Walmart’s purchase and intent to redevelop Monroeville Mall echoes similar projects completed in Westmoreland County in the early 2000s and in Wisconsin just a few years ago.
No specific plans for the 186-acre Monroeville site have been released, said Mark Rickel, director of corporate communications for Walmart.
“Walmart did purchase the Monroeville Mall and is very interested in being part of any future redevelopment of this site,” Rickel said.
Arkansas-based Walmart will be working with Texas-based real estate firm Cypress Equities on mall operations and potential redevelopment, he said. There is no Walmart in Monroeville. The closest Walmart sites are in North Versailles, Salem and Hempfield.
Monroeville Mall was sold last week by CBL Properties for about $34 million.
Walmart in 2003 received approval to redevelop the former Greengate Mall property, demolishing the mall as well as the former Walmart on Route 30. A Sam’s Club was built in place of the old Walmart, and a new Walmart Supercenter took the place of the mall.
“That was one of our first really large redevelopment projects,” said Rob Ritson, who was Hempfield’s township manager at the time. “Up to then, we’d mostly done new construction. There were expectations on both sides, and it took us a little bit of work in order to reach the same place.”
Ritson was settling into his new position as the township’s first manager, “and it took us a little while to get acclimated to the pace they were moving at,” he said.
Ritson said the redevelopment process was fairly smooth, but it did include some back and forth over a few aspects.
“They wanted the township to take over the road that connected Walmart and Sam’s Club, and it wasn’t built to township standards, so we said no,” Ritson said. “We also wanted them to put a traffic signal down at the (Hempfield Boulevard and North Greengate Road) intersection, which they didn’t want to do. They said no for years, but we kept insisting. Shortly after I moved on from the township, they finally got them to put that light in.”
Chris Maguire, CEO of Cypress Equities, told TribLive the Monroeville property is well suited for a major redevelopment that could make it a retail and commercial destination.
The 1.2 million-square-foot property served as a commercial anchor for the community when it was constructed in the late 1960s. Cypress officials say they plan to redevelop the mall with a mix of uses, including retail, entertainment, restaurants and spaces for residential, hospitality and office elements. The company has a portfolio of more than 200 real estate investments valued at about $5.2 billion.
Community input will be sought about the project, and redevelopment could take years, Maguire said.
The company led a redevelopment effort at the Bayshore complex in Glendale, Wis., beginning in 2018, updating a shopping center that was built in 1954.
Today, the property is home to retail outlets, more than 10 restaurants, the Bayshore Place apartment building, movie theaters and more. Cypress also commissioned local artists to create large-scale murals and artwork throughout the shopping center.
CBL, Monroeville Mall’s former owner, filed for bankruptcy in late 2020, and the mall has undergone a number of large-scale changes in the past two decades. In 2008, it lost anchor retailer, Boscov’s, when that company went through a bankruptcy and restructuring. In 2011, JCPenney — which has been an anchor store since the mall first opened in 1969 — moved into the former Boscov’s space to make way for the Cinemark movie theater that dominates the southern side of the building.
The property includes the main building, an adjacent strip mall, the streetscape expansion near the front entrance and outparcels Best Buy and Firestone. Overall, the complex can hold more than 150 retailers.