Colerain Township buys Sears store in Northgate Mall for $2.2M

Erin Couch, Cincinnati Enquirer
·2 min read
Colerain Township trustees have partnered with The Port to buy the former Sears Department store at Northgate Mall.
Colerain Township trustees have partnered with The Port to buy the former Sears Department store at Northgate Mall.

An old Northgate Mall department store will have a second life.

Colerain Township officials announced in a Wednesday news release that a bid recently submitted by the township for the former Sears building was accepted. The Port partnered with Colerain to buy the building.

The price tag came in at just over $2.2 million, a township spokesperson said. The property is expected to close by the end of September and was purchased through the township's general fund.

The Sears store, a former anchor at Northgate Mall, closed in November of 2018. Macy's was the last major anchor store open at the Colerain Township mall and it closed in 2020. The mall's former main anchors included Dillard's and J.C. Penney. Penney's left the mall in 2006 and Dillard's closed in 2009. Xscape Theater opened in the former Penney's site in 2013.

In the wake of the anchor closings, township officials said then they were looking at alternatives and options other than retail and thought the best plan for the mall was a mixed use.

“This is a tremendous opportunity for the Township to play a major role in the redevelopment of this site and towork collaboratively with the other owners in the area to create a new vision for this critical corner of ColerainAvenue,” township administrator Jeff Weckbach said in the release.

Colerain and the port authority will gather input from residents and other mall store owners to redevelop the space for community use. No plan is set yet.

Other new developments in Colerain Township

The township also announced other new community investments, including:

  • $15 million for the construction of two fire stations.

  • $2 million for road resurfacing throughout Colerain.

  • Construction of bus bays and pull-offs on Colerain Avenue.

  • Installation of new sidewalks throughout the community, including Colerain Avenue, Pippin Road, Poole Road, Joseph Road and Springdale Road.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Colerain buys mall department store for community use