Akron got proactive with zoning changes, other factors to repurpose a failing Chapel Hill Mall
Akron got proactive with zoning changes, other factors to repurpose a failing Chapel Hill Mall
CoStar
Chapel Hill Mall s new owners, Industrial Commercial Properties, say the site’s vast parking lots could be developable land.
Akron s Chapel Hill Mall is about to become an urban industrial park and maybe something even more important.
The mall and Akron s handling of its demise could become a case study for how cities can help repurpose big retail spaces. That would be a sharp turnaround for a city in which a vacant and overgrown Rolling Acres Mall not long ago was an embarrassing internet meme for Rust Belt decay.
LANESBOROUGH â A local man who has toured the shuttered Berkshire Mall envisions transforming the place into high-rise apartments, condominiums and hotel space with amenities that serve a work-from-home economy.
Preston Repenning outlined that dream to Lanesborough officials this week, but as of yet does not have financing lined up for what he terms a project costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
Repenning, a 66-year-old resident of Lanesborough, is a musician and has not developed commercial property before. He has not spoken with the mallâs owner.
Empty blue panels mark the former Best Buy location at the shuttered Berkshire Mall in Lanesborough. The store closed in May 2019.