Highland Park (Formerly City View Center)
LocationGarfield Heights, OH
Coordinates41°24′24″N 81°36′51″W / 41.406541°N 81.614046°W / 41.406541; -81.614046
Opening dateAugust 2006
DeveloperJohn McGill
No. of stores and services7 (one open, six vacant, and two never finished)

City View Center, situated in Garfield Heights, Ohio, initially featured prominent big-box stores such as Walmart (with Subway inside), Giant Eagle, Circuit City (later transformed into Bottom Dollar), PetSmart, Jo-Ann Fabrics, Dick's Sporting Goods, Bed Bath & Beyond, OfficeMax, Fashion Bug, Payless Shoesource, and A.J. Wright (later replaced by Marshall's).

Over time, the shopping center faced challenges and transitioned into a categorization as a dead mall due to issues arising from a landfill beneath the site, impacting the structural integrity of certain buildings.

The power center had originally planned a second wave of store construction, potentially along the unused section of Transportation Boulevard (beyond the second entrance of City View Center via Transportation Boulevard). These "future" tenants were anticipated to include Home Depot, JCPenney, Panera Bread, Chick-Fil-A, Buffalo Wild Wings, Dollar Tree (adjacent to PetSmart), and a dental clinic. Regrettably, all these prospective stores withdrew from the project.[1] The shopping center underwent redevelopment, completing the process by 2021.

History

Opening

The shopping center opened in 2006, after two years of construction. After the big-box stores opened, construction began outside the main plaza for additional restaurants and retail, such as Radio Shack, Applebee's, Fatburger, Qdoba Mexican Grill (later MC Sports), Steak n Shake, Ruby Tuesday, Gionino's Pizzeria, Nails & Co, and FirstMerit.[2]

Decline

The first store to close was Jo-Ann Fabrics on April 23, 2008.[3] On September 15, 2008, Walmart Stores Inc. announced the permanent closure of the Garfield Heights Wal-Mart store due to ongoing safety concerns at the site, including structural problems and potentially explosive methane gas related to the disused landfill beneath the site.[4] Following Walmart's closure, PetSmart announced on October 2, 2008, that they too would be closing their store, claiming that their lease terms were violated because Home Depot, which never opened, affected their business.[5]

Shortly after, the Circuit City store closed on December 31, 2008.[6] The Circuit City space was later converted into a Bottom Dollar Food. In late 2009, Bed Bath And Beyond closed. On January 2, 2010, Dick's Sporting Goods closed two months shy of its four-year run, ending just before the store's opening day.[7]

In March 2010, plans to convert the former Wal-Mart into a convention center were canceled. Bottom Dollar closed on November 11, 2010, one month before the store reached its one-year anniversary. In December 2010, A.J. Wright's parent company, TJX, announced that they would rebrand most of their A.J. Wright stores to either HomeGoods, T.J. Maxx, or Marshalls. Marshalls opened in the former A.J. Wright in 2011 but closed just two years later in 2013.

The second-to-last tenant, OfficeMax, announced on November 14, 2015, that they would be closing their store. As of 2024, Giant Eagle is the only original remaining store in the Transportation Boulevard complex.[8] Applebee's also remains open.[9] A ribbon cutting ceremony was held at 9am on August 19 for Goodwill which opened in the former PetSmart location in August 2022. [10]

Reuse plans

As of February 2018, the vacant buildings on the site were under consideration as potential replacement facilities for Garfield Heights' police department, court, and jail.[11] By May 2019, the then-owner of the site, City View LLC, had failed to repay an $81 million loan, leading to the placement of the site into receivership.[12] In April 2020, Industrial Commercial Properties, LLC, acquired the mortgage on the property with plans to redevelop it into a business park.[13] The redevelopment project was successfully completed in 2021.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Johnston, Laura; clevel; .com (2009-03-15). "City View shopping center in Garfield Heights goes from fairy-tale development to nightmare". cleveland.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  2. ↑ "City View Center retail complex in hands of a receiver". Crain's Cleveland Business. 2009-03-10. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  3. ↑ R; Roguski, y; Dealer, The Plain (2008-01-15). "Jo-Ann to close City View Center store". cleveland.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  4. ↑ "Wal-Mart closes Ohio store over methane fears". msnbc.com. 2008-09-16. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  5. ↑ Johnston, Laura; clevel; .com (2009-03-15). "City View shopping center in Garfield Heights goes from fairy-tale development to nightmare". cleveland.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  6. ↑ "Verify: It's safe to shop at City View, landfill and all". WKYC. Retrieved 2019-02-09.
  7. ↑ Cho, Janet H. (2009-12-24). "Dick's Sporting Goods closing its Garfield Heights store on Jan. 2". cleveland.com. Retrieved 2021-05-04.
  8. ↑ "Improvements to City View Center and Bridgeview Crossing in Garfield Heights have been around the corner for years". News 5 Cleveland. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  9. ↑ "Applebee's Garfield Heights". applebees.com. Retrieved 2020-02-29.
  10. ↑ Goodwill (2022-08-10). "Transportation Boulevard Grand Opening". Goodwill Industries GCECO. Retrieved 2023-12-30.
  11. ↑ "Garfield Heights Planning on Moving Court, Jail and Police Headquarters to New Building at City View". CleveScene.com. 2018-02-09. Retrieved 2020-03-01.
  12. ↑ "City View Center of Garfield Heights in receivership after owner defaults on $81 million loan". cleveland.com. Retrieved 2020-01-18.
  13. ↑ "Long-troubled City View Center retail property in Garfield Heights could be rebranded as business park". cleveland.com. Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  14. ↑ Smith, Kevin (2021-10-21). "Former City View Center redevelopment has been completed". cleveland. Retrieved 2022-10-08.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.