[2] Severance hired the Austin Company for the development plan which ended up acquiring the Longwood land and brought in the Winmar Corporation as a partner on the project.

While the decision to build a large mall on the previously undeveloped land caused some controversy, the city eventually gave its assent to the plan.

[3] As only a few years after Victor Gruen's visionary project Southdale Center opened in Edina, Minnesota, the shopping mall was a new concept.

[5] The Severance project included Ohio's first regional mall as well as the since-demolished Austin Company headquarters opening in 1960, offices and apartments.

[6] Severance Center underwent major renovation in 1972 and a new wing anchored by discounter Gold Circle opened off the south end of the mall in 1981.

[9] Severance Center which pioneered the enclosed shopping mall in Ohio was unable to compete with automobile-centric convenient big box retail or the renovated and expanded Beachwood Place and Richmond Town Square.

With both Dillard's branches shuttered in 1995, declining occupancy, and rising criminal activity in and around the mall, plans surfaced to convert the enclosed portion into a power center.

The enclosed mall itself was reconfigured into "big box" outlets occupied by OfficeMax, Marshall's, Borders Books, Conway, Famous Footwear, and a Regal 14-screen cinema.

[14] Complete with preliminary renderings, they presented to City Council on Monday (Nov. 14) a concept for a “medically and educationally based walkable village” -- including more than 500 residential units and a nearly 5-acre park.