Last year brought major change to the Mahoning and Shenango Valley's shopping malls with the sale of the Southern Park Mall to Kohan Retain Investment Group in late December faring better than the Shenango fairing better than the fate of the Shenango Valley Mall, which closed its doors in March.

Demolition of the Shenango Valley Mall in Hermitage has begun and will take approximately three months to complete. 

On Monday, the future redevelopment of the 54-acre parcel will be called The Hickory Fields and is to include the following stores according to Butterfli Holdings 011 LLC:

- Chili's

- LongHorn Steakhouse

- Chick-FIl-A 

Robert Abramovich, Executive Vice President of Flicore LLC, the parent company for Butterfli Holdings, says this redevelopment is expected to create 900 jobs for the area and that they hope to begin construction before winter of 2025.
 

"We hope to break ground with the horizontal work this spring and be able to have at least several of the retailers open in the summer and fall of 2026," Abramovich told 21 News. 

Abramovich went on to say the company is working with Wendy's to relocate the property to make room for the redevelopment.

Hermitage City Director of Community and Business Development Mark Longietti opened the meeting at the Hermitage Municipal Building with plans to develop the property.

“It's primed for redevelopment, and the developer plans to build individual buildings for some national brand restaurant, retail-oriented businesses,” Longetti told 21 News.
 

A national big-box retailer, whose name has yet to be revealed will also occupy space on the property. 

The land would be divided into nine spaces for buildings and two other lots for recreation and other uses.

Longietti also said the city wants to purchase some of that acreage to put a green space in the center of the redevelopment.

The Shenango Mall was built in 1968 and had struggled in recent years after losing Sears and Macy’s as two of its three anchor stores.

The third anchor store – JC Penney – closed on May 31, 2024, after several lawsuits with the owner to evict the national retailer from the mall.