The transaction must be approved by a judge. Prior to the sheriff’s sale, we wrote:
Severance, which opened in 1963 as Ohio’s first indoor mall, was reinvented as an outward-facing shopping center in the late ’90s but could be approaching “dead mall” status just 15 years later, a sort of life expectancy unseen in the architecture world outside of sports stadiums and arenas. Walmart’s departure two years ago for the greener grass at Oakwood Commons in South Euclid sent the mall into a downward spiral. Severance is now 35 percent vacant and in foreclosure.
“The truth about Severance is there are several retailers there that are doing well, and there are retailers that are not doing well at all,” Keith Hamulak, vice president with C.B. Richard Ellis, the court-appointed property manager for Severance, told us. He cited Home Depot and Dave’s as success stories on the property. “But the exodus of Walmart dumped 120,000 square feet back into the market and the back side of the mall needs to be repurposed.”
Even if the sale were to be approved (which is likely enough), it’s unclear what the future holds for ol’ Severance Town Center.
This article appears in Dec 2-8, 2015.
The sole bidder was the group which holds $43 million in debt on Severance. So everything is as expected.
What this article does not say is that several “what do to with Severance” meetings have been held in Cleveland Heights to get community input on what should happen to the mall. The new owners are likely to retain it as a shopping mall, but some of the mall may be torn down for new development and some of the vast parking lots about it may be used for office buildings — the original purpose of much of this land (but never used).
Ohio’s “first indoor mall”? Um, wasn’t that built in 1890 in downtown Cleveland?
Ohio had other shopping centers including the one downtown and in Columbus, but Severance was the first indoor mall that houses multiple stores.
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Shopping_Centers
I worked ad Diamond’s Deli and Higbee’s.