May 11—VERNON TOWNSHIP — For about the past three months, retail construction has been underway in earnest in Vernon Township — with more expected.
"There's been a lot of activity — we'll see some more of it coming," Rob Horvat, the township manager and zoning officer, said of developments.
The most visible work along the township's Conneaut Corridor — the commercial section of routes 6, 19 and 322, also known as Conneaut Lake Road — is on what was a portion of the former Meadville Mall property.
Walls are going up for the largest project — a 46,500-square-foot shopping plaza that Cocca Developments Ltd. of Youngstown, Ohio, is building on part of the former mall site.
There also have been some smaller projects announced — but not all are moving forward, Horvat said.
Cocca's $2.4 million project will have a TJ Maxx Department store, a Five Below variety store and one other retailer, plus a stand-alone Chipotle restaurant, Horvat said.
In October 2023, Cocca finalized and acquired 4.3 acres of former mall land from Meadville Medical Center for $650,000.
Meadville Medical Center bought the former mall property with about 19 acres in 2009. In 2014, the hospital built its 87,000-square-foot Vernon Place medical offices and services complex, which opened in 2016. The last retailer on the mall property, Kmart, closed in July 2017.
To get the vacant land back into some type of productive use, the medical center was able to get around $2.3 million in state grant funds via the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP) for new infrastructure throughout the property.
The new infrastructure plan was used to attract partners to buy land and redevelop the property.
"It (RACP) was very effective in attracting Cocca," Brian MacMurray, MMC's vice president of ancillary services, said.
In mid-February, the second phase of infrastructure work started to upgrade water, sewer, stormwater, electric and communications lines as well as roadways, which used $1,789,000 of the RACP funds.
"The sidewalks are going in now — the roadways are laid out and asphalt will be going down," MacMurray said. "It's generating a lot of interest in getting the last two parcels sold."
MMC wants to sell off two remaining large parcels on the property but doesn't want new development that would conflict with the hospital's mission of health, MacMurray said.
Meanwhile, permits have been issued for a new Taco Bell restaurant along the corridor at the site of the former King's restaurant, Horvat said.