Forest Park’s hulking ghost mall is officially gone. The last pieces of the long-empty Forest Fair Mall came down this week, clearing a vast stretch of land where a 1980s retail giant once tried to be all things to all shoppers.
The demolition closes a slow, stubborn chapter for the complex that straddled the Forest Park–Fairfield line. When it opened in the late 1980s, the mall sprawled over more than 1.5 million square feet and packed in roughly 200 stores at its peak.
Last walls come down
All remaining buildings at the former Forest Fair Mall site have now been demolished, according to WKRC Local 12. Demolition crews began tearing into the property last fall and wrapped up the final sections in recent days, leaving a broad, cleared parcel ready for the next phase of work.
Who’s building next
Hillwood Investment Properties is stepping in as master redeveloper and has lined up The Hillman Group as an anchor tenant, according to a press release from PR Newswire. Plans call for a large multipurpose distribution and office building on part of the property.
The lead building is expected to come in at about 715,736 square feet. Hillwood’s release states that construction on the anchor is scheduled to start in May 2026, with a targeted completion in mid-2027.
State money and cleanup
County and state demolition funding helped push the teardown over the finish line, and O’Rourke Wrecking Co. has handled the heavy lifting on the site, WCPO reports. Officials say the demolition and brownfield cleanup are designed to make the roughly 90-acre parcel “shovel-ready” for light industrial, warehouse and commercial projects.
A long decline, remembered
Forest Fair opened in phases in 1988–89, then cycled through owners and identities as it was rebranded Cincinnati Mills and later Cincinnati Mall. Over the years, anchors changed, tenants drifted away and vast stretches of the building went dark.
The property ultimately topped out at more than 1.5 million square feet with space for up to 200 stores, and city leaders staged a final walkthrough of the empty interior in August 2025. Journal-News has chronicled the mall’s long history along with the zoning changes that cleared the way for its next act.
What happens now hinges on permitting, remediation and final site plans, but developers and local officials say the cleared site should finally start generating jobs and tax revenue after years of sitting idle. Hillwood’s release reiterates that work on the anchor building is expected to begin in May 2026 with an eye on a mid-2027 finish. As planning filings and construction permits roll in, they will fill in the details on how quickly Forest Park’s former retail behemoth turns from rubble into new development.
