WHAT YOU HAVE TO SAY
The Journal-News asked its Facebook followers Thursday what tenants they’re most excited about opening at Liberty Center.
Jessica Ashcraft: "Not looking forward to this 'mall' at all. There were real nice houses there and lots of woods before. And the special tax thing? This will be on my boycott list along with (Jack In The Box) that was placed in a spot you can't even get in and out of."
Steve Hickman: "Say goodbye to Tri-County and Northgate."
Amy Hack: "Two comedy clubs? This is looking awesome!"
Donna Criswell Mollaun: "Surprised. I was expecting more retailers like Saks (not Off 5th) & Neiman Marcus. As far as restaurants, they're OK, but I was expecting more like Mortons. This mall may be ordinary."
MaryLee Fox Adams Athey: "Quite a few that I would be interested in — wonder what it's going to do to Bridgewater Falls Lifestyle Shopping Center? Looking forward to it opening…."
Jon Jolivette: "No Apple Store?"
Renae Theiss: "Lush!"
Amy Meade: "Woo! Can't wait for Pies and Pints!"
Barbara Moore: "Traffic will be a nightmare. Hamilton Mason Road was a good bypass around congested Tylersville. Just wait till Christmas."
Melissa Bell Steinbrink: "Five Guys!"
Joe Bellomo: "Again. Another mall with no stores for men."
Lisa Lawhorn: "Not excited about any of those. I get to be inconvenienced by more traffic and I don't even shop at most of those stores."
Read all comments and add your thoughts online at www.facebook.com/journal-news
ONLINE ONLY
Get all the news about Liberty Center in one place, including a full list of tenants, photos and videos online only at: www.journal-news.com/data/news/liberty-center-project/
MORE DETAILS
The following is a sample of some tenants named for the $350 million Liberty Center retail development under construction now for an October opening in Butler County’s Liberty Twp.
Dillard’s
The department store, one of Liberty Center’s anchor tenants, is building there a two-story, 200,000-square-foot store. It will be the first Dillard’s the Arkansas-based retailer has built new in the market, rather than acquired, according to developers.
Dick’s Sporting Goods
The sporting goods retailer, which also has stores at Bridgewater Falls Lifestyle Shopping Center in Fairfield Twp. and Deerfield Towne Center in Deerfield Twp., will open a two-level store at Liberty Center and is considered a Liberty Center project anchor.
Forever 21 Inc.
The fashion retailer of apparel and accessories for young women and men will open a third Cincinnati-area location at Liberty Center. Other area stores are at Tri-County Mall and Kenwood Towne Centre. “Forever 21 is very selective in choosing a new location for any store…,” reads a statement from the company.
Pies and Pints
The Columbus-based restaurant chain serving craft beer and pizza will open its first Cincinnati-area location at Liberty Center in October 2015. Specialty pies on the menu include Grape & Gorgonzola, Mediterranean Shrimp and Cuban Pork. About the flavors — “They’re not safe,” Co-owner Rob Lindeman says.
Flip Side
The Cleveland-area based gourmet burger chain serving Ohio-raised, grass-fed beef will also open its first Cincinnati-area location at Liberty Center. Like Pies & Pints, it is also located at Easton Town Center, another project by Liberty Center developer Steiner + Associates.
Rusty Bucket Restaurant and Tavern
The Columbus-based chain, described as “a fun, fast, friendly neighborhood tavern,” is expanding in the Cincinnati market by opening at Liberty Center. Other regional locations include Rookwood Pavilion and Deerfield Twp.
Graeter’s Ice Cream
A hometown favorite, the Cincinnati-based chain was part of the tenant list announced Thursday. Graeter’s has a nearby West Chester Twp. store with a bakery and candy line. The Liberty Center location will be smaller and focus on ice cream, said Chip Graeter, one of the family owners and chief of retail operations.
Celebrate Local
Celebrate Local, which started in 2011 at Easton, sells products and services made by locally-owned small businesses. It plans to open a second location at Liberty Center in fall 2015. It has “been a huge, huge hit in Easton and we think they’ll be a huge, huge hit in Cincinnati,” said Anne Mastin, executive vice president of retail real estate for Steiner.
Cheesecake Factory
The upscale casual dining option is opening its second Cincinnati-area restaurant at Liberty Center and is one of about a dozen restaurants opening at Liberty Center. Yaromir Steiner, founder and CEO of developer Steiner + Associates, said in May, “all modern retailers are represented and we are the most proud of, frankly, our restaurant mix.”
ONLINE ONLY
Get all the news about Liberty Center in one place, including a full list of tenants, photos and videos online only at: www.journal-news.com/data/news/liberty-center-project/
MORE DETAILS
The following is a sample of some tenants named for the $350 million Liberty Center retail development under construction now for an October opening in Butler County’s Liberty Twp.
Dillard’s
The department store, one of Liberty Center’s anchor tenants, is building there a two-story, 200,000-square-foot store. It will be the first Dillard’s the Arkansas-based retailer has built new in the market, rather than acquired, according to developers.
Dick’s Sporting Goods
The sporting goods retailer, which also has stores at Bridgewater Falls Lifestyle Shopping Center in Fairfield Twp. and Deerfield Towne Center in Deerfield Twp., will open a two-level store at Liberty Center and is considered a Liberty Center project anchor.
Forever 21 Inc.
The fashion retailer of apparel and accessories for young women and men will open a third Cincinnati-area location at Liberty Center. Other area stores are at Tri-County Mall and Kenwood Towne Centre. “Forever 21 is very selective in choosing a new location for any store…,” reads a statement from the company.
Pies and Pints
The Columbus-based restaurant chain serving craft beer and pizza will open its first Cincinnati-area location at Liberty Center in October 2015. Specialty pies on the menu include Grape & Gorgonzola, Mediterranean Shrimp and Cuban Pork. About the flavors — “They’re not safe,” Co-owner Rob Lindeman says.
Flip Side
The Cleveland-area based gourmet burger chain serving Ohio-raised, grass-fed beef will also open its first Cincinnati-area location at Liberty Center. Like Pies & Pints, it is also located at Easton Town Center, another project by Liberty Center developer Steiner + Associates.
Rusty Bucket Restaurant and Tavern
The Columbus-based chain, described as “a fun, fast, friendly neighborhood tavern,” is expanding in the Cincinnati market by opening at Liberty Center. Other regional locations include Rookwood Pavilion and Deerfield Twp.
Graeter’s Ice Cream
A hometown favorite, the Cincinnati-based chain was part of the tenant list announced Thursday. Graeter’s has a nearby West Chester Twp. store with a bakery and candy line. The Liberty Center location will be smaller and focus on ice cream, said Chip Graeter, one of the family owners and chief of retail operations.
Celebrate Local
Celebrate Local, which started in 2011 at Easton, sells products and services made by locally-owned small businesses. It plans to open a second location at Liberty Center in fall 2015. It has “been a huge, huge hit in Easton and we think they’ll be a huge, huge hit in Cincinnati,” said Anne Mastin, executive vice president of retail real estate for Steiner.
Cheesecake Factory
The upscale casual dining option is opening its second Cincinnati-area restaurant at Liberty Center and is one of about a dozen restaurants opening at Liberty Center. Yaromir Steiner, founder and CEO of developer Steiner + Associates, said in May, “all modern retailers are represented and we are the most proud of, frankly, our restaurant mix.”
The developer of the approximately $350 million Liberty Center complex says there’s nothing in the Cincinnati market like what they are building. But a list of tenants set to open at the center is failing to impress some local residents, who questioned what makes the 70 or so stores and restaurants named so far different from any other mall.
Main developer Steiner + Associates previously promised local governments that Liberty Center would bring a mix of quality tenants in exchange for about $49 million in public funding used to help pay for infrastructure.
“This is like the new destination for Cincinnati and it’s feeling flat,” said Shannon Wagers, 41, of Liberty Twp.
“When you see things like Old Navy and you see things like Spencer’s, those things are already in Bridgewater Falls, at least the Old Navy is,” Wagers said. “I think we’re expecting more like Kenwood.”
Area workers, however, are excited to have a convenient place to shop.
“I don’t want to drive out to Kenwood,” said Rosemary Kammer, of Loveland, who works nearby in Mason. Kenwood Towne Center is a shopping center in Sycamore Twp.
“I honestly would shop there,” said Rosemary’s co-worker Stacey Miller, also of Loveland, about Liberty Center. “I pass it all the time.”
Liberty Center’s first phase, consisting of just over 1 million-square-feet of shopping, dining, office and residential space, is scheduled to open in October at the intersection of Ohio 129, Interstate 75 and Liberty Way.
Liberty Center is believed to be one of the largest developments in Butler County history. Estimates are for the center’s retailers, restaurants and other businesses to create approximately 3,500 new jobs by 2018, according to the township.
Project developers Steiner + Associates and Bucksbaum Retail Properties released Thursday a round of about 50 new tenant names slated to open at Liberty Center, several of which are storefronts opening inside The Foundry, the center's enclosed shopping mall.
When adding previously announced tenants — such as the anchors Dillard’s department store, Dick’s Sporting Goods and dinner-and-movie theater CineBistro — a total of approximately 70 tenants have signed lease contracts so far to open in Liberty Center.
Altogether, approximately 100 retailers and restaurants are expected to open as part of the project’s first phase, said Anne Mastin, executive vice president of retail real estate for Steiner. A majority of them — about 80 — will open in October and the remaining next spring, Mastin said.
Even if a retailer has another store in the market, the Liberty Center location will be the company’s latest design, Mastin said.
“All the other centers are decades old,” she said. “And it will be addressing the population of Butler-Warren county, which currently does not have a regional center.”
“We’re really creating a town center and right now in Cincinnati there’s nothing even remotely close to what we’re building at Liberty,” she said.
Liberty Center offers a different type of shopping environment than the traditional mall layout, said Chris Hodge, first vice president for commercial real estate firm CBRE's retail services division. Entertainment options such as Funny Bone Comedy Club and a movie theater, along with amenities such as three parks, can't be replicated at an enclosed mall property, Hodge said.
“You’ve got to look at it as a whole,” Hodge said. “If you look and go back at the history of Easton, they’re still developing Easton,” which is another town center co-developed by Steiner in the Columbus area.
“If you look at the environment they’re going to create and the draw they’re going to pull from… I’m excited about it,” he said.
The retail development received taxpayer-backed financial incentives in a joint development deal with Butler County and Liberty Twp. The contract contained a list of requirements for Steiner + Associates to meet before receiving public funding.
Private dollars have to be spent before taxpayer dollars. The contract also spelled out safeguards in the worst case scenario that the project doesn’t live up to projections, such as scheduled payment obligations, government rights to the property and construction targets.
“I’m pretty impressed so far,” said Don Dixon, Butler County Commissioner.
“Part of the whole thought process of backing the development and getting the development started is what the development brings,” Dixon said.
New commercial developments announced for the area surrounding Liberty Center include sporting goods store Cabela's Inc., which is being built on Liberty Way in West Chester Twp. and has scheduled an August opening date. The Christ Hospital Health Network announced July 7 plans to build a medical center off Liberty Way in Liberty Twp. east of the interchange with Interstate 75 that includes an emergency department.
“As far as I’m concerned, it’s done everything it’s supposed to at this point … and it’s going to make the entire area more successful,” Dixon said.
Steiner’s agreement with local governments spells out that the developer is not allowed to recruit tenants from other local shopping centers. But any retailer can act on its own to move locations, Dixon said.
Both commissioner Dixon and fellow commissioner T.C. Rogers said they thought Fairfield Twp. shopping center Bridgewater Falls was far enough away from the Liberty Center site to stand on its own even though two of Bridgewater’s existing tenants — Dick’s Sporting Goods and Old Navy — have announced new stores at Liberty Center.
“Maybe some people thought (Liberty Center) was going to be a string of stores like Tiffany’s but I probably wouldn’t have been able to shop there,” Rogers said. “You’re going there for an experience so you have to have every type of purchase there, just like you have to have many choices to eat to make you go there more than one or two times.”
“There are enough different shopping experiences that they could truly go there multiple times of year,” Rogers said about Liberty Center visitors.
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