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The Blade (Toledo, OH)
5-30-00
Plans for a major upscale shopping mall in southwest Lucas County have taken a small but significant turn that could lead to construction this year.
In Las Vegas last week at the nation's premier shopping center trade show, the mall's developer, General Growth Proper ties, Inc., of Chicago, featured the Maumee site as one of its top four projects.
"They had a description on the wall as soon as you enter,'' said Steve Serchuk, executive vice president of Zyndorf/Serchuk, Inc., a Toledo commercial real-estate firm.
A 6-foot by 6-foot artist's rendering dubbed the project "Monument Center" and showed a mall anchored by four department stores and featuring a 1,000-seat food court. The food court overlooked an indoor ice rink, Mr. Serchuk said.
A rendering showed a 1.2-million square foot mall with an open-air section resembling a downtown streetscape with "buildings like you'd see walking downtown," Mr. Serchuk added.
Julie Thanepohn, a General Growth spokesperson, confirmed that the company's Toledo area project was given a high profile status at the Las Vegas show, unlike in past years. The company also touted three other projects.
"Everything is very preliminary," she said. "There is no official plan that we have presented to the city." The company is not ready to announce any commitments by anchor tenants, she added.
But the project is far enough along that it hoped to draw retailer interest at the show, she said. It worked, she added, but declined to say what retailers asked for information.
General Growth bought the land for the mall project in January, 1998 from Bryan developer George Isaac. The site is 130 acres off of U.S. 24 near its interchange with I-475/U.S. 23. It is located near the Fallen Timbers historic battleground.
No visible work has occurred on the site and the company has not filed development plans with Maumee. Mr. Isaac plans to develop surrounding land.
Reports persist that J.C. Penney Co. and Sears, Roebuck and Co. could be anchors in the proposed mall because General Growth has a strong relationship with both and neither has stores in southern Lucas County.
Other retailers said to be considering going into the proposed mall are Dillard's and Elder-Beerman. Each has declined in the past to discuss expansion plans.
Zac Isaac , vice president of Isaac Group Holdings and George Isaac's son, attended the Las Vegas trade show and came back impressed with General Growth's effort to market the Maumee project. "With that big rendering on the wall, the project is not as private as it used to be,'' he said.
The Isaac family controls about 300 acres surrounding the proposed mall site.
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