Forest Fair Village hours of operations Store hours may vary. ", "For sale: One big and mostly empty Forest Fair Mall", "Cincinnati Brokers Explore New Uses For Big, Mostly Empty Forest Fair Mall", "How Ohio's second-biggest mall became an Amazon parking lot", "Former Forest Fair Mall, other buildings will be demolished if funds come through", "Arcade Legacy closing 2 locations, opening new Sharonville location", "Former Forest Fair mall to be demolished along with 825 other vacant, blighted buildings", "Former Forest Fair Mall closed due to fire, safety hazards", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Forest_Fair_Village&oldid=1150149989, Abandoned shopping malls in the United States, Defunct shopping malls in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Infobox mapframe without OSM relation ID on Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Forest Fair Mall, Cincinniati Mills, Cincinnati Mall, This page was last edited on 16 April 2023, at 15:54. [60] In addition, the property owners had fallen delinquent on property taxes. The property had a total of five tenants as of 2017. I can try and remember more stuff about it if youre interested. But another is the gang violence that occured and still occurs in the area as a while ago someone was severly injured because of this. Ill conclude this exploration of the exterior by featuring entrance from which I approached the mall, adjacent to the apparently well-regarded. " Not only is it inordinately largethis was the second biggest mall in Ohio after all (and the. This is the ugly, uninviting entrance, which the signs recognize as being dowdy (an awning is on the way), but its still better business for the gym than providing an entrance through the malls corridor itself. In late 2022, the Mills Corporation announced it bought the mall and would continue the redevelopment and reinvention, which included a name change to Cincinnati Mills. But even beyond that, during my 45-minute visit, I encountered approximately 25 people, often in some of the most desolate and vacant corners of the mall. Over the years, the Cincinnati Mall, known currently as Forest Fair Village in 2022, has changed names numerous times. which did not appear to be serviced with HVAC. Fairfield to the North is not so much,. Forest Fair Mall, Cincinnati Mills, Forest Fair Village . I have shopped there many times. Im 45 now and remember when Forest Fair opened when I was in the 8th grade. Others went out of business. Yes, I was referring specifically about Forest fair. These locations, both in Upstate New York, were sold to The Pyramid Companies. But within 15 years of its opening, and multiple attempts of redevelopment to fight decline, the property was sold, resold and resold again. Michael D. Pitman, Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio. The attention to interior design detail in this mall is already remarkable from more generalized photos I have provided up to this point; even more noteworthy is the fact that each neighborhood applies an unquestionably distinctive scheme, but they all still reveal enough similar artistic gestures to instill unity throughout. When it opened there were a number of anchor stores that catered to high end retail items. [19] As part of LJ Hooker's bankruptcy filing, the company offered all four of the department stores it had acquired for sale. Its a relative latecomer in the era of malls, and the location was pretty lousynot a high-end part of town and way too close to two other malls (both of which now are also failing). Location, tenants, architecture, too many competitors maybe? Mall Details. New Albany, IN used to have two malls right next to one anotherafter about a decade, the newer and glitzier of the two failed. Anonymous posting is just fine. Under ownership by Gator Investments working with Glimcher Realty Trust, who had previously purchased the Montgomery Mall in Alabama, the Cincinnati Mall underwent another renovation between late 1999 and early 2000. 2020-2022 American Dirt. The mall sits in the northern suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[320,100],'architecturalafterlife_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_10',133,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-architecturalafterlife_com-medrectangle-3-0'); The initial plans were to construct just a standalone Biggs, a former hypermarket chain. Potential plans for the property include converting it to light industrial use or creating new commercial spaces that better serve the communitys needs. thanks! It is one of the city's most profitable stores, said Hillwood Vice President of Marketing and Business Development Ben Davis. [28], The mall was put up for sale again in 1995, with FFM representatives noting that the partnership did not intend to maintain ownership for over five years. It's nearly 60% larger than the region's second-largest shopping center,. They offer a variety of savory , sweet and seasonal popcorn flavors! The site has been mostly abandoned with just a few stores connected to it. Are you talking about Forest Fair specifically, or malls in particular? Forest Fair Village (formerly Cincinnati Mall, Cincinnati Mills, and Forest Fair Mall) was a shopping mall in the northern suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. Four different areas were sectioned off. [35], In late 1999 and early 2000, Gator Investments began a second renovation plan which attracted several new tenants. [42] These stores were part of a reconceptualization of the mall as "a value retail center with new-to-the-market merchants". And who knows what function these ancient computers once served; obviously the valuable bits got ripped out long ago. Hope they at least manage to auction off the flying pigs. Why are some malls still attracting customers and others not? DeWine stated the city of Fairfield will demolish the former Forest Fair mall site on Cincinnati Mills Drive. The mall pushed forward past the bankruptcy and loss of its anchors and was sold to a partnership called FFM Limited in October 1990. B Adventurous is now closed and how the exterior was decorated from the previous tenet called Wonderpark that had an arcade and some rides. Forest Fair Village, initially named Forest Fair Mall, was a shopping mall built in phases between 1988 and 1989. (In some cases, the aging photos chronicle a mall in its sunset years that has since closed completely.) At its construction, it was the second-largest mall in Ohio, only behind the now-defunct Randall Park Mall in a suburb of Cleveland. And they dont neglect the obscure ones in smaller metro or even micropolitan areas. And the last major tenant to depart, Babies R Us, still looks like it could open again tomorrow, at least judging from the signage.And there was the occasional telltale sign of peeling paint or seepage (as in the ceiling in the photo above). As for the fast pace of the malls downfall, I dont think it helps that it never really achieved its peakthat is, it never sustained an occupancy rate that was high enough that it was much of a money-earner. I think it closed because the manager was paying teens from the nearby Fairfield high school to make sex tapes, but Im not positive. [9] Immediately after the Bigg's wing of the mall opened, Elder-Beerman was confirmed for the vacated anchor left behind by B. Altman's relocation. Well Cincinnati is 10-20 years behind the times. The mall, built in phases between 1988 and 1989 as Forest Fair Mall, has become noted for its troubled history . It still says Cincinnati Mall, the facilitys official name from 2009 until around 2013. Pop-A-Razzi Gourmet Popcorn. All rights reserved. Id assume it was made to compete with Segas GameWorks or Dave & Busters, but again this was the only location ever. [20][17][21] The other six B. Altman stores began liquidation in November 1989, although the Forest Fair store was kept open at the time, due to concerns by LJ Hooker's lawyers that closing the store would lower the mall's value. But, although structurally sound, its hard to deny the evidence of neglect that inevitably accompanies a space with such poor capitalization.Heres one of the few places actually blocked offusing stanchions and barriers from Steve and Barrys, a company that has been out of business for over a decade. Vibrant colors compliment unique architectural elements decorated by playful items like cards and wavy pianos that hang from the ceiling, or fish that float in one of the many atriums inside the mall. But, for all intents and purposes, Forest Fair Village is not an operative mall. The mall came under more negativity from the city of Cincinnati, due to the higher priced stores like Sakowitz and B. Altman not matching the demographic of the area. You could hang out with the mallwalkersthough something tells me your ambitions are a big higher than that Nice to hear from you! because the fire suppression system continually failed and thus unsafe. Thanks for checking out Architectural Afterlife! So I have to distinguish myself by any means necessaryand if the presentation is lagging, at least I hope to make up for it with the richness of my analysis. After nearly a decade since its decline, the Mills Group has recently acquired the mall and is successfully turning it into an outlet mall. Oddly enough, this was the only WonderPark ever and it closed without warning around 2007 or so. 26The city of Fairfield discussed plans this week for what it wants to happen with the former Forest Fair Mall, known currently as Forest Fair Village. It was only through the comments that I learned that the flying pigs were a 2003 addition during the multi-million renovation. Comment document.getElementById("comment").setAttribute("id","a0754c5991695d9f248101a24fefbaf5");document.getElementById("b361f80784").setAttribute("id","comment"); Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. But Simon Property sold it not even two years later in January 2009 to North Star Realty and renamed it Cincinnati Mall. An example of data being processed may be a unique identifier stored in a cookie. I didnt have to dig too far to find images of Forest Fair Mall from before the massive renovation; go to the mostly inactive site, Dead Malls (http://deadmalls.com/malls/forest_fair_mall.html), and scroll to the oldest entries at the bottom (yes, it was being written about as a dying mall even in 2003). The mall sits in the northern suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. Under North Star's short ownership tenure, most of the businesses that left relocated to Cincinnati Premium Outlets in Monroe. At the time of renovations, the mall was attracting some new stores such as Burlington Coat Factory, Bass Pro Shops, and the first Steve & Barrys store in the state of Ohio. This was the first Kohls store to open in the Cincinnati market.if(typeof ez_ad_units != 'undefined'){ez_ad_units.push([[300,250],'architecturalafterlife_com-banner-1','ezslot_1',136,'0','0'])};__ez_fad_position('div-gpt-ad-architecturalafterlife_com-banner-1-0'); In 1995, FFM put the mall up for sale after ownership of only five years. By using this website you agree. [63] Burlington Coat Factory moved out of the mall in 2013,[64] and Danbarry Dollar Saver closed in 2014. Again, I found it unusual that B Adventurous would even offer access via the malls lonely, unheated interior, since punching a hole in the exterior wall would make more sense from a visibility and safety standpoint. This mega-mall (1.5 million square feet) has two viable anchors of national repute: Kohls and Bass Pro Shops, while a local gym seems to have leased one of the former secondary anchors.Beyond that, a small portion of the parking lot seems to serve as staging and storage for Amazon Prime.And its probable that all those cargo vans belong to a separate logistical operation.