DeWITT, N.Y. — The proposed project to redevelop the former ShoppingTown Mall property in DeWitt into District East will have a new developer once the project is ready to move forward.
OHB Redev LLC, which had secured the ShoppingTown Mall redevelopment project back in 2021, has transferred its contract to the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency (IDA).
“They didn’t pull out. I negotiated this. It wasn’t like they walked away. This is what I wanted,” Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon told reporters on Thursday.
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Ryan Benz, a partner in OHB Redev LLC, forwarded the following statement to CNYBJ on Thursday night.
“OHB Redev has dedicated a tremendous amount of time, energy, and financial resources to create a vision for the former ShoppingTown Mall site. All stakeholders, the County, OCIDA, Town of DeWitt and the DeWitt neighbors have been tremendous participants in this process. Ultimately, all participants desired the same outcome – which is for the ShoppingTown site to be cleaned up, redeveloped as a multi-purpose site, and returned to its place as a dynamic and vibrant anchor for the community. OHB Redev remains committed to assisting the County and OCIDA, in whatever way it can, to move their vision of the ShoppingTown site forward successfully.”
OHB Redev LLC is a joint venture that includes Redev CNY; Hueber-Breuer Construction Co. Inc.; DalPos Architects; and Housing Visions. The selection of OHB Redev LLC followed a “competitive process,” Onondaga County said when the project was first announced in July 2021.
McMahon also thanked the OHB team for helping the county get to the point where it is now with eminent domain, but the reality is the OHB vision for the property hasn’t been able to be executed “mainly because of the site control issue,” the county executive said. A lot has changed since the 2021 announcement, mainly the upcoming Micron campus, he added.
“The same District East vision is a vision that we still have and the County IDA will go through a competitive process, but there’s other opportunities that we think can be part of that… high tech opportunities, research opportunities, still a mixed-use project with retail and certainly housing. That will still happen,” McMahon noted.
Onondaga County owns most of the ShoppingTown Mall property, except for the Sears and Macy’s stores.
The county has negotiated a deal with the owner of the Sears location, which McMahon expects will become final in the next month or so. Benderson Development, which owns the Macy’s location, is the remaining entity that the county is dealing with.
“We won our court case a couple weeks ago. We started the legal proceedings immediately against Benderson, the Article 4 proceedings. We already have a court date in the first week of December,” McMahon noted.
