City View shopping center takes another tumble

GARFIELD HEIGHTS, Ohio - It was supposed to bring new life into Garfield Heights, but one by one, stores pulled out of the City View shopping center.

Now, a plan to revive the empty store space with a convention center has seemingly hit a brick wall.

The plan for the old Wal-Mart site was to turn it into a convention center, much like the new expo center in Euclid which just recently hosted the Home and Garden Show.

The old Wal-Mart building, has now sat vacant for a couple of years.  A growing trend in the shopping center that opened only four years ago.

According to Garfield Heights Mayor Vic Collova, the center was supposed to host gun shows and flower shows, with more than a dozen shows already booked.

Collova said that plans were halted when Giant Eagle, which sits at the opposite end of the plaza, exercised their right under a lease agreement and opposed the convention center.

"So the convention center is out. It hurts us. There's no doubt it hurts us and we're not happy," said Collova.  "Nobody has been able to come up with an explanation to us why they would refuse to let this place in when it could only do good."

Giant Eagle issued a statement Monday that said, "Our experience tells up that a convention center will not deliver the type of consistent consumer traffic typical of a successful shopping center, and thus will not be in the long term interest of City View Center."

Mayor Collova is hoping that Giant Eagle will reconsider. The city has a $1.4 million deficit and is looking at imposing a garbage collection fee in order to avoid layoffs.