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Amazon to build facility on Ohio site that was ‘world’s biggest mall’

Posted at 8:45 PM, Aug 25, 2017
and last updated 2017-08-25 20:45:43-04

It’s a sign of the times.

Online retail powerhouse Amazon is constructing a shipping center on the site of an Ohio shopping complex that briefly boasted the title of “the world’s largest mall.”

The North Randall, Ohio mayor said he expects the facility to create 2,000 jobs in the area.

“Amazon employees at the more than 855,000-square-foot fulfillment center will pick, pack and ship smaller customer items such as electronics, toys and books,” the company said in a press release Friday.

The Port of Cleveland confirmed to CNNMoney that the selected location was the Randall Park Mall. The once bustling facility was billed as the biggest shopping center in the world back when it was built in 1976.

But after the turn of the century, like many American malls, it began to suffer. Their plight has been lead in part by competition from digital retailers like Amazon.

Randall Park Mall wastorn down in 2014 after years of abandonment.

“[W]e are pleased to partner with Amazon to revitalize and bring jobs back to a property that has stood vacant for too long,” executives at JobsOhio, an economic development firm, said in a statement contained in Amazon’s release. “Amazon’s investment at a site where the nation’s largest shopping mall once stood will now support digital retail jobs.”