The mall's name was changed to CITY CENTRE MART in 1977. This circa-1980 layout illustrates the best case scenario...or what was supposed to have been built by this time. There would be two new department stores (Swallen's and Elder-Beerman) and north and south parking structures. Additional inline retail space is indicated in medium gray.

Elder-Beerman backed out of building a downtown Middletown store in August 1974. They, along with Sears, opted to locate at the up-and-coming TOWNE MALL. Cincinnati-based Swallen's went ahead with a new CITY CENTRE MART store, which opened in late 1979. It would serve as the mall's sole anchor after J.C. Penney shut down in 1981.

The MALL-MART was unceremoniously demolished between 2001 and 2002. Today, some locals blame the failed shopping hub for the decline of downtown Middletown...something of a snap judgement. Weighing in all the facts, a different picture begins to emerge. CITY CENTRE MART did not single-handedly kill the downtown area. This process had been put in motion as far back as the late 1950s, as detailed in the diagram above.