STRONGSVILLE, Ohio – Dick’s Sporting Goods has proposed relocating its SouthPark Mall store to the mall’s now-vacant Sears space, tearing down the former Sears Auto Center there and replacing it with sports fields that might double as an ice rink in winter.
The new store, called Dick’s House of Sport, would be one of the first of its kind in Ohio. Others have opened in various cities, including Johnson City, New York, and Minnetonka, Minnesota.
WDTN-TV reported in February that a Dick’s House of Sport was opening in Beavercreek.
On June 27, the Strongsville Planning Commission authorized a lot split that will allow the Dick’s plan to move forward. About two weeks earlier, the city’s Board of Zoning Appeals approved two zoning variances that will make the project possible.
However, Mayor Thomas Perciak cautioned that the Dick’s proposal is not a done deal. It still must obtain financing.
“The city has not received an application from Dick’s House of Sport,” Perciak told cleveland.com Monday. “Yes, the planning commission gave approval for the lot split (but) we continue to wait for an application and plans.”
Dick’s did not return emails seeking information.
According to its website, Dick’s House of Sport sells sports equipment, like any Dick’s store, but it also provides areas where customers can try out the equipment.
For example, a House of Sport might contain golf simulators, batting cages and climbing walls.
At the June 12 BZA meeting, William Boron – associate principal of Langan Engineering & Environmental Services, a global firm working on the Dick’s project – said Dick’s would “revamp” the former Sears store in SouthPark Mall, according to meeting minutes.
The new Dick’s would be about the same size as the former Sears department store. Dick’s would add a two-story climbing wall inside, Boron said.
After demolishing the former Sears Auto Center, Dick’s would build a recreational running track where customers can test running shoes, Boron said. An artificial-turf field would be in the center of the running track. The field might become an ice rink in winter.
“We are in the process of building 100 (Dick’s House of Sports) across the country, and in Erie, Pennsylvania, they just completed their store,” Boron told the commission.
The owner of the Sears property, SPM Acquisition II LLC in Delaware, asked the city to split the 15.8-acre Sears property into three lots measuring about 11.6 acres, 2.7 acres and 1.5 acres.
Dan Kolick, the city’s assistant law director, said Dick’s would take ownership of the largest parcel. The other two parcels – one of them a roadway leading from Ohio 82 to a ring road around the mall – will go to the SouthPark Mall owners.
The two BZA-approved variances will allow two of the split parcels not to have frontage on a dedicated road, as required by city code.
The BZA permitted the variances because Dick’s and the mall’s owners agreed to let traffic flow freely between all three parcels to allow parking, entering and exiting, and maintenance of utilities.
Mysterious discussion
At the end of the June 12 BZA meeting, board Chairman Dustin Hayden noted that City Council would have the opportunity to review the variances and the BZA’s approval of them at the next council meeting, which was June 17.
Council and Perciak mysteriously tiptoed around the subject at the June 17 meeting. At no time did they speak the word “Dick’s” or acknowledge that a representative of the sporting goods chain had openly discussed the House of Sport plan with both the planning commission and BZA.
The discussion seemed to indicate a miscommunication between council and Perciak.
Council President Jim Carbone, according to a meeting transcript, mentioned the lot split that would eventually be approved by the commission. He started to say that “a couple of questions” arose but he was interrupted by Perciak before he could finish.
Perciak said that either SouthPark Mall or Dick’s, without mentioning them by name, would need financing before any type of project could move forward.
“They haven’t indicated to me as to which market they are going to go to, or in my mind, which market they are going to play in,” said Perciak, a former banker. “As soon as I find out, we will definitely let you know.
“Again, as we often say around here, money matters and cash is king,” Perciak said. “That’s what they (SouthPark or Dick’s) are going through.”
Councilwoman Kelly Kosek also inquired about the lot split.
“The reason I ask is the council is very supportive of the mall redeveloping and making positive changes, but we want to be part of what they are doing,” Kosek said.
“We don’t want to be caught without knowing . . . what’s going on . . . That’s important to us,” Kosek said.
“You won’t be,” Perciak said.
Carbone agreed with Kosek.
“We have been talking about this (SouthPark redevelopment) for many years that we don’t want something slapped on our desks and then have to vote on it,” Carbone said. “We want to be part of the redevelopment of that mall.”
Perciak said that’s all fine and good but the city does not own SouthPark and repeated that any project there would need financing.
“I doubt in this current climate that a commercial bank is going to step up to the plate and lend them money,” Perciak said.
Councilwoman Ann Roff also said that council wants to be part of anything happening at SouthPark and kept in the loop about what’s happening there, even though the mall is private property.
Carbone and Kosek didn’t return emails Monday and Tuesday asking what they knew about the lot split for Dick’s, if they knew anything about the House of Sport proposal or whether they believed Perciak was withholding information from them.
Perciak told cleveland.com earlier this week that he was not withholding any information from council.
“Any council person who wants to know anything can ask,” Perciak said. “It’s for the world to see.”
Perciak said he didn’t mention Dick’s at the council meeting because he still isn’t sure what if anything the sporting goods chain will do at SouthPark.
“They (Dick’s) gave me nothing in writing,” Perciak said. “The minute you start speculating, they are going to call me and say they never said that. And whatever we say here may impact something that happens somewhere else.”
SouthPark redevelopment
Earlier this year, council paved the way for a SouthPark Mall redevelopment that might include the addition of a hotel, microbreweries, a fitness center, a grocery store, medical facilities and outdoor playing fields.
On April 15, council voted unanimously to amend the zoning code so that the owners of SouthPark -- Kize Capital LP in New York City and Spinoso Real Estate Group in Syracuse, New York -- can proceed with designing the redevelopment.
The changes expanded what is allowed in the code’s existing regional shopping center classification and more precisely define the term “regional shopping center.”
Specifically, hotels with at least a three-star rating are now permitted uses in the regional shopping center classification, but only conditionally -- meaning the planning commission and council will have to grant approval on a case-by-case basis.
Other conditional uses now permitted in a regional shopping center district include grocery stores and medical buildings like clinics and urgent care centers, but not facilities with overnight beds, unless authorized by the city.
Also now allowed under the amendments are fitness centers; sports, exercise and “amusem*nt” facilities; and outdoor playing fields or training areas, if they are accessories to another main business.
Brewpubs or microbreweries are permitted under the previous code, but “a substantial portion” of the product is required to be consumed offsite.
Under the code revision, onsite consumption is allowed in regional shopping center districts if the brewpub or microbrewery is part of a restaurant or bar.
Above-ground and below-ground parking garages are also allowed, as well as outdoor activity areas.
This story was updated to report a new Dick’s House of Sport in Beavercreek.
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