Monroeville officials, residents await more details on mall redevelopment plans

Monroeville residents who want more information on the future of the Monroeville Mall property will have to wait a bit longer, municipal officials said this month.

“Nothing has been submitted to the municipality whatsoever, no plans, no drafts,” said Mayor Nick Gresock of Walmart’s proposal to redevelop the 186-acre mall property via Texas developer Cypress Equities.

Redevelopment plans for the property must go through the Monroeville Planning Commission and then through council for approval.

First, however, Gresock said, developers must deal with existing leases already in place for mall tenants.

“What I didn’t think to acknowledge at first was the different types of leases in place at the mall,” he said at council’s August workshop meeting. “One tenant has a lease that runs until 2030, and they have to work through that before they can even come to us with a plan.”

Some mall tenants are not waiting to see what the future holds. Wagner Shoes, a Pittsburgh staple since the mid-1800s, permanently closed its store in the mall recently and now operates only from its location in Pittsburgh’s Lawrenceville neighborhood.

Wagner officials could not be reached for comment.

“When Walmart bought the mall and brought Cypress along, they were starting at ground zero,” Gresock said. “That process is not moving as fast as (Cypress) would like.”

Gresock said he was hoping Cypress officials would have a date set for a public meeting to outline some of the plans for the property and take public input.

“I was hoping it would happen before the end of summer, and definitely by the fall,” he said. “But this whole thing is probably going to be a two- to four-year process.”

Cypress Equities spokesperson Tracy Cobb said the company hopes to “be in front of the public this fall.”

Through a limited-liability corporation called South Saturn Ridge LLC, Walmart purchased multiple pieces of property within the mall’s footprint. They include the main mall building along with the Cinemark theater, mall annex and a commercial right-of-way for $18.5 million.

In addition, it purchased the property where Barnes & Noble is ($6 million, 6.92 acres), the JC Penney and Dick’s Sporting Goods building ($7 million, 10.6 acres), the Best Buy property ($2 million, 3.12 acres) and a 32,000-square-foot commercial auxiliary building that was formerly home to a KeyBank branch.

Parcels along the northern edge of the mall property, including the Goodyear Auto Center, the former Solevo and current ZenLeaf marijuana dispensaries and the recently built Henry Parham VA Clinic were not part of the purchase.

“What they’ve told us is that, if there’s any business currently at the mall that wants to be part of this new development, they’re willing to work with them,” Gresock said. “It’s taking longer than they’d like, but they do want to work with us and hear what residents have to say.”

The 1.2 million-square-foot Monroeville property served as a commercial anchor for the community when it was constructed in the late 1960s. Like many larger shopping malls, its daily business has been affected over the years by the rise of online retailing. Several retailers that once had a presence at the mall — including Hollister, Forever 21 and Party City — are no longer there.