WEST CHESTER TWP. — A developer apologized to township leaders Thursday for launching a hard-hitting public relations strike against a competitor.

        David Kass, president of Continental Retail Development of Columbus, said he regretted some of the tactics used in the campaign and pledged most of it would cease.

        “We regret deeply any harm we have caused the township officials, residents and our competitors,” Mr. Kass said in a meeting with West Chester Administrator Dave Gully and Assistant Administrator Judith Carter.

        A “mall war” has developed in this booming township along Interstate 75, with four developers vying to entice retailers to proposed open-air malls. Two of those projects, Continental's The Streets of West Chester, and one from Steiner & Associates of Columbus, West Chester Market Square, also envision movie theaters along their sites off I-75.

        Continental's campaign against Steiner, launched this week, uses brochures mailed to thousands of homes and a Web site in the name of “West Chester Watch” to warn that Steiner's center on the northwest corner of Interstate 75 and Cincinnati-Dayton Road could lead to traffic gridlock and adult businesses.

        Steiner applied for a variance, to be heard at the township's June 12 Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, to put the cinemas on their 75-acre site.

        Approval of that variance could lead to increased traffic congestion and adult entertainment businesses, the campaign warns, urging residents to oppose it.

        Township leaders have denounced the campaign, saying it created public confusion and greatly damaged Continental's credibility in West Chester. But on Thursday, Mr. Gully accepted Mr. Kass' apology and said the township would continue working with Continental.

        “We have to work with them,” Mr. Gully said. “If they fail, we do.”

        “They are a stakeholder,” Ms. Carter added. “It is our combined vested interest.”

        But Dan Neyer, president of Neyer Properties of Evendale — which has partnered with Steiner on the development — also met with township leaders Thursday and said he feared the campaign would hurt the variance's chances of being granted. He also said he was concerned the furor created by the campaign may turn off potential retail tenants.

        A proposed 1.1 million-square-foot mall that might emerge in Monroe could benefit from the controversy in West Chester, he noted.

        “The most unfortunate part is this brings — whether we like it or not — us down a notch and I don't know if we can ever overcome that,” Mr. Neyer said.

        Meanwhile, though Mr. Kass said no more brochures would be mailed to neighbors and the Web site was taken down Thursday, petitions against Steiner's development still are circulating. Many residents who have been asked to sign them say they were told Continental is sponsoring the petition drive.

        Mr. Kass confirmed his company's involvement in that effort Thursday and said he expected those to continue because there is some residential opposition to the project.

        A group of business leaders in the Union Centre Boulevard area, where Continental's project is located, also oppose Steiner's development because they fear it will mean competition for them, too.

        Mr. Gully said he expected some residents and business leaders to speak against Steiner's development at the June 12 meeting.

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