Eastland Mall Sears could become a Saraga grocery
A real estate company affiliated with Saraga International Grocery has bought the former Sears store at Eastland Mall.
IGWT Properties, registered to Saraga owner John Sung, paid $1.05 million for the 254,000-square-foot store and an adjacent parcel on Refugee Road. Together, the two properties total about 18 acres.
Sung said he plans to seek rezoning for the property but offered few details on what he would like to do with the site.
Saraga for two years has planned to open a third central Ohio store in the former Kohl’s store on South Hamilton Road across from Eastland Mall. That store opening has been hampered by challenges with the city, said Sung without elaborating.
“I’m sorry, I can’t say anything
about the Sears store’s future or the Hamilton store’s future right now,” Sung said. “We are doing little by little, step by step, but it’s going to take years.”
Saraga stores offer an enormous selection of international produce and groceries from Central and South America, Asia and the Middle East, among other regions.
Sung opened the first Saraga store in Indianapolis in 2005 and has since opened two central Ohio stores: in a former Toys R Us at 1265 Morse Road in Northland; and in a former Kroger in Northern Lights Shopping Center on Cleveland Avenue in Linden.
Sears closed its Eastland and Westland mall stores in 2017, part of hundreds of stores the department store vacated. jweiker@dispatch.com @Jimweiker