Commons in 1994; North Commons in 1997; and Eastwood Field in 1999. Expansions to the mall itself have included the addition of the north concourse in 1979 and the space where the Target department store located in 2000.
The expansion, including the additions to the property in recent months, is driven in large measure by the fact that the owner of the mall complex, the family-run Cafaro Co., is based in Youngstown. “This is their flagship. They’re very proud of the Eastwood Mall Complex. They want to make it the best in our area -- not just the [Mahoning] Valley,” Kollar said.
“And I think that’s the driving force behind the aggressive approach to leasing this massive complex,” Kollar continued. The current generation in charge of the Cafaro Co, brothers William and Anthony Jr., “made a decision to hone in on existing properties as opposed to going to try to develop new,” he said.
“The fact is some shopping centers stagnate because they think they’re doing just fine. The owners feel that there’s no need to renovate, there’s no need to innovate,” added Joe Bell, director of corporate communications for Cafaro. Other shopping centers “simply die” because people get tired and bored with the properties, which begin to look stale.
“It starts to look stale. Certain tenants start to leave because of that staleness,” Bell continued. “We believe in constantly keeping up with the needs of our tenants as well as our shoppers. We keep an eye on what’s going to be popular, what’s going to be necessary.” When a tenant leaves – as with the closing of Circuit City several years back on the Howland Commons site – “we don’t look at that as something to just walk away from. We look at that as an opportunity to redevelop into some other type of store.”
Along with the conversion from Borders to Ulta, other examples of repurposing at the complex include the Eastwood Expo Center, formerly a big-box hardware store, Bell said. “Now it’s used for all types of convention-style or boat show or car show events,” he said. Property above the Save-A-Lot store in Great East has been turned into a medical training store.
Trumbull County Commissioner Frank Fuda recalls playing golf on what used to be the Eastwood Golf Course when he was in high school. As a Niles city councilman, he represented the ward where the mall is located. “It’s changed drastically,” he remarked. The property provides a “great tax base” for the city of Niles in particular, he added.
In 2012, purchases made at the complex generated $11.8 million in sales tax, Bell reported. At peak times, tenants employ an estimated 3,200 employees.
Fuda pointed to benefits to the community beyond the tax base and employment. Many flooding problems in the area were resolved when Cafaro developed the McKinley Centre across from the main mall property along Route 422. “They put in a $1 million retention pond plus about $500,000 in pipe work,” he said. “They used to run canoes on Difford Drive. Now all that water is stored in the pond behind the old Finast store.”
Knowledge of the property’s history helps in leasing and operating it, Kollar said. “You get to know the personality of the property,” he said. “It’s a neat thing.”
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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