Neither a Sears and a Kaufmann's, who own their own buildings at the site, were involved in the sale. Other anchors of the property include Burlington Coat Factory and a 12-screen Magic Johnson's/Lowe's Theater, a cinema brought in by then-owner Simon Properties (who acquired the mall upon merging with DeBartolo) in 1999 to replace the shuttered General Cinemas triplex that closed in the early 1990s.
Built in 1976, the mall is one of the original regional centers in the Cleveland MSA. Located on about 60 acres north of Interstate-480, Randall Park is off of Ohio 8 (Northfield Road) and neighbors Thistledown Racetrack, a thoroughbred racing venue. "Randall Park Mall is a transitional mall in a changing market," says Gary Saykaly, managing director at NewBridge Retail Advisors, an Atlanta-based company that represented the seller in the transaction. He adds that his company has sold properties like this before. "We've sold regional mall assets that have been repositioned, re-developed, 'de-malled,' or completely razed."
According to Saykaly, there were "52 interested buyers [in] a competitive bidding situation, where finalists were willing to close on the mall 'as is/where is' with substantial non-refundable money deposited immediately."
Wichard could not be reached for comment for this article on his plans for the mall, but the Cleveland source familiar with the transaction says that it's possible that the mall would be re-sold, or sold off piecemeal, though some kind of redevelopment isn't completely out of the question.
Whatever its future, the mall has a checkered past. By the early 1990s, traffic was down as shoppers went to newer properties in the Cleveland area. Bad publicity over rowdy teenagers—teens without adults were banned from the mall on Saturdays from 1987 to 1991—and car thefts also hurt business. There was also an incident in 1991 involving an altercation between the Easter Bunny and one of his helpers. Later, a woman sued the mall, claiming that a Santa's helper had attacked her.
The effort to revitalize the mall got under way during the last years of the Simon ownership, when Jeepers!, an indoor amusement center targeted at two- to 12-year-olds, opened in 1998; it still operates there. The next year, Magic Johnson himself came to open his eponymous movie theater, and a food court was also added to the mall.
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