Three businesses now lease up to a third of the building’s 600,000 square feet, according to Ohio-based development company Industrial Commercial Properties (ICP), which purchased the 1457 Upper Valley Pike property for $2.25 million last year.
ICP is a commercial and industrial rehabilitation and economic redevelopment company that works with local partners to give new life to shuttered buildings.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
Communities don’t benefit from vacant properties, and ICP’s ability to leverage relationships and invest in the Springfield area has been a “win-win” for the area, Greater Springfield Partnership vice president of economic development Horton Hobbs said.
“It’s a win in terms of redevelopment, but it’s also a win for job opportunities. For our local community, it creates traffic, it creates energy — and those things tend to attract other activities,” Hobbs said. “It’ll be exciting to see how we come together as a community to support that development.”
First tenants move in
This spring, the Upper Valley Business Park’s first tenants moved into the business park. Convenience store distributor Eby-Brown occupied 35,000 square feet of the business park this year, using the location to expand its nearby distribution capabilities. Eby-Brown also has a location on Commerce Circle in Springfield.
Also moving in this spring was Rittal North America, which has a manufacturing plant in Urbana. The provider of industrial and IT enclosures, racks and other accessories takes up 130,000 square feet of the business park.
Construction is underway for a third tenant whose business is geared toward manufacturing. ICP declined to share what business will occupy that leased space, but the company’s vice president, Dean Miller, said negotiations with several other prospective tenants also are underway.
Miller said his company’s mission to convert the former mall into a business park has included multiple steps, with more ahead.
After its purchase of the former mall, the company began demolishing the building’s interior in order to eliminate the typical shop spaces found in any mall. That made the building an “open canvas,” Miller said, and the company has been working with tenants to create spaces that suit their needs.
Next year, the developers will make other adjustments to the exterior to help emphasize the property’s change away from retail: that includes the removal and replacement of architectural elements and signs and the addition of more truck docks, Miller said.
Pent-up demand
Springfield lacks modern industrial space that is available for lease, Miller said. Spaces that exist in the area are older structures or owner-occupied.
“We believe providing this option for users is exposing us to some pent-up demand,” Miller said.
Springfield’s former mall is the fourth mall ICP has acquired for redevelopment, Miller said. ICP and its leaders have worked with other vacant buildings across the state – including the former General Motors plant in Moraine – to give the spaces new purposes.
The budding development of the business park encourages other industrial companies to look at Springfield for expansion, but it’s difficult to say what the Upper Valley Pike corridor will look like years from now.
“There’s enough infrastructure there already in the retail sector and the restaurants and those kinds of things that I think there’s an opportunity to leverage that increased traffic to help support those existing businesses and perhaps promote new similar kinds of investment in the area,” Hobbs said. “I think that’s yet to be seen.”
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
‘We’ve come through it’
As malls saw a decline in patrons nationwide over the last decade, so too the Upper Valley corridor saw a decline in activity as people began shopping and seeking recreation elsewhere.
“As people become more oriented to the corridor, opportunities become more apparent,” Hobs said. “I think time will tell how the corridor redevelops, but I do believe that investment certainly reverses the trend of decline and promotes additional investment in the corridor.”
German Twp. director of planning and zoning George Degenhart said that for years, headlines surrounding the mall were about major retail names leaving the building: JCPenney, Macy’s, Elder Beerman, Sears all parted ways with the mall before it closed.
ICP’s use of the space as a business park is a second chance for the property, and Degenhart said, although the park is in its infancy, there’s more to come.
“We’ve come through it, and we’ve readjusted,” he said. “We’re fortunate to have [ICP] in the community, and we’ve just begun to see what will happen there.”
Full potential
The closure of the mall saw businesses taking up space in other parts of town.
The county worked with the business owners to relocate them. Every business that wanted to remain open following the mall closure was served, according to Ethan Harris, Clark County Land Reutilization Corp. executive director and Clark County development director.
Credit: Bill Lackey
Credit: Bill Lackey
The Bath and Body Works store, a popular business that formerly took up space in the mall, found a new home on Bechtle Avenue. In addition, corporate retailer Pretzelmaker set up shop in downtown Springfield.
Clark County leaders view ICP’s purchase of the property as a second life to a space that has been a part of the community since 1971.
“It reactivates a space that has not been used to its full potential in years,” Harris said.
By the Numbers
2.25: The amount, in millions, for which ICP purchased the former mall
3: The number of tenants with leases in the business park now
1457: Address of the business park on Upper Valley Pike
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