MIDDLETOWN — The radical reshaping of a dying mall back to open-air, street-level retail begins this week as city planners here hope to prove that everything old is new again.

Middletown's City Centre Mall is mostly dark and empty (Dick Swaim photo) | ZOOM |

        Later this year, the nearly abandoned City Centre Mall's roof — in place since 1975 — will be removed and two city streets — Central Avenue and Broad Street — will be restored to a version of their pre-mall shape.

        This latest “back-to-the-future” strategy for the chronically troubled urban mall will cost taxpayers $13 million and is designed — beginning in October 2002 — to re-animate a sparse central business district largely dormant for years.

        But 26 years ago, creating a giant, maze-like connective mall was thought the best way to revitalize downtown. Nearly 20 buildings over a four-block area were connected via concourses and walkways.

        For a few years, until the late 1970s, the mall enjoyed some success, reaching up to 85 percent retail-space capacity.

        But flight from the inner city east toward Interstate 75, combined with the attraction of the newer Towne Mall next to the highway, took its toll on the City Centre Mall.

        Now the cavernous mall costs the city nearly $300,000 annually in upkeep but is nearly empty save for a handful of retailers, a bank office and government offices.

Kuzma

        Parking is plentiful; optimism is not.

        “It's empty. It's gloomy. It's not a happy place to be and I don't feel safe here,” said Jacque Kuzma, a Middletown resident who shopped at the mall years ago but now only dashes in to pay a cable TV bill or do some banking.

        Ms. Kuzma doesn't share city leaders' optimism. “I doubt it but I guess we could give it a try,” she said.

        Middletown Senior Planner JoAnne Mejias said the $13 million redevelopment, of which $10 million comes from the city and the remainder from county and state grants, is cost-effective.

        “It will be less expensive to the city to tear it down now than to try and maintain it,” said Ms. Mejias. “Several marketing studies ... have suggested the mall has stunted the growth of the central business district.”

        She added that recent retail trends are away from giant, enclosed malls and toward the open-air, mixed-use retail village, which also combines office space with housing to assure plentiful customers for small, speciality shops and restaurants.

        Richard Isroff, executive vice president of Rogers Ltd. Inc., remains confident that downtown's retail future is bright.

        Rogers Jewelry was one of the original tenants of City Centre and its national corporate headquarters remains attached to the mall.

        “We still have faith in the future and once the roof is taken off this will be a better place to do business,” said Mr. Isroff.

        The remaining stores and government offices will remain open during the redevelopment.

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