The mall's new Krazy City indoor theme park opened in December
2007.
Photo from Kings Island Central Forums / "CoasterRZ"


TRI-COUNTY CENTER
Princeton Pike and Kemper Road
Springdale, Ohio

Greater Cincinnati's second shopping mall, TRI-COUNTY CENTER, was located in suburban Springdale, at the interchange of Ohio Route 747 / Princeton Pike and Interstate 275, 13 miles north of the center city.

The complex was proposed in 1956 by Jeffrey Lazarus, who headed the Cincinnati-based Shillito's ["shil-uh-towz"] chain. Ground was broken for the 25 million dollar project in July 1959. The grand opening took place October 6, 1960.

TRI-COUNTY, developed by Joseph Meyerhoff, encompassed 500,000 leasable square feet. It was an ultra-modern, open-air mall anchored by two Cincinnati-based department stores.

A 4-level (170,000 square foot) Shillito's stood on the north end of the complex, with a 3-level (106,300 square foot) H & S Pogue on the south. There were also an S.S. Kresge 5 and 10, Kroger supermarket and forty-eight inline stores.

In the mid-1960s, the center's first renovation got underway. This involved enclosing the mall concourse between Shillito's and Pogue's. This was done with a windowed structure, supported by a system of red, upside down V's.

A second -fully-enclosed- concourse was also added, with a 2-level (285,000 square foot) Sears at its end. With this renovation, the official name of the shopping center became TRI-COUNTY MALL.

Shillito's morphed into Shillito-Rike's in 1982 and became a Lazarus in 1986. It was rebranded as Lazarus-Macy's in 2003 and fully "Macy-ated" in 2005.

A second renovation was done to TRI-COUNTY between 1990 and 1992, following the opening of FOREST FAIR MALL, located only 4 miles away. At this time, the remaining, early-'60s "Space Age" architecture was torn out and a second mall concourse added on top of the first.

This renovation included a new Food Court and a Central Atrium, with a 2-tiered, waterfall fountain. Two multi-level parking garages were also built, along with a 3-level (236,000 square foot), Cincinnati-based McAlpin's.

This location came inline in 1992 and re-opened, under the Little Rock-based Dillard's nameplate, in 1998. By this time, the Shillito's / Lazarus had been expanded to 219,000 square feet.

Pogue's had been absorbed into the Indianapolis-based L.S. Ayres chain in 1984, became a J.C. Penney in 1988 and was shuttered in 2005.

The vacant store structure was gutted in 2006. Its lower level was subdivided into a multi-story glass atrium, with an Ethan Allen Furniture, B.J.'s Restaurant and Brewhouse and seven inline stores.

The upper levels were renovated into a 50,000 square foot, Krazy City indoor theme park, including carnival rides, a mini-golf driving range and go-kart track. The new additions to the mall opened in late 2007 and early 2008.

The present-day TRI-COUNTY MALL encompases 1,349,000 leasable square feet and features one hundred and forty-eight stores. It had been acquired by the New York City-based Thor Equities Corporation in February 2005.

In May 2006, a majority interest in the shopping center was established by a joint venture of Beachwood, Ohio-based Developers Diversified Realty and New York City-based Coventry Real Estate Advisors. Thor Equities retained a small percentage of ownership in the shopping venue.

Sources:

Personal Recollection Of The Author
Tom Allen / Tri-County Mall Blog Comment
http://www.tricounty.com/
http://www.thorequities.com/
City Of Springdale "History On-Line" website
http://www.ddr.com/