DeBartolo, Cafaro, and the early planning of Southern Park Mall
In 1959 and 1960, developer Edward J. DeBartolo Sr. began buying property in Boardman Township along Market Street, including land tied to former racing facilities.
The area had carried the name Southern Park from a horse racing venue that operated nearby from 1911 to 1925. The mall that followed would take its name from that earlier use.
The Southern Park Mall project was first planned as a joint venture between DeBartolo and Youngstown developer William M. Cafaro. Cafaro held a 35% stake in the property and project.
The partnership ended before the mall was developed. In 1968, DeBartolo bought out Cafaro's interest and became the sole developer.
Cafaro shifted to his own competing project. He opened Eastwood Mall in 1969 in Trumbull County, about 13.7 miles northwest of the Southern Park site.
DeBartolo was already building at scale. By 1965, he had completed more than 100 strip malls. In 1965, he opened Summit Mall in Akron, Ohio's first fully enclosed regional mall.
With the Boardman site assembled and ownership consolidated, the Southern Park Mall project moved forward on a suburban location chosen for access and regional draw.
Anchors arrive as the mall opens in stages
Southern Park Mall opened in stages beginning in late 1969. It was built as an enclosed regional shopping center with about 905,600 leasable square feet.
Three department-store anchors were placed at separate points to carry traffic through the interior concourses.
Sears opened first, on October 13, 1969. The store operated in a two-level, 175,600-square-foot unit that immediately set the scale for the project.
Strouss' was dedicated in April 1970. It occupied 148,000 square feet across two levels and relocated from DeBartolo's Greater Boardman Plaza, about a mile west.
J.C. Penney opened on April 2, 1970, also relocating from Greater Boardman Plaza. Its two-level store covered 135,000 square feet.
Charter tenants and the original cinema era
Southern Park Mall filled in around its anchor stores with about 100 charter tenants.
The early mix combined day-to-day services with national variety retail and smaller specialty shops. Gray Drugs opened as a practical stop.
Kroger operated a one-level, 20,800-square-foot supermarket as a junior anchor. F.W. Woolworth opened in a one-level, 43,500-square-foot space as the 5 and 10 variety store.
Other original storefronts reflected the period and the mall's role as an all-in-one trip.
Early tenants included Donuts Galore, House of Nine, National City Bank, Mode O' Day Frock Shop, National Record Mart, Bond Clothes, Mother-to-Be Maternity, Hughes & Hatcher men's wear, Baker's Shoes, The Razor's Edge hairstyling salon, Leroy's Keepsake Diamonds, The Limited, and De Bay Sports Center.
Entertainment was built into the plan. Across the mallway from Kroger, National Drive-In Theatres operated Southern Park Cinema.
The theater opened as a single-screen venue and showed its first feature on April 10, 1970. It was converted into a twin theater in 1977 and remained in operation until it closed in 1989.
Horne joins, then names start to change
Southern Park Mall moved to add a fourth anchor soon after the original opening. In November 1971, plans were announced for a new department store.
Joseph Horne Company of Pittsburgh built a two-level branch containing 95,900 square feet.
The Southern Park location was the chain's eleventh store. It opened on August 1, 1973, adding a fourth anchor position to the mall's layout.
The first major anchor name change came in the mid-1980s.
In January 1986, May Department Stores folded Strouss' into its Pittsburgh-based Kaufmann's division, and Strouss' locations began converting to the Kaufmann's name.
During the transition, the Boardman store operated under the combined "Strouss-Kaufmann's" name from January through August 1986.
After August 1986, the store was fully rebranded as Kaufmann's.
The rebranding was followed by an expansion. The former Strouss' space at Southern Park was enlarged to 186,900 square feet.
The mall's interior circulation stayed in place, but the anchor identity changed at the same entrance, with new exterior and interior nameplates and a different department-store brand anchoring that end of the building.
Horne's closes, Dillard's arrives; Simon's late-1990s renovation
The Joseph Horne store went through its own rerouting. In 1988, a joint venture between DeBartolo Corporation and Dillard's sought to acquire multiple Joseph Horne Company locations.
The agreement fell apart when Horne's filed a lawsuit. The dispute ended with a settlement in February 1992, and Dillard's agreed to acquire five Ohio Horne's stores, including Southern Park.
Joseph Horne shuttered on July 12, 1992. Dillard's reopened on August 12, 1992. The building was later expanded to 180,000 square feet.
DeBartolo Realty Corporation merged with Simon Property Group in 1996, placing Southern Park under the Simon-DeBartolo Group, before the official company name reverted to Simon Property Group in 1998.
Simon invested $19 million in expansion and renovation, adding a reconfigured main entrance with a 9-bay food court, refurbishing courts and concourses, and building Cinemark Tinseltown USA 7 in the southeast parking area.
The theater opened on December 13, 1996. After the project, the mall stood at about 1,030,000 leasable square feet with 117 stores and services.
Macy's arrives, then the anchors start leaving
The next big name change came through a national merger. Federated Department Stores acquired May Department Stores in August 2005.
On September 9, 2006, Macy's converted former Kaufmann's locations, including the Southern Park store, and the Kaufmann's brand ended on the building and nationally.
In May 2014, Simon Property Group spun off Washington Prime Group, a new REIT that took operational control of forty-four malls, including Southern Park.
In early 2015, Washington Prime merged with Glimcher Realty Trust. Through the mid-2010s, the mall kept its anchors and much of its tenant base, even as the department-store world narrowed.
Then, anchor losses followed in sequence. Sears closed in July 2018 after nearly 49 years. Dillard's closed in May 2019.
Two large boxes went dark within a year, leaving long, quiet square footage and a new urgency in the leasing office. Smaller stores kept shifting around the edges.
DeBartolo Commons turns retail outward
Washington Prime chose demolition over nostalgia. In September 2019, crews began tearing down the abandoned Sears store and its Auto Center, removing the 175,600-square-foot anchor.
The replacement was not another indoor wing. It was DeBartolo Commons, an open-air development named for Edward J. DeBartolo, built to widen the property's purpose beyond indoor retail.
The Commons was dedicated on October 23, 2021. Grand-opening events were held in October, including the mall's annual Candy Crawl on October 15, 2021.
Finished, the Commons brought a 4-acre green space, landscaped areas, a soccer field, a live performance venue with a concert stage, seating and gathering areas, and a wintertime ice skating rink.
New restaurant and entertainment space followed. The Bunker opened with 38,000 square feet as an indoor golf entertainment center, with golf simulators, the Ben Curtis Golf Academy, and Double Bogey's Bar & Grill.
Steel Valley Brew Works opened with 12,000 square feet as a coffee house and gathering spot.
As DeBartolo Commons neared completion, Washington Prime Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in June 2021 and exited in October 2021.
Kohan purchase, bounced tax payments
In October 2024, talks were underway to sell Southern Park Mall to Kohan Retail Investment Group.
The sale closed on December 23, 2024 for $24.1 million, turning over a property still anchored by two department stores, with the south end already rebuilt after the Sears demolition.
The next day, December 24, Sunglass Hut shut its inline store after 40 years inside the mall. Two days later, employees were calling the day after Christmas "the saddest day in retail."
In January 2025, Touchdown Gifts said it would close after nearly 25 years and relocate to another Ohio mall. That same month, Sarku Japan closed without any prior announcement.
As 2025 continued, local officials said they heard little from the owner while property tax payments fell behind.
By June 2025, about $520,000 in back taxes was owed, plus nearly $50,000 in penalties, and the balance kept growing.
On November 3, 2025, the mall temporarily closed after employees were not paid on time, and management turned over.
In mid-December, officials asked the state to investigate alleged fraudulent activity tied to tax-payment handling.
On December 19, 2025, the back taxes and penalties were paid, totaling just over $1 million, after the dispute had become public.
In December 2025, Kohan named new general manager and planned to work on advertising, marketing, finding new renters, and making improvements in early 2026.
Southern Park Mall tenant mix in 2026
By 2026, Southern Park Mall totaled 1,018,400 square feet and about 60 stores and services. The lineup reflected what was left after the anchor losses and what had been added to keep the property moving.
JCPenney remained, with its Styling Salon, Optical Department, and Portrait Studio. Macy's remained, with a Salon and a Backstage.
The next tier was no longer department-store driven. Junior anchors included H&M, Shoe Dept.
Encore, and Planet Fitness, with much of the inline space carried by national mall staples in apparel, shoes, and accessories.
Shops such as American Eagle Outfitters, Bath & Body Works, Hollister Company, Hot Topic, Journeys, Kay Jewelers, Lids, maurices, Pink, rue21, Spencer's, T-Mobile, and Zumiez formed the core of the interior mix.
Food service concentrated in the court, including Asian Chao, Bobba Tea, Charley's Philly Steaks, Frullati Cafe, Sawa Japanese Steakhouse, Sbarro Italian Eatery, and Buffalo Wild Wings.
Outparcel tenants included BJ's Restaurant & Brewhouse, Chili's Grill & Bar, Crepe N' Crunch, Cinemark Tinseltown, PNC Bank, Firestone Complete Auto Care, and Jared the Galleria of Jewelry.
