MANSFIELD — It’s like Jodie Perry has rented the church for a wedding, hired a minister to perform the ceremony and booked a band for the reception.
Now the mayor of Mansfield just needs the bride and groom to agree to marry.
That’s the analogy surrounding the future — and long-awaited — demolition of the West Park Shopping Center at 1157 Park Ave. West.
The Richland County Land Bank board Monday to apply for a $1 million state brownfield remediation grant to demolish the decaying strip mall — contingent on Mansfield City Council approving necessary funding and a new owner purchasing the property.
City Council on Tuesday evening unanimously approved the same proposal, agreeing the city would fund the project itself through PRIDE demolition funds if the grant is not received.
All that’s left is the truly tricky part: Arranging the sale of the 17-acre property from New Jersey-based Namdar Realty Group to an unspecified owner Perry has said she believes will work with the city to redevelop the prime piece of real estate once the demo work is done.
“I am hopeful,” Perry said after City Council on Tuesday evening when asked to evaluate the odds a deal can be struck. “I have until Friday (when brownfield grant applications are due to be submitted.)
“The Land Bank voted what they needed to. Council has voted. What I need is an agreement between the prospective owner and the current owner,” the mayor said.
“I expect an offer will be forthcoming,” said Perry, who inherited the headache when she took office in January 2024.
Representatives from Namdar and the perspective new owner have not met to discuss the issue. Perry has worked as the intermediary, hoping to bring an end to a problem that began when the city first ordered the property demolished in 2022.
“Namdar is ready to leave the market. They have worked with us on this. We will see where it goes,” she said.
“I am very thankful for the prospective owner, who is essentially doing this to help the community at the moment. I think there are some exciting possibilities for what can come on that site, ultimately.
“Of course, it’s going to take time and patience with people, but even getting it back to just a big, green field is going to be a vast improvement over what’s there now,” the mayor said.
The Ohio Department of Development’s Brownfield Remediation Program “provides grants for the cleanup of brownfield sites, to assist in the remediation of hazardous substances or petroleum at an industrial, commercial, or institutional property,” according to the program’s website.
“Remediation includes acquisition of a brownfield, demolition performed at a brownfield, and the installation or upgrade of the minimum amount of infrastructure necessary to make a brownfield site operational for economic development activity,” according to the website.
For fiscal year 2026 of the state’s budget, $88 million is available, with $1 million reserved for applicants in each of Ohio’s 88 counties. Perry, a member of the Land Bank board, said she believes this would be the $1 million guaranteed for Richland County.
She said she believes it’s the best way forward for the troubled site rather than facing potentially years of more legal battles with Namdar.
Under the legislation, the city could use funds from the PRIDE tax as needed to “perfect the eligibility of the (brownfield) application” or pay for the demolition itself.
The PRIDE tax is a quarter-percent income tax, approved in May for another four years, that generates about $4.8 million annually. It’s an acronym for an income tax that helps pay for a combination of parks and recreation, illumination (re: streetlights), demolition and emergency services (police/fire.)
Under the tax, 50 percent must be used for safety forces, 22 percent for parks and recreation, 20 percent for demolition of vacant properties and blight and eight percent for streetlights.
In a response to a question from 2nd Ward Councilwoman Cheryl Meier on Tuesday, Perry said the legislation was worded to guarantee the demolition assistance even if the state grant is not approved.
“The person who is considering buying it, they want some guarantee. They’re not buying it for their own end use. They want some guarantee that the city is committed to helping them tear it down,” the mayor said.
“That is why I covered both bases. But to be very clear, they understand as well that we’re aiming to limit how much local dollars have to go into this,” Perry said, adding there are sufficient PRIDE demolition funds to cover the work if needed.
“We have been doing demolitions, but they’re more or less residential, which of course is much less money (than commercial), so we have more than enough to cover this if we have to do it,” she said.
If the sale is approved and demolition is scheduled, Perry said the city will work with tenants remaining in a separate building on the west side of the property that is not under demolition orders.
“(The city) won’t be the owners, but we’re not looking to kick anyone out. There are issues in that building, too, though it is not on the demo list. I think the intent would be with the new owner, and of course with our economic development team, to try to help those tenants get into a better space for them,” the mayor said.
Sixth Ward Councilwoman Deborah Mount praised the administration, including the law director’s office, for their efforts.
“I know you’ve been aggressively working on trying to do something about this and various avenues have been tried. It’s definitely been a project for a lot of people, so I want to thank everybody for what you’ve done to try to deal with the eyesore and bring betterment to this area of town,” Mount said.
Namdar, through its West Mansfield Realty LLC, purchased the property in March 2015 for $1.6 million, according to the Richland County Auditor’s website. The company has invested little money in the facility and one tenant after another fled the site, leaving it largely lifeless at this point.
Citing numerous zoning and safety violations that remained unfixed, the city initially ordered the demolition of the structure in 2022 during the administration of former Mayor Tim Theaker and former Law Director John Spon.
However, the deteriorating eyesore — and its out-of-state ownership group — outlasted both Theaker and Spon, and has continued to vex Perry and current Law Director Rollie Harper.
Perry previously said she believes the key to resolving the problem property is getting it into the hands of a local owner.
“I have not been shy about my desire to see it come back into locally-owned hands so that we can get it back to where it needs to go,” said Perry, who took office after a decade of leading the Richland Area Chamber & Economic Development.
“The best-case scenario is we can get it to someone who’s going to invest in it and we can look at potentially state grants to help get things taken care of,” Perry said in April.
