NORTHWOOD, Ohio — After over 40 years, having fallen into disrepair, the Woodville Mall in Northwood closed its doors for good in 2012.
Within a few short years, the Andersons and Sears, anchor stores at the property, followed suit and the building was demolished.
Now, a decade later, the Northwood community is finally able to celebrate the future of the old mall property.
"So, here we are 10 years later and we're finally seeing things start to turn around," said Northwood mayor Edward Schimmel.
Since demolition started in 2014, the Northwood community has been waiting for something to go into the former Woodville Mall location.
On Friday, local officials gathered to officially kick off the construction of the Enclave, a 100 acre, 7 million dollar multi use development.
The project consists of multiple smaller developments; from a new main street, residential, commercial, walking paths, and a new Northwood community center.
The 85 townhomes being built at the site will be 1,500 to 1,600 square foot attached homes, offering maintenance free living.
Another added community benefit of the project: elementary school children who happen to live east of the future development will be able to utilize the walking paths to walk to school, which is just on the west side.
Developers with this project know the importance of repurposing these large parcels of land, and realize communities need more than the now commonplace industrial or shipping distribution facilities that are moving onto other former mall properties.
"So people can actual live in a town home, they can shop, they can go to the community center, there's going to be walking trails. It's just going to work really well, and a lot of cities are moving towards this model," said Pete Formica with Keller Williams Realty
The construction of the new Main Street will come first, then most of the remaining projects will begin construction either by the end of 2021, or early 2022.
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