Jon Andreassi POTENTIAL BUYER — Chris Salata of PREP, an Ohio-based real estate fund management and advisory firm, during a public hearing in North Franklin Township Tuesday evening.

WASHINGTON, Pa. — The potential future owner of Washington Crown Center mall sees the site as a continued home for retail while also becoming a business park.

Chris Salata represented PREP, an Ohio-based real estate fund management and advisory firm, during a public hearing in North Franklin Township Tuesday evening. The company is hoping township supervisors will approve zoning changes to expand potential uses of the property.

“We do think this is going to be a terrific mix of both retail space as well as business park space, which could open itself to many different types of tenants,” Salata said during the hearing.

During their regular meeting following the zoning hearing, elected officials delayed the vote on establishing a light industrial redevelopment overlay district at Crown Center to a special meeting to be held at 5 p.m. June 25.

The overlay district would allow for more potential businesses to operate without the need for a conditional use permit. However, supervisors intend to modify the ordinance to keep trucking facilities as a conditional use and to limit the size of any personal storage.

If approved, PREP intends to move ahead with purchasing the 434,408-square-foot property from Kohan Retail Investment Group. Salata indicated it could take three to four months to close the deal.

The property occupied by Crown Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram, Rural King and Mac.Bid have been subdivided and would not be included in a potential sale.

According to Salata, the redevelopment of the property is estimated to cost about $35 million. Crown Center would be unlikely to continue to exist as an indoor mall.

“We don’t want to eliminate the existing zoning. As we said, we think there is still some retail that can continue on here. We think we can repopulate pretty much the entire front portion of the property. I think the enclosed mall part will go away,” Salata said. “As many of you know, enclosed malls, there is a lot of them in the country, and I don’t think that many of those are going to survive.”

There are several businesses that continue to operate inside the mall, and Salata indicated PREP would work with them if the project moves forward.

“We would do all we can to either keep them as part of the project or help them find another location within the township where they can continue to operate. Some of this is putting together a puzzle as we get into it, but we will be having conversations with each and every tenant in the mall,” Salata said.

Leigh Williams, owner of Cheer Haven All-Stars, expressed uncertainty during the hearing about what businesses are to do while waiting for the sale to become final.

“Do I wait around? What do I do in the meantime, and will we have the space to continue our season? We love being at the mall. We don’t want to go, and we hope there is still space for us,” Williams said. “We just want to know, logistically, when is our appointment? Where does that begin?”

Salata responded that conversations with existing tenants would begin “within the next couple of weeks.”