MENTOR, Ohio — The future of Great Lakes Mall is in flux as its owner, Washington Prime Group, continues unloading assets from its retail portfolio.
In a statement to News 5, the company confirmed:
“As part of WPG’s multi-year journey, the company continues to sell assets in its portfolio, with about half of WPG’s properties sold in the past year, while the remainder of the portfolio is or will soon be on the market.”
The City of Mentor has been in constant talks with Washington Prime Group, which has owned the mall for the last decade. While no buyer has been announced, officials don’t expect any major disruption in operations, no matter who takes over.
The bigger question? Whether a new owner is willing to invest in reimagining the property.
“I think that it could be a potential for mixed use,” Kevin Malecek, director of Development for the City of Mentor, said. “We've actually had conversations in the past with developers about taking potentially sections of the mall and turning it into a mixed use situation. It's definitely something we're open and looking at ways that we can continue to innovate while again kind of just trying to keep that commercial vibrancy that we do have in that Great Lakes mall area, definitely.”
Mentor officials say the mall has changed hands several times over the years, and they still see it as a key retail destination. That could mean new ideas down the road, including a housing component where people can live just steps from restaurants and shops.
Shoppers, however, still connect to the mall’s original charm. When it opened its doors in 1961, Great Lakes Mall had just two anchor stores: JCPenney and Newberry’s.
“I'm shopping around for some baseballs today for my son and you know I'm going to be looking at a couple of different baseballs and,” said shopper Jerry Fallon. “Knowing what we're gonna be using them for, mostly practice, you know, you, you get that kind of tangibility there when you're able to pick the stuff up and handle it.”
The city says it remains committed to supporting the mall through its next chapter, however that may look.
For now, Great Lakes Mall isn’t changing, but the conversations about what it could become are heating up.
