Massive Redevelopment Site Up for Sale near Cincinnati

By Keith Loria, Contributing Editor

John Thompson, managing director, NGKF

Forest Park, Ohio—Newmark Grubb Knight Frank’s (NGKF) Cincinnati Commercial Real Estate has been appointed as the exclusive broker in the sale of Forest Fair Village, a 1.9-million-square-foot shopping mall located in Forest Park.

“Our intention is to market this much further out than retail because we do not believe it’s a retail site anymore, but it’s extremely well located,” John Thompson, NGKF’s managing director, told Commercial Property Executive. “It has very good access, 90 acres and all the infrastructure is there. It’s right on the 275 Circle and very accessible to the entire Midwest.”

The property, also known as Forest Fair Mall, consists of approximately 90 acres in the northwest region of Cincinnati. The site offers redevelopment possibilities, including office, governmental, high-tech, light industrial, residential, medical, sports and recreation or educational concepts.

“We think there are large users who will find a site like this attractive,” Thompson said. “The redevelopment opportunities are countless and we expect we will have interest from a multitude of types of users. Furthermore, investors will benefit from the highly-competitive sales price and visible highway location, offering easy access to the entire Midwest.”

Located at 1047 Forest Fair Drive., in the northeast quadrant of the Interstate-275/Winton Road interchange, Forest Fair Village offers nearly 2,000 feet of highway frontage which carries daily traffic of more than 97,000 vehicles.

Interest in the property has already started to pick up and Thompson believes something could happen quickly.

“It was once the largest mall in the market, but because of its location, sandwiched between Tri-County Mall to the East and Northgate Mall to the West, it really never took off,” Thompson said. “In that area there are hotels, a Wal-Mart and some other retail. There’s some very large employers up that way and we think there’s a good employment base around there.”

Originally developed in 1989 as a high-end mall, Forest Fair Village features approximately 4,000 surface lot parking spaces and an additional 2,702 spaces in a three-level parking garage.

The property also includes two, 50-foot pylon signs facing I-275 with multiple tenant panels.