“As part of WPG’s multi-year journey, the company continues to sell assets in its portfolio, with about half of WPG’s properties sold in the past year, while the remainder of the portfolio is or will soon be on the market,” a spokesperson for the company said.
The company owns roughly 70 malls and shopping centers in the United States, including Polaris Fashion Place in Columbus.
The mall’s owner, listed in Greene County property records as MFC Beavercreek, LLC, has not yet listed the Fairfield Commons Mall property for sale, and the company declined to say when that would happen.
Like smaller businesses, the sale of a retail business or property does not necessarily mean that it will shut down. Last year, when the Greene Town Center, also in Beavercreek, was in foreclosure, experts told the Dayton Daily News that the likelihood the customer experience going through a dramatic change was “little to none,” even if the property ultimately changed hands.
The Mall at Fairfield Commons, along North Fairfield Road just south of I-675, has dozens of stores surrounding three anchor tenants: Morris Home Furnishings, JCPenney, and Dick’s House of Sport, which opened earlier this year.
Mall fixtures like Rally House, H&M, Victoria’s Secret, Foot Locker and American Eagle are accompanied by a food court in the mall, plus close to a dozen restaurants and a handful of hotels on outlots surrounding the main mall building.
Among the affected employees at Washington Prime Group are seven senior vice presidents and 11 vice presidents, according to the notice. All layoffs are at the company’s corporate office, located at 4900 East Dublin-Granville Road outside Columbus.
No positions at the Fairfield Mall itself are affected, the spokesperson said.
Employees have been aware internally of the upcoming changes “for some time,” they said, adding that Washington Prime Group is providing a severance package and access to outplacement services.
Washington Prime Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2021, then exited bankruptcy later that year.
The same company just sold the former Elder-Beerman store at the Dayton Mall to Miamisburg Springboro Mall Anchor LLC for $2.5 million, according to Montgomery County real estate records.
In 2019, Washington Prime Group purchased the 220,000-square-foot space located at 2700 Miamisburg Centerville Road in Dayton from Elder Ohio, a trust registered in Delaware, for $3.6 million. The Miami Twp. location has been vacant since Elder-Beerman closed and went out of business in August 2018.
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