Southern Park Mall


The Southern Park Mall is a shopping mall in Boardman, Ohio, United States, developed by the Edward J. DeBartolo Corporation in 1970, and now owned by Washington Prime Group. The mall, which is the largest shopping destination in Mahoning County, has of space.
The Southern Park Mall was named after the historic Southern Park Race Track; a historic horse racing facility that was located approximately 1.5 miles south of the mall's present position. The horse track was bounded by Washington Boulevard, Southern Boulevard, and McClurg Road. One of the only remaining structures, the Southern Park Stable, was added to the National Register of Historic Places on July 10, 1986.
The mall originally had four anchor stores. These were JCPenney, Youngstown-based Strouss, Sears, and small Pittsburgh-based Joseph Horne Co. The Strouss store was changed into Kaufmann's in 1986 when May Company merged its divisions, and in 2006 became Macy's. Dillard's bought Joseph Horne Co. including this location.
In 1997 the mall went under an extensive renovation, shortly after the DeBartolo Corporation merged with Simon Property Group. Simon spent $19 million making improvements to the interiors, adding a food court and a Cinemark Tinseltown movie theater at the southeastern edge of the mall's property. It opened in 1997 and has 7 screens. Jillian's, which replaced a Woolworth, was a tenant from 1999 to 2011.
On April 3, 2014, news was released of the sale of Southern Park Mall by Simon Property Group to its spinoff, Washington Prime Group.
On April 5, 2018, Sears announced that they would be closing their location at the mall in July 2018.
On February 13, 2019, it was announced that Dillard's would also be closing on May 14, 2019 which left JCPenney and Macy's as the only anchors left. on this same day, the Dillard's building was sold to a Cafaro Company subsidiary, Boardman SC LLC. No future tenants or redevelopment plans have been announced.
Also on February 13, 2019, the Dillard's building was sold to a Cafaro Company subsidiary, Boardman SC LLC.

Anchor Stores

On September 7, 2019, just over a year after Sears closed, demolition of the former Sears and Sears Auto Center locations at the mall commenced. It will be replaced with DeBartolo Commons, featuring new retail spaces, greenspace, an athletic field, and a bandstand. The owner of the mall is in talks with a fitness company that wants to open in the new commons, as well as an indoor golf center with a restaurant. Letters of intent to move to the new space have yet to be signed.