ANDERSON TOWNSHIP — The plans to redevelop the mostly deserted Beechmont Mall will take time and patience, the mall owners and township officials say.

        “We're excited about the property and anxious to get something going,” said Kent Cost, one of principal owners of Victory Investments Inc. of Columbus, Ga., the developers that purchased the mall last December. “I hope we're done within the year 2003. It's an 18-month process. It's not a real quick process. We think it has the potential to be something great.”

        Victory Investments would say little else about the project to redevelop the mall, but township officials say they are still working with the developer to get away completely from the idea of a traditional, enclosed mall, and even steer clear of a Rookwood Commons-like development.

        Instead, they have been talking about a town center, or village approach to redevelopment of the 60-acre property.

        “Not open-air in the sense of Rookwood,” Henry Dolive, township administrator, said of the Norwood commercial development. “With this, we're hoping you'd look at something that looks more like an old (revitalized) downtown street, with buildings, sidewalks and either diagonal or parallel parking,” he said. “There wouldn't be a vast expanse of parking. The parking might be around the back of the stores. So it's a different look.”

        Trustee Russ Jackson agreed with that vision of the mall property.

        “It's even more of a village concept than you see at Rookwood,” Mr. Jackson said. “We presented to them in the very beginning our ideas regarding the village concept, as opposed to a lot of parking outside of individual businesses.”

        Trustee Peggy Reis said that, as was the case with previous owner Goldman Sachs, the township is still interested in acquiring about 25 acres of vacant land behind the mall to develop a park.

        “We're still negotiating with them regarding that property,” Mrs. Reis said.

        The only stores that remain open at the mall are anchors Kmart and Lazarus, and a few small specialty shops and restaurants.
       

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