WEST CHESTER TWP. — As a mall war here rages, developers of two separate projects announced three restaurant chains as tenants this week.

Ruby Tuesday will open a restaurant next year facing Tylersville Road at the Voice of America Centre on the northeast corner of Tylersville and Cox roads.

Champs sports bar and restaurant and Italian eatery Bravo will open restaurants, also in 2003, at a lifestyle center on the southeast corner of Union Centre Boulevard and Interstate 75 called The Streets of West Chester.

A 4,100-seat movie theater, operated by Rave Motion Pictures of Texas, is under construction at the $100 million development there and is expected to open by May.

The restaurants will join two other new ones expected to emerge soon along the Union Centre Boulevard area, an upscale steak and seafood eatery, and a Caribbean-style restaurant.

Meanwhile, the development firm of one of the VOA centers, Midland Atlantic Properties of Kenwood, announced this week that their three projects ongoing in the country total $84 million. Midland is building two shopping centers in North Carolina.

Midland's 528,000-square-foot center — anchored by retail behemoth Target — should open by July. Michaels Arts and Crafts and Famous Footwear have signed leases, said John Silverman, managing principal of Midland Atlantic.

He doesn't consider his shopping center direct competition with West Chester's other proposed malls, which are trying to attract upscale retailers such as Talbots.

“They have a different kind of tenant base than we have,” he said. “Our tenants are much more mass-merchant-market tenants. It's a different style project. The other three are in direct, close, fierce competition with each other that I am glad I am not a part of.”

A mall war has developed in West Chester Township, which is located along I-75 between Cincinnati and Dayton, has a growing population base and residents with plenty of extra income, according to Census statistics.

Late Tuesday, West Chester Township trustees began hearing public comment on whether they should approve a fourth mall to be built in this booming suburb off I-75. West Chester Market Square will hold a Showcase Cinemas, Jeff Ruby steakhouse and shopping. Steiner & Associates of Columbus, developers of Newport on the Levee, is a partner in the project.

Last month, the West Chester Township Zoning Commission unanimously voted to rezone the 75-acre parcel on the northwest corner of Cincinnati-Dayton Road and I-75 for the lifestyle center.

But the trustees and Union Centre business representatives and developers want lifestyle centers built in the Union Centre Boulevard area, as outlined in the township's vision plan. Trustees are likely to overturn the zoning commission's decision; they will vote at the next township meeting, Oct. 22.

Meanwhile, Market Square's developer, Neyer Properties Inc. of Evendale, has co-purchased a 65-acre site at the northwest corner of I-75 and the Michael A. Fox Highway that is zoned light industrial.

Late Tuesday, Dan Neyer, president of Neyer Properties, asked trustees to allow him to withdraw his rezoning request. He said he could not proceed until township staff clarified traffic and other issues. Trustees cited legal advice and refused his request.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.

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