Best location for a new mall? (Dayton, Fairfield: high school, closing, living)

[nickolaseposter]

One simple question: Which northern suburb of Dayton would be the most profitable and realistic location to open a new mall/ lifestyle center up? Your choices are:
Englewood/Clayton/Union (Northmont)
Vandalia-Butler-Northridge-Ginghamsburg (Crossroads of America)
Huber Heights-Bethel-New Carsisle (Wayne)
Tipp City-Troy (Tippecanoe)
Riverside-North Dayton (Mad River)
Trotwood-Maddison-Brookville (Salem)

Please explain why by telling me what assets the region has, how the location of the area would affect it's business, how the area would benefit, which area needs business and is lacking it the most, and what area would promote this the most in a high-class, clean, and community type environment.

I really want to know because there are three malls south of town, two in Beavercreek (Greene and Fairfield Commons), and one in Miamisburg/Centerville (Dayton). North of town there are currently NO malls! ;-) We NEED a mall and I think I have an idea of what the best place would be-but I want to hear the people's opinions because YOU are the ones that would actually be shopping there!

[nickolaseposter]

Any answers? I'd like to know what you think!

[JefferyT]

I think its pretty obvious that for location the Vanadlia are might be good, since it could draw on Miami County for a market as well as the suburbs strung along I-70. You can see I-70 developing as a "string of pearls" retail/commercial corridor (the pearls being interchange developments). The airport access road area would be the obvious location.

[Crew Chief]

living near the malls down South, I really don't have a dog in this fight. But I think you're on to something there, Jefferey T. I go to work at Tipp City, so I know there's potential for a mall North of I-70. I just don't know enough about the areas up there to speak inteligently on the subject.

[Daytonnatian]

Well, I know you'll be happy to hear this, but I think the most logical spot for a mall would be off airport access road between Stonequarry and 40 with an interchange installed off airport access. There is a ton of land to work with, and the location is good. Maybe there could even be a monorail or something to connect the mall to the airport terminal. However, since the northside of town is way oversaturated with "mini-centers", locations that have a big box store or two, I hope this doesn't happen as this would leave to many of these stores leaving their current locations. I know that in the Huber Heights/Cloud Park area alone, there are four major regions that fit this description: Harshman Road/201, Chambersburg Road/201, 70/201, and 70/202, all of which would likely suffer greatly as their anchor stores would pack up and move to this new center. If you factor in the northside's 25% retail vacancy rate, the 6 or 7 other such centers that I failed to mention, and the fact that it is almost impossible to fill vacant retail space or reuse it effectively without costly demolition, and this adds up to being a really stupid idea to build a new mall. That's why I really hope that the Landmark development (Salem Mall Redevelopment) gets off the ground and started up again, because that's what we really need.

[nickolaseposter]

It is interesting that you said a monorail development would be unique because the development along the Aiport Acces Road that just got kicked off is a candidate for a stop/exchange station underneath the 3C corridor. It is not anywhere near being official yet. I would also like to mention to Daytonnatian that although they are correct that a lot of strip centers would lose business, in Vandalia they wouldn't. Why? There are two. One older one about half a mile up rt. 40 (National) and another roughly 3 miles up the road, besides that north Vandalia doesn't have ANY strip malls. Infact, most Vandalian's go to Butler Township where Miller Lane is to do their shopping. So perhaps Vandalia would be a great candidate. But I want to hear more opinions.

[nickolaseposter]

It is also true that there is a massive ammount of undeveloped land on both sides of the Airport Access Road, probably at least 1200 acres. Maybe more. Alot is owned by the airport once you get on the north side of National but they are obviously willing to sell because their plans have changed and they aren't going to use it anymore. They aren't extending the runway. Also, the Landmark is going to be really hard to get kicked off considering so much business has left Trotwood and the population has declined from 29,000 when the mall was doing well to now about 15,000 on the 2008 city census. But Trotwodd does have a new high school, it does have that nostalgic appeal, and there is a want for it in the community. But is that want strong enough? Are there other communities that not only want it more but could support it more? I'd like to hear some more opinions.

[tgasper]

Honestly, the last thing Dayton is another mall or more retail. We're oversaturated and all one does is syphon business from the last. Originally we had the Salem Mall, it suffered and ultimately closed after the Dayton Mall opened. The Dayton Mall really struggled after the Fairfield Mall opened, but seems to have rebounded nicely. The Fairfield Mall has a lot of vacancies since The Greene opened. Now The Greene is losing stores here & there just because of the economy and so many national chains are closing down or cutting back locations.

We have enough of a sprawl issue and plenty of available space in downtown Dayton - we don't need any more farm lands filled with the same old, same old retail places.

[Beavercreek33]

Originally Posted by tgasper

Honestly, the last thing Dayton is another mall or more retail. We're oversaturated and all one does is syphon business from the last. Originally we had the Salem Mall, it suffered and ultimately closed after the Dayton Mall opened. The Dayton Mall really struggled after the Fairfield Mall opened, but seems to have rebounded nicely. The Fairfield Mall has a lot of vacancies since The Greene opened. Now The Greene is losing stores here & there just because of the economy and so many national chains are closing down or cutting back locations.

We have enough of a sprawl issue and plenty of available space in downtown Dayton - we don't need any more farm lands filled with the same old, same old retail places.

I agree. This is why American cities are going down the drain fast. People need to re-invest back into the city centers. Bringing retail in is a huge step.

[nickolaseposter]

Remember...I asked realistic. I don't think it's very realistic to say alot of retail venues will go downtown anytime soon. Even if there is a boom it will be years upon years before anything big happens. But my question was, if it where between the northern suburbs where would it go? I didn't ask, should it be in the suburbs or in the urban areas?! I am just asking what suburb needs to see growth. Remember, the suburbs are communities, too. Just because Dayton is the biggest doesn't mean it was the reason the suburbs are what they are. Vandalia was a village before Dayton became a city. So was Englewood. So was Tipp and Troy. The only "fake" city is Huber Heights which was basically a levittown started in the 1960s and took off commercially in the 80's.