Towne Mall Scam Revisited

About Towne Mall Galleria...no new tenants, but plenty of tenants still vacating. Most recently, Home Connections closed in mid-March and Kay Jewelers, whose last day was Saturday, April 19th. Several other tenants are contemplating leaving because sales are way down from where they were at this time last year. It is a ghost town with very little foot traffic and all in all, this Mall is a very depressing place to work (yes, I do work here so I know a bit about what I am talking about). A bit of the potholes in the parking lot have been roughly filled, so I don't quite feel as if I am going to get my car stuck in one. I suspect that if you stay tuned, you will hear of more tenants leaving in the next few weeks. And by the way, as each tenants lease expired, no new leases have been offered, much less signed. We simply know that we are staying at least one more month when our monthly rent checks are cashed. And by the way, rent is ridiculously low at this Mall. I know that in the past 18 months on this site, it has been suggested that the new Owners should cut the tenants some slack and reduce rent. They have, along with other offers, but when your bottom line falls lower and lower, it makes no difference how cheap your rent is! You simply cannot make any money as a tenant!

Middletown folks constantly bemoan the state of the Mall now and talk about how grand it was back in the day, but then they leave your store without making a purchase. Talk is cheap. Support these merchants who are struggling to stay open!!!

Mike wrote: I suspect that if you stay tuned, you will hear of more tenants leaving in the next few weeks. And by the way, as each tenants lease expired, no new leases have been offered, much less signed. We simply know that we are staying at least one more month when our monthly rent checks are cashed.

Didn't the two new restaurants - Ice Ice Smoothie and the Greek place shutdown after only a few months?

The last time I was in the mall, I noticed several of the "newer" tenants the new owners had bragged about are now gone.  ALM Sports, Home Connection, Splattered Platter Pottery Studio.

That with the loss of Finish Line and Kay Jewelers recently.

Sounds like little faith in the new owners from retailers.

More tenants exit Middletown’s Towne Mall

By Chelsey Levingston

Staff Writer
MIDDLETOWN —
More tenants are calling it quits at the half-empty Towne Mall Galleria, while others wait for the turnaround promised by the property’s owners.

“We just stand here every day in a dead mall waiting for something to happen,” said Melody Palmer, owner of All About You Catering and Bakery.

All About You Catering opened a storefront at the mall in February 2013. Palmer has voiced support for the Middletown mall’s redevelopment until recently. Now she’s saying promises to repave the parking lot, and to sign leases with major foot-traffic tenants have been empty.

“If you don’t stand behind your promises, you can’t get people to move in here. You’ve got to say what you mean and follow through,” Palmer said.

All About You Catering will close its mall location by July 1, unless a “miracle” happens to change her mind, Palmer said. When the mall location closes, All About You Catering will move back to a test kitchen and the eight-year-old catering business will remain open regardless, she said.

The catering and bakery business joins a growing list of other shops to announce their departures so far in 2014 from the struggling mall, including Worthmore Clothes Shop, Finish Line, Wigs for a Change and Home Connection.

Towne Mall tenant Game-Lan(d) & PCs posted this on its Facebook page March 29: “Anyone who has stopped by in the last week may have noticed we are packing things up. Like many businesses in that mall we are closing our doors.”

Kay Jewelers also shut its doors in April. A spokesperson for Kay Jewelers declined comment.

“Every time a business leaves, we’re all hurt,” Palmer said. “If I stand out in the middle of the mall, there’s not one person in this mall.”

Remaining Towne Mall tenants include Elder-Beerman, Miss Selby’s Soap, Bath & Body Works, Rogers Jewelers and others.

“I do plan to stay open for now. I do have a strong customer base in the community, and they do support the store in there,” said Renee Selby, owner of Miss Selby’s Soap, which opened at Towne Mall in April 2013.

“Obviously I would like to see more stores in there as we all would, but I know we’re in a very depressed economy and the owners are doing everything they can,” Selby said.

Owner George Ragheb, of California, whose business entity SA Mary Ohio LLC purchased Towne Mall in October 2012, promised good news soon.

“I don’t have any news, but we will maybe make some news soon,” Ragheb told this news outlet on Thursday.

Ragheb has made similar promises since purchasing the enclosed the mall, telling merchants that major tenant announcements would come by the end of 2013. From 2012 to 2013, 11 small businesses opened. However, some of those same businesses have since closed such as Wigs for A Change and Home Connection.

Last year passed, and no new anchor tenants have signed leases.

Then in January, mass retailer Target announced plans to close eight underperforming stores nationwide due to declining sales, including one in Middletown located across Ohio 122 from Towne Mall.

“It’s difficult to revitalize a mall, this mall in particular. One of the biggest problems we have is Target closing,” Ragheb said. “New national tenants are very afraid to enter the market when a Target is leaving.”

In attracting retailers, Towne Mall is competing with new developments such as Austin Landing in Miami Twp. and Liberty Center, under construction in Liberty Twp.; Cincinnati Premium Outlets in Monroe; and Bridgewater Falls Lifestyle Shopping Center in Fairfield Twp. In a similar situation, Forest Fair Mall in Fairfield and Forest Park is a 1.5 million-square-foot mall also sitting mostly empty as owners pay off delinquent property tax bills. Forest Fair Mall was bought in 2010 and plans by new owners to redevelop it as a family attraction with a hotel, ice arena and amusement center have yet to come to fruition.

While saying that leasing the property has been a lot of hard work, Ragheb still offered reassurances that Towne Mall will be “100 percent successful.”

“We have to find tenants that believe that the Middletown people will buy from local retailers that open up in the area, and it’s a great market to be in,” he said.

“You have been patient for a while, please be patient for just a little bit more,” he said. “We will soon have updates about the mall.”

City Economic Development Director Denise Hamet said she’s been in contact with the mall owners.

“I anticipate an announcement prior to June 1 of an anchor tenant in the Dillard’s building as well as some possible outlot tenants. I also anticipate seeing some construction renovations starting in the next two months and that’s going to potentially include some sustainable energy improvements to the building,” Hamet said.

“The image of the interchange is very critical. We recently sent a proposal on a large scale office project and I intend to step that up,” Hamet said.

Towne Mall Galleria is located on Towne Boulevard in the Warren County portion of Middletown, in the section of the city referred to as the Renaissance District near the Ohio 122-Interstate 75 interchange. The more than 465,000-square-foot mall first opened in 1977.

A group of California investors including Ragheb bought the property for $850,000 in 2012, and later bought the adjoining Elder-Beerman and former Dillard’s properties. Dillard’s department store closed in 2008.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6StlikLsezY

the grass was extremely tall!!! hmmm  maybe they are gonna have a tall grass sell !!  the cones are just the maze you need to avoid if you decide to park and come -on -in to look for nothing...

Towne Mall has a new leasing company.  Same agent as before.  She must have switched companies.

http://www.jllproperty.com/US-Retail-en-US/All-property-Cincinnati/Towne-Mall-3461-Towne-Boulevard-Middletown-Ohio-45005/61492

New renderings are posted wit this listing.

I had to go to the mall last week. Besides Elder-Beerman and Sears, there were 7 stores operating (Worthmore was closing the next day). Two as you enter the main door, Rogers, two (Christian Book Store and one other down by old McAlpin's), none going to Sears, and two (Bath & Body Works and Radio Shack) going to EB.   

Major announcement any minute.. He promised a major announcement and  people don't break there promise.  He should get into politics. Either party, it doesn't make a difference.

It couldn't shut down, the towne mall owner promised a major announcement.You must be mistaken.

ktf1179 wrote: The sign with all the stores on it got blown away with the last round of storms we had on Wednesday.

That sign was worth at least $1.28.

i made a trip to middletown a couple days ago and went to the mall to sears in the tool dept, thats it!! think i should change my name to toolguy well got what i wanted, but i just got to wonder how in the heck do they keep it open? i was out wasting some gas and thought i would go to monroe next and the red lights cams at oxford st and old 25 sure have some mighty quick yellow red going on!!! i was first in line at the light with no one behind me so i came to a stop with no problem, across the street was a rear end crash, the people were out of the cars looking at the damage,, my guess is that it had to be of the quick green then real quick yellow red!! right before i got there, i was going slow before i stopped cause there was no way they are getting my pic!! but anyway from what i seen of my old home town, its alot worse now then what it was 8 years ago when i loaded the wagon and moved after 50 years born and raised in middletown, oooo well !! i did have my .45 on my side just in case i ran into anything stupid! but was real glad leaving middletown city limits again!! and returning to my new home and a purdy new blacktop street!! and in a excellent rating school that spends way less than middletown, to do the job!! and also way way less crime!! city leaders then and now have sure made a mess that, imo  the mess is not done messing!! now all you can do is sleep in it!! they have wissed the funds away for many many years and it is sure showing it!!! but lookout mr. doug is here to save the day!!

Well I guess it's official: we will be getting a Burlington Coat Factory in the place of McAlpins at the Towne Mall.

Nice catch, where did you get the info?