NORTHWOOD, Ohio — The city of Northwood is one step closer to doing something with the old Woodville Mall property.
The former mall sat empty for years, with the last of the stores - Sears - closing its doors in 2014. City council approved a funding plan for a new development on Thursday at the site called The Enclave, formerly the Woodville Mall.
Northwood Mayor Edward Schimmel said the city has been working on a concept and funding structure for the last few years. Council gave developers the go-ahead to move forward and accept the bid to begin work, joining neighboring communities in building big projects.
"The city of Toledo has a lot of great, positive projects going on. Rossford, Perrysburg - these are all our neighbors. Northwood borders on all of those areas," Schimmel said. "Their success is our success."
Schimmel said crews could begin work at the property as soon as mid to late April, breaking the asphalt from the old mall parking lot. Then, it's on to the first phase of the project; building the entryway.
The mayor shared a rendering of the entrance, a bridge over water leading to the property where the Woodville Mall once stood. He says it's going to take a while for it all to come together.
"It took us a long time to take the old mall down because it was so full of asbestos, but now that that's all gone, people are really excited to see something happen there," Schimmel said.
The first phase will be the entrance, then it's on to building another road to connect to the residential area. After that, it's on to building the recreation and community center.
"To see that asphalt taken out of there and to see roads go in and our new recreation center go up, I think people are really excited, as am I," the mayor said.
Schimmel says the former 900,000-square-foot mall has all the utilities already running to it, along with a retention pond, which will help speed the process along.
The city is aiming for the recreation center to be up and running by the end of 2022.
"I've got a lot of positive feedback from residents. Residents have been waiting a long time - seven years or so since the mall closed - just to see something happen there."