Our most recent SOUTHERN PARK plan dates to the year 2022. At this time, the mall houses approximately 1,018,400 leasable square feet and contains eighty-nine stores and services. The abandoned Sears has been demolished and replaced by DeBartolo Commons.
SOUTHERN PARK MALL TENANTS 2022:
J.C. PENNEY (with Styling Salon, Optical Department, Portrait Studio and Sephora store) / MACY'S (with Salon and Backstage store) / Ace's Break Away & Play Arcade / All Smiles Aboard mall train / American Commodore Tuxedo / American Eagle Outfitters / Art Cafe Studio / Ashcroft & Oak Jewelers / Auntie Anne's Pretzels (kiosk) / Bath & Body Works / BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse (outparcel) / Buffalo Wild Wings / Build-A-Bear Workshop / Caricatures by Paris (kiosk) / Champs Sports / Chick-Fil-A / Chili's Grill & Bar (outparcel) / Cinemark Tinseltown (outparcel) / Claire's Boutique / Cru Monroe Boutique / Double Bogey's Bar & Grill / EcoATM / Escape Boardman 2 / Excalibur Barber Grooming Lounge / Express apparel / Finish Line / Firestone Tire & Auto (outparcel) / Foot Locker / FVDE barbers / Gamer Lounge / Gloria Jean's Coffee / Gold Rush / H & M apparel / Hair & Beauty Bar (kiosk) / Hibbett Sports / Hollister Company apparel / Home Spa / Hot Topic apparel / Jared the Galleria of Jewelry (outparcel) / Journeys shoes / Kay Jewelers / Lids / Lundon ladies' wear / Mask Meadow / Maurices ladies' wear / Mia Emilia gifts / Miracle Ear / New York & Company ladies' wear / Ocean Nails / One Step Forward shoes / Party Pals (kiosk) / Perfume Collection / Piercing Pagoda 1 (kiosk) / Piercing Pagoda 2 (kiosk) / Pink ladies' wear / Planet Fitness / PNC Bank (outparcel) / Royal Renees-The Venue / Rose & Remington ladies' wear / rue21 ladies' wear / Sawa Japanese Steakhouse / Shail Jewelers (kiosk) / Shelby's Sugar Shop / Shoe Department Encore / Sleep Number / Smoothie Land / Spencer Gifts / Steel Valley Brew Works coffee house / Sunglass Hut / Superbrow Salon & Spa / T-Shirt Corner / T-Mobile / The Buckle shoes / The Bunker golf / The Children's Place / The Selfie Space / The Watch Box (kiosk) / Things Remembered / Tilly's apparel / Totally Pagoda / Touchdown Gifts / Tri-Health / Victoria's Secret / White Barn Candle Company / Yankee Candle / Youngstown Clothing Company / Zales Jewelers / Zumiez apparel
IN THE FOOD COURT:
Asian Chao / Bobba Tea / Charley's Philly Steaks / Coney Island Hot Dogs / Frullati Cafe / Sarku Japan / Sbarro Italian Eatery / Vitamin World
DeBartolo Commons incorporates restaurant, athletic and entertainment components. The greenspace area was officially dedicated in the fall of 2021, with new restaurants and entertainment venues opening in early 2022. The Bunker is an indoor golf entertainment center. It includes the Ben Curtis Golf Academy and Double Bogey's Bar & Grill.
Drawing from https://wpgus.com / The Washington Prime Group
SOUTHERN PARK MALL
Boardman-Poland Road / US 224 and Market Street
Mahoning County (Boardman Township), Ohio
The Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation's hometown shopping mall was built on a 92.3-acre parcel, located 4.8 miles south of Youngstown's urban core. The site was in an unincorporated section of Mahoning County known as Boardman Township (or "Boardman").
SOUTHERN PARK MALL was named as a homage to Southern Park, a horse racing venue in operation between 1911 and 1925. This facility occupied land located near the future mall site. Originally planned as a joint venture with Youngstown developer William M. Cafaro, the mall project became solely a DeBartolo endeavor when his company bought out the Cafaro Company in 1968. Cafaro went on to develop EASTWOOD MALL (1969) {13.7 miles northwest of Southern Park Mall, in Trumbull County}.
Enveloping approximately 905,600 leasable square feet, SOUTHERN PARK MALL opened in stages. Its 2-level (175,600 square foot) Sears became the first operational store, on October 13, 1969. A 2-level (167,000 square foot), Youngstown-based Strouss' was dedicated in March 1970. J.C. Penney's 2-level (135,000 square foot) unit opened its doors on April 2, 1970.
Among 101 charter tenants were Donuts Galore, House of Nine, National City Bank, Mode O' Day Frock Shop, National Record Mart, Bond Clothes, Mother-to-Be Maternity, Hughes & Hatcher men's wear, Baker's Shoes, Gray Drug, Art Gallery Inn, The Razor's Edge hairstyling salon, McKelvey's Loft, Leroy's Keepsake Diamonds, GNC, The Limited, Fanny Farmer Candies and the De Bay Sports Center.
Junior anchors of the mall included a 1-level (43,500 square foot) F.W. Woolworth 5 & 10 and (20,800 square foot) Kroger supermarket. Across the mallway from Kroger was the National Drive-In Theatres Southern Park Cinema. This single-screen venue showed a first feature in April 1970. It was twinned in 1977 and shuttered in 1989.
Plans for a fourth SOUTHERN PARK anchor were announced in November 1971. The Pittsburgh-based Joseph Horne Company built a 2-level (95,900 square foot) branch, the chain's eleventh, which opened for business on August 1, 1973.
Anchor rebrandings commenced at the Strouss' store. In January 1986, Strouss' merged with another May Department Stores division, Pittsburgh-based Kaufmann's. Strouss' stores operated under a joint Strouss-Kaufmann's banner between January and August of 1986, when they received Kaufmann's nameplates. Soon after, the SOUTHERN PARK branch was expanded to 186,900 square feet.
In 1988, a DeBartolo-Dillard's joint venture sought to acquire stores owned by the Joseph Horne Company. However, the deal was abruptly terminated when Horne's filed a lawsuit. The issue was settled in February 1992, with Dillard's agreeing to buy five Horne's locations, including the SOUTHERN PARK store. It was shuttered on July 12, 1992 and re-opened, as a Dillard's, on August 12 of the same year. The building was eventually expanded to 187,500 square feet.
A 1996 merger between the mall's developer, now known as the DeBartolo Realty Corporation, and Simon Property Group brought SOUTHERN PARK MALL under the Simon DeBartolo Group heading. The official name of the company reverted to "Simon Property Group" in 1998. Immediately after the conclusion of the DeBartolo-Simon merger, a 19 million dollar expansion and renovation was done to SOUTHERN PARK MALL. A 9-bay Food Court was installed as part of a reconfigured Main Entrance and courts and concourses were refurbished.
A 7-screen megaplex was also built in the southeast parking area. The Cinemark Tinseltown USA 7 opened for business on December 13, 1996. With these improvements, SOUTHERN PARK MALL enveloped around 1,030,000 leasable square feet and housed 117 stores and services.
The Simon Property Group created a spin-off Real Estate Investment Trust in May 2014. Known as the Washington Prime Group, it assumed ownership of forty-four of Simon's "Grade B" malls, including SOUTHERN PARK MALL. In early 2015, the newly-formed Washington Prime Group merged with Columbus, Ohio's Glimcher Realty Trust.
Sears shuttered their SOUTHERN PARK store in July 2018. Dillard's followed suit in May 2019. Demolition of the abandoned Sears, and its Auto Center, commenced in September 2019. These were replaced by an open-air plaza, named in honor of the developer of the original mall. DeBartolo Commons, which included restaurant, entertainment and athletic components, was officially dedicated on October 23, 2021.
A 4-acre greenspace included a soccer field, live performance venue, seating areas and wintertime ice rink. New business opened in a reconfigured South Wing. These included a (12,000 square foot) Steel Valley Brew Works and (38,000 square foot) The Bunker. This featured golf simulators, a golf academy and Double Bogey's Bar & Grill.
As the Commons was nearing completion, it was revealed that the Washington Prime Group was having financial problems. The Real Estate Investment Trust filed for bankruptcy protection in June 2021 and exited the proceeding in October 2021.
Sources:
The Youngstown Vindicator
https://www.farmanddairy.com
www.simon.com / Simon Property Group
http://movie-theatre.org / Mike Rivest
http://www.debartolocommons.com
https://www.cnbc.com
https://businessjournaldaily.com
"Southern Park Mall" article on Wikipedia
