21 News was the first news outlet anywhere to tell you about the possible sale of the Southern Park Mall to Kohan Retail Investment Group back in October, which was officially sold in late December. 

Since then, we've documented problems Kohan has had at other malls it owns, the tax break it got from the county and the worries Valley leaders have. 

Now, with store vacancies in the double digits, the community’s concerns are growing.

The MLO Bros, a local podcast that often speaks on area businesses and news, sent 21 News a picture of Sarku Japan closed, which they say was still open last weekend.

21 News was also sent a picture at 11:00 a.m. of the inside of the mall, with only a few shoppers walking around.

Touchdown gifts, which has been inside the mall for nearly a quarter of a century, is moving out of the Southern Park Mall. An employee told 21 News the store is moving to another Ohio mall.

This is just a month after Kohan Retail Investment Group took ownership of the Southern Park Mall.

While there is no certainty what this means for the future of the mall, concerns are growing after it was reported a Georgia Mall owned by Kohan closed this week due to unpaid power bills.

“We don't want a building that's vacant with no sales tax coming to Mahoning County. It's not fair,” said Carol Rimedio-Righetti, Mahoning County Commissioner.

Righetti said the Mahoning County commissioners and Boardman Township trustees have all tried reaching out to Kohan Retail Investment Group multiple times, but has still not heard back.

“This company would not even give us the courtesy of a meeting, nor did they give Boardman Township that courtesy. That’s wrong,” said Rimedio-Righetti. “I'm upset about it because we called and asked the new company, as well as Washington Prime, to actually sit with us, as the three commissioners as well as the three trustees so we can see what they had in mind going forward.”

21 News reached out to Kohan Retail Investment Group to see what their plans are for the mall, and if more stores are expected to close, but did not get a response.