SPRINGDALE, Ohio — Once, they competed for shoppers, investment capital and retail anchors. But now the Forest Fair and Tri-County malls are in a new kind of race. We’ll find out this fall which will be first to the wrecking ball.
O’Rourke Wrecking Company won the $4.5 million contract to demolish Tri-County, according to John Rickert, who is managing the City Center Springdale project for a group of investors known as AV Cincinnati Acquisition LLC.
Rickert said demolition could start by the end of September, if Springdale’s Planning Commission approves a minor modification to the mall’s redevelopment plan Tuesday.
No demolition start date has been announced for Forest Fair Mall. But its redevelopment is further along, thanks to last month’s announcement that the Hillman Group, one of the nation’s largest hardware distributors, has signed a lease for a massive new distribution center on the Forest Fair site.
That project won a $7.9 million demolition grant in 2022. The cities of Fairfield and Forest Park have both authorized the demolition.
WATCH: Tri-County and Forest Fair malls' race for demolition
O’Rourke also won the contract to demolish Forest Fair. It which could start as early as Friday, according to Chris Lewis, assistant director of economic development for the city of Forest Park.
Although he isn’t trying to be first, Rickert said the 12-month-long demolition of Tri-County could be big boost for his project, which aims to transform the 76-acre Tri-County site with hundreds of apartments, flanked by hotel, office and entertainment retail.
“The key to getting this really off of the ground is to get the mall taken down,” said Rickert, president of Lee & Associates, a commercial real estate firm. “It legitimizes the development effort with the city. It legitimizes the development effort with the community.”
Springdale has expressed concerns about AV Cincinnati’s request to “parcelize” two existing retail structures facing Princeton Pike they can be sold to “legacy investors” within the development group that acquired the Tri-County site last July.
“This transaction is part of the development team’s critical path, which will enable better debt terms and, most importantly, initiate the demolition of the entire main mall structures,” wrote Barry Bayer, a consultant for AV Cincinnati LLC.
Springdale planning staff expressed concerns about the transaction because AV Cincinnati has yet to submit a final development plan for the site.
“We do not know at this time if the proposed (new) lots will be consistent with the final plan,” wrote Springdale City Planner Liz Fields, in advance of the August 12 meeting of the Springdale Planning Commission.
“We need to provide the city with a surety that we’ve got a cohesive development,” Rickert said. “That includes architectural standards, which are largely written, and covenants, conditions and restrictions which govern how all the uses on the 76-acre parcel work together.”
Beyond the planning concerns, the Tri-County redevelopment faces several hurdles that Forest Fair has already cleared.
For example, Forest Fair has a single tenant, willing to lease a 716,000-square-foot building from a single developer, Hillwood Investment Group, a Texas-based Perot company.
Tri-County is pursuing a real estate syndication strategy, in which multiple developers will partner with AV Cincinnati on individual parcels that could change based on market demand.
One site plan, submitted to Springdale on Aug. 12, had six apartment buildings, two hotels, two office buildings and eight retail pads.
Each of those real estate uses are facing their own set of challenges in today’s economy, which is evolving quickly due to labor market changes, tariffs and personal income shifts.
“We have rising construction cost. We have rising interest rates. We have labor issues,” Rickert said. “(Apartment) rental rates, where they were growing substantially after COVID, have now flattened. But expenses continue to increase. So, it’s becoming progressively less lucrative.”
Nonresidential construction spending has declined in six of the last seven months, according to an Associated Builders and Contractors analysis of Census Bureau data released August 1. One in five contractors told the industry trade group in June that they’ve had a project interrupted or paused due to tariffs, said Doug Bolton, president of ABC’s Ohio Valley chapter.
“Unlike any other time in the past, things are moving so quickly,” Bolton said. “Changes are happening that maybe people have not been able to plan for and grasp. People just need to get better at (knowing) where their product is coming from, knowing where their inputs are on projects. That's how businesses will survive this.”
That, and subsidies.
The Forest Fair and Tri-County projects are both receiving property tax abatements. Forest Fair benefits from Butler County’s demolition grant, while Springdale authorized a tax-increment financing plan for the Tri-County makeover.
In addition, Rickert said AV Cincinnati has a unique investment group, led by Sunil Gupta, a gastroenterologist who stepped up last summer, when a Utah-based lender foreclosed on the Tri-County property.
“Sunil is an aspirational developer (who established) a community of investors that are interested in transformative developments,” Rickert said. “What we could make for the city of Springdale is certainly a legacy project. It’s exciting. It would be a tremendous success for his community.”
Gupta could not be reached for this story, but provided a statement through Rickert:
“The Tri-County Mall site is large and presents unique challenges as well as opportunities. We’ve benefited from a great partnership with the city of Springdale and a lot of cooperation. We are pleased to have this relationship. As we move forward, our investors are committed to creating a best of class, mixed use, destination project that elevates the city and this region.”
