FOREST PARK, Ohio — Greater Cincinnati’s most persistent zombie mall may have finally met its match in a $95 million development that could replace the 90-acre Forest Fair Mall property with a new corporate headquarters for Hillman Solutions Corp.
Details of the project were revealed in a Thursday meeting of the Butler County Land Bank, which agreed to use proceeds from a 2021 state grant to cover $7.9 million in demolition costs.
“It makes this site possible to be redeveloped,” said Forest Park City Manager Don Jones. “A lot of details still to be worked out but I think this was a great day for the city of Forest Park, city of Fairfield, Butler County, Hamilton County, and the whole region.”
A concept plan, presented to the land bank by Hillwood Development Co. Vice President Ben Davis, showed a 638,000-square-foot headquarters building for Hillman with room for 615 parked cars. The plan also shows room for a 139,000-square-foot future expansion and 449 additional cars.
Hillwood has a contract to purchase 55 acres from World Properties Inc., a New York company that’s owned the mall since 2010. Davis expects the purchase to close by next May and demolition to be completed by March 2026. Hillwood has also agreed to purchase $10.5 million in bonds that were used to finance the mall’s last major renovation in 2004.
Hillwood is the same company that walked away from the Forest Fair property in March, after Forest Park’s city council delivered a lukewarm response to its plan for three new industrial buildings on the mall property.
This time, Hillwood is offering a single-tenant option that could eventually bring 900 jobs to the site. It's also talking to the city of Forest Park about a three-building industrial project if the headquarters idea falls through.
Cincinnati-based Hillman Solutions is one of the nation’s largest hardware distributors, shipping nails, screws and fasteners to hundreds of retail outlets in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. The publicly traded company has about 4,500 employees and annual sales of $1.5 billion. It relocated its headquarters to Forest Park in 2023 and has been looking to consolidate some of its operations at a larger site.
“This would be perfect, if we can make it work economically,” said Frank Stephens, vice president of operations.
Stephens told the land bank that Hillman is considering other sites, but Forest Fair is at the top of its list.
Fairfield City Manager Scott Timmer endorsed the new development plan, even though the new proposal calls for no development on the 20-acre portion of the Forest Fair site that lies in Fairfield.
That’s because Fairfield’s top priority was to demolish the long-vacant mall, including a graffiti-filled parking garage that sits across the street from the corporate headquarters of the city’s largest taxpayer, Cincinnati Financial Corp.
“We’re excited, even if we won’t directly benefit,” Timmer said. “To have another corporate headquarters in that corridor to complement Cincinnati Financial and Mercy Hospital on the Fairfield side of the line, it’s a positive thing for the corridor.”
Forest Park is negotiating a development agreement with Hillwood and talking to World Properties about purchasing the roughly 35 acres that Hillwood isn't buying from the mall owner.
Jones hopes to work with Fairfield to attract mixed-use developments to parcels closer to I-275, an effort that could bring grocery, restaurant, hotel and entertainment offerings to the site.
"We think that is a really good opportunity to allow us to attract a lot of lifestyle amenities for both communities," Jones said.
