Tuesday night, 21 News was the first to report about a potential deal in the works for a new owner to purchase the Southern Park Mall in Boardman.

However, with a checkered history of falling behind on property taxes and other bills and being called "the last owner a mall sees," Kohan Retail Investment Group is not the ideal candidate some local leaders would like to see purchasing the Southern Park Mall from it's owner Washington Prime.

"I'm not happy what I heard," Mahoning County Commissioner Carol Rimedio-Righetti said. "I read some things online and I'm just not excited to know that, do they pay their taxes? Do they run their property into the ground," she said.

Righetti also feels disrespected to not have had the opportunity to discuss the matter.

"I just am very offended along with my colleagues in Boardman if nobody was even given the opportunity with this Washington Prime to actually sit at the table and say we can't make it, here's what we need to do," Rimedio-Righetti said. "They're their own business but when you come here two or three times and ask for help with abatements and CRA districts and we help them, they owe us that respect," she said.

Other local leaders are keeping an open mind.

"We didn't get official notification at the township but in most cases if a company buys or sells we wouldn't get notified anyway," Boardman Township Administrator Jason Loree said. "We're just kind of waiting to see when we can meet them if possible and just talk about what their plans are and how we might be able to assist," he said.

Elsewhere, there are just hopes for development to the Southern Park Mall.

"As a resident and homeowner in Boardman, the Southern Park Mall has been a big part of our community we're very proud of it," John McCarthy, Owner of Mayo and Associates Realtors said. "We hope that any new investor that would come into our community would add to our environment and the shopping experience and not detract from it," he said.

On several occasions 21 News has reached out to the new potential owner and the mall's current owner and have either not heard back or were told no comment.