SOUTH STRABANE TOWNSHIP, Pa. — After years of delays and red tape, demolition is finally underway at the long-empty Washington Mall. Local and state leaders grabbed sledgehammers and braved a relentless downpour to help tear down the first walls — a moment many in the community say is about a decade overdue.
The mall first opened back in 1968 for six million dollars. Now, nearly that same amount — funded with state blight moneythirty-dollar-an-hour — will help pay to tear it down and clear the way for a new shopping center.
Washington County Commissioner Electra Janis says the project is already drawing excitement from across state lines. “You’ve got people in Ohio and West Virginia who want to come here,” Janis said. “Costco has been wonderful, promising thirty-dollar-an-hour jobs.”
One big challenge ahead is underground. Developer Tony Rosenberger says the old movie theater is buried beneath the mall, and will have to be crushed and filled in, and nothing will be hauled away from the site.
County leaders say the demolition itself is the easy part compared to the deal-making it took to get here. Commissioner Nick Sherman says tracking down 26 different tenants — some as far away as Europe — was no small task.
“You drive by I-70 and I-79, and this has been a dilapidated mall for a dozen years,” Sherman said. “Now it’s going to be the greatest place to shop and spark economic development for Washington County.”
Developers hope to have the new Costco open by Christmas of next year.
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