Tri-County Mall

Tri-County Mall, formerly Tri-County Center was a two-level shopping mall 19 miles (30.5 km) northeast of downtown Cincinnati, Ohio, between Princeton Pike, East Kemper Road and Interstate 275 in Springdale, a suburb of Cincinnati. The mall had three anchors which once housed Dillard’s, Macy’s and Sears.
== Power Center ==
On July 21, 1960, Tri-County Center officially opened to the public as a 500,000 square foot shopping center with 51 stores. The grand opening ceremony included performances by the Princeton High School band and a ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by Joseph Meyerhoff and the mayor of Springdale. Some of the original store tenants included Gray Drug, Kroger and S.S. Kresge. The shopping center also had two original anchor stores which were Pogue’s and Shillito’s. In May 1967, a third anchor was added which was a two-level Sears, the store was also considered to be a prototype in the chain.
== Enclosed Mall ==
In 1968, the Tri-County Center was fully enclosed and was renamed to Tri-County Mall. Some new tenants joined the mall around this time which were Casual Corner, Hickory Farms of Ohio, Lane Bryant, Spencers and Waldenbooks. In 1974, Pogue’s was extended and remodeled, added a third-floor to the store. In 1976, the mall went through a renovation where the mall’s main entrance was redecorated in earth tones, while also adding decorate foundations and eight kiosk shops. In 1979, Monumental Properties, the original owners of the mall, sold the mall to Equitable Life Insurance for $34 million. In 1982, Shillito’s was converted into Rike’s. In 1984, Pogue’s was converted into L.S. Ayres. In 1985, a food court was added to the main entrance of the mall with nine restaurants which included Baskin Robbins, Great Steak and Pizza Hut. In 1986, Rike’s was converted into Lazarus. In 1988, L.S. Ayres closed and was replaced with JCPenney. In 1990, the mall underwent an expansion, which doubled the number of shops by adding a second level atop the existing portion of the mall. A fountain was added to the center court, and the food court was relocated to a larger location on the newly built upper level by Sears. More food court tenants were also added including an Arby’s and several local restaurants. Also apart of the expansion, Lazarus remodeled their store, creating a more open floor plan with wider aisles and less division between departments. In September 1991, a fourth anchor was added which was a two-level McAlpin’s. In July 1997, Equitable Life Insurance sold the mall to the O’Connor Group for $147 million. In 1998, McAlpin’s was converted into Dillard’s. In 2002, Blackstone Group acquired the mall from O’Connor Group, who then sold the mall to Thor Equities in 2005. At the time, the mall faced increased competition from major renovations that occurred at Cincinnati Mills. In 2005, Lazarus was converted into Macy’s. Also in 2005, JCPenney closed and relocated to Bridgewater Falls in Hamilton. In 2006, the mall was brought down to three anchor spaces when the former JCPenney space was redeveloped into a mall hallway on the lower level of the store.
== Decline ==
After losing JCPenney in 2005, the Tri-County Mall began to see major decline going forward. The decline got even worse once the Great Recession hit in 2008, which caused a bunch of tenants inside of the mall to go out of business and close. 
Category:Malls in Ohio
Category:Shopping Malls
Category:Malls in the United States
Category:Multi-Level Malls
Category:Malls that opened in 1960
Category:Former Sears-anchored Malls
Category:Former JCPenney-anchored Malls
Category:Former Dillard's-anchored Malls
Category:Macy's-anchored Malls
Category:Former Lazarus-anchored Malls
Category:Cincinnati Area Malls
Category:Hamilton County, Ohio