Years ago- originally in 2013 and later reposted in 2016- I made a rather crude map of how I thought the Westland Mall site should be redeveloped.. It seems that the mall may finally be torn down soon after a long period of deterioration, so I figured it was time to revisit this map once more, but this time update it in detail and give a much clearer sense of how redeveloping Westland Mall would drastically change the entire West Side.
One of the problems with the original map was that it really didn’t take into account the massive size of the entire site and how many decent-sized buildings could truly fit within it. While on the old map I used single, general boxes to convey multiple buildings, this time I actually laid out nearly 50 of them. These mixed-use buildings are all a minimum of 4 stories and contain residential, office, hotel and retail/restaurant space.
Each of these buildings could hold 100 or more residential units, so there could easily be several thousand new residents in this neighborhood.
3 parking garages of various sizes are also included, with enough combined space for thousands of parking spaces. The garages would mostly be covered by new walk-up condo or apartment units. A new park avenue street grid connects these garages and all other buildings, with a central roundabout plaza flanked by retail and restaurant locations. Between the streets, a series of pedestrian-only alleyways provide convenient places for outdoor patio seating for any restaurants and retail locations.
One of the biggest changes on the new map is that the park space has become significantly larger, almost doubling in size to more than 18 acres. This would be a significant new park for the West Side, something this part of the city doesn’t have much of. The closest park is also fairly new- Wilson Road Park- which opened in 2017, but its out-of-the-way location makes it somewhat underused. The new Westland park would be lined with retail and restaurant space overlooking it, and a new outdoor market would sit on the northern end- perhaps another extension of North Market similar to what Bridge Park received?
There are also new connections to the park and overall development. Multi-use path connections could be built on the eastern end along the old Shopper’s Lane, a western connection that travels under or over I-270 to the large residential area south of Lincoln Village, and a southern path would connect directly to the Camp Chase Trail. The old Lincoln Park West apartment complex would also have adjacent access.
A rapid-transit station could go on West Broad Street in front of the entire complex as part of the LinkUS plan.
Finally, another big difference between this and the old map is that I tried to be a bit less Sim City about it, meaning that I largely stuck with the existing Westland site and didn’t go beyond it. However, the light yellow areas are all potential future redevelopment locations. These areas are mostly low-density retail strip centers or big box stores with large parking lots. Over time, these areas could be redeveloped to create an enormous, 160-acre redevelopment of the Westland area.
For comparison, Dublin’s Bridge Park is only about 40 acres and Jeffrey Park in Italian Village is about 42 acres, with both developments being good examples of what could be done on the Westland site. In fact, Easton is the only comparable area. The potential is incredible and would finally give West Siders the destination and transformative development they’ve been asking for.
To date, there have been no solid plans released about the future of the Westland site by its owners. However, given that they’ve already sold off a small part of the site on Broad Street for a gas station, the chances that they have any significant, urban vision for it seem to be very slim. In reality, I would expect a suburban-style apartment development with fast-food outlets and another strip retail center, adding to the car-dominated stroad hellscape that already exists on West Broad Street now. The only way to avoid that outcome is for residents to demand better.
