Part of bulldozed Westland Mall site to be redeveloped into apartments

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A portion of the Columbus property once belonging to the demolished Westland Mall will soon be home to an apartment complex.

Indiana-based developer Kittle Property Group has purchased part of the land where Westland Mall once stood at 4311 Shoppers Lane to build "The Caravel," a 234-unit apartment complex for residents 55 and older. Kittle, who received an Ohio Housing Finance Agency tax credit for The Caravel, operates several other central Ohio housing complexes.

The Caravel's units will reside across three four-story buildings, each featuring one- and two-bedroom layouts with either a porch or balcony. Each building will include a fitness center, library and computer space, meeting room, and leasing offices. The complex will share an outdoor picnic and grilling patio, along with a dog park.

A majority of Westland Mall was demolished in 2023 after Gov. Mike DeWine announced a $20 million Franklin County revitalization project that included bulldozing the former mall. The shopping center opened in 1969 and continued welcoming customers until Sears, the mall's last remaining store, closed in 2017.

The mall sat vacant for several years but was the location of a deadly shooting in fall of 2020. Police had responded to reports of shots fired before 4 p.m. on Sept. 20 and found one man dead from apparent gunshot wounds in the parking lot outside the former Sears. Investigators closed entrances to the parking lot and taped off a large area following the incident.

At the time of DeWine's announcement, Franklin Township trustee John Fleshman told NBC4 he had been trying to improve the area for about 10 years. He said the property "is not going to come back overnight, but we are seeing now growth."

"This is one of the biggest things on my plate that I wanted to see torn down and something else come in here, same as everybody in this area," Fleshman said in February of 2023. "It's going to make a huge difference."

Before the mall faced a bulldozer, several central Ohio fire departments were granted access to use the mall as a training facility. Franklin Township firefighters trained inside a building behind the former mall's main building in March 2023.