STEUBENVILLE — After being sold and resold several times during the past 10 years, the Fort Steuben Mall is back on the auction block again.

But this time, local leaders say they’ve met with a developer who actually has the expertise to tackle what’s ailing the 49-year-old complex — yes, that includes everything from the buckling floors and rotting roof to the pot-hole-riddled parking lot — and says those lessons can be applied to the Fort Steuben Mall.

They stress nothing has been decided and describe the face-to-face as strictly preliminary, a “meet-and-greet” opportunity for the involved parties to size each other up, do a walk-around at a similarly-situated retail property his company had transformed and gauge their mutual interest in proceeding.

There’s no guarantee the developer will bid on the Steubenville mall when it comes up for auction online Oct. 2. Starting bid for the 341,405-square-foot property, which has changed hands three times since 2016, is $2.4 million.

Still, locals who were part of the conversation said they’re “cautiously optimistic,” if only because a company that was able to turn around a property arguably in as bad as, if not worse, shape than the Fort Steuben Mall is thinking about taking it on.

“They said that (other) mall, in their opinion, was as bad or worse as the Fort Steuben Mall, with the same floor problem and the other (issues),” Jefferson County Commissioner Dave Maple said Thursday.

Maple said that other mall property is located in a county with similar demographics, and described it as a “classic mall that was transformed into more of an outdoor walking mall, but with an indoor area as well.”

“There’s been quite a few different looks at (Fort Steuben) mall over the years and we still don’t really have a good picture of what this group would do (here),” Maple reiterated. “This was just an initial ‘meet and greet’ with this group.”

Steubenville City Manager Jim Mavromatis agreed, though he added they were all impressed with what they saw.

“All the entrances were outside,” he said. “There was a covered walking area around the whole mall. The other thing they did, right through the middle … they cut a driveway, plus they put covered parking in the middle.”

Mavromatis said that transformation has sparked other development, including a new housing subdivision.

“That’s what we need,” he said. “You need something that fits the community you’re in and if you look today, a lot of the big malls are going away — they’re going more to strip malls that cater to the geographic area they’re in.”

Mayor Jerry Barilla also said what he saw was “really, really nice.”

“I was so impressed how could take something ugly and beat up and turn it around,” he said. “Of course, you have to have money, vision and the architects (to make it happen).”

But Barilla said the developer “gutted” that other mall property, “he took part of it down so he could make outdoor entrances available for stores.”

“And the parking lot — I was so impressed with the parking lot, it has a lot of grass and small trees, and the cement outside was painted and they had electricity so you could hold events out there,” he said. “They gutted the center of the mall so you can drive a car through it, and in that pass way they have shops on both sides with parking on each side, so you don’t have to fool with the weather.”

Barilla said he was “thoroughly impressed” with what he saw, but said they have to wait to see if the developer bids on the Steubenville mall.

“My hopes leaped up that it could come to fruition, that we could have a viable mall again. It is new and exciting, the way they’ve done it,” he said.

Still, Maple is encouraged. He said it’s the first time since he’s been in office that he was “contacted directly, by a developer, about it. It’s a good sign someone sees potential value in it.”

A project of that magnitude would require local buy-in, whether it takes the form of tax increment financing, bonds or abatements.

“They’re interested in what kind of economic development tools they could use, either from the city, the county and the Jefferson County Port Authority, to help them put a successful project together,” Maple said. “I’m not sure it will get all the way to completion, but to have someone interested in it is a positive step. And if we can can find the right economic development tools for them and put it all together, maybe there’s light at the end of the tunnel.”

Maple and Mavromatis alluded to the new family fun center in the old Sears store, a Ferguson family venture, as an added inducement. That project, which they said is nearing completion, will include bowling lanes, restaurants and a host of other activities.

“Hopefully they’ll come here and take a look at it,” Mavromatis added. “But we can’t make them come here, (we have to wait to) see how it goes.”