Finally, after nine years of talk and planning, construction has started on the mall at the historic Fallen Timbers site. Maumee City Administrator John Jezak is relieved the project is getting off the ground, but there are plenty of skeptics who won't believe it until retailers turn on their lights and open the doors for shoppers.
After nearly a decade of changes and disputes about the property, The Shops at Fallen Timbers is expected to open some time next year with four anchor retailers.
Still, not everyone is pleased with the thought of a 110-acre site next to the coming national park commemorating the Battle at Fallen Timbers. The property is located on Russell Road in Maumee, just off U.S. 24 and near the I-475/U.S. 23 interchange. That's close to historically important land where Native Americans were defeated in a victory that was crucial to the control of the Northwest Territory and the future of this country.
So the challenge will be to blend history tastefully with the present, which should be achievable with careful planning. A step in the right direction: This will be an open-air lifestyle mall rather than the boxy enclosed shopping center so familiar throughout the area. Although strip malls also have the open-air concept, Levis Commons in Perrysburg so far provides northwest Ohioans the most modern idea in that type of shopping experience.
The journey toward finally developing the property has been a series of long and often tiresome haggling. The City of Toledo had planned an automotive assembly plant there when it owned the property. The next owner, Isaac Group Holdings Inc., considered it for a regional mall. When General Growth bought the property in 1998, it talked about a two-story mall. That was scrapped for a lifestyle center, which was ditched in favor of the revised project featuring 110 acres of stores.
Keeping track of the potential anchor stores in The Shops at Fallen Timbers is about as dizzying as the property's recent history. Some residents are disappointed that Sears won't be there. But as of now, JC Penney, Dillard's, P.F. Chang's China Bistro Restaurant, and possibly Barnes and Noble will anchor 80 stores and a 16-screen theater.
The ground-breaking ceremony will come soon, making Mr. Jezak a happy man. Some foundations are laid and steel beams are being erected. "If I can look at it, see it, smell it, touch it, then it's real," he said.
It is probably appropriate that the project consumed so much time to get to this point. Sensitivity to the history of the nearby land must never be compromised.
First Published September 24, 2006, 9:06 a.m.