First note, this post is in partnership with our, um, excitable semi-sister blog Red Hooded Manatee. It focuses almost entirely on Summit Park Mall news, so if that’s your cup of tea, go follow it.

Yesterday, I mentioned that a public hearing was being held about putting a brewery in the former Summit Park Mall. You can read here about the hearing, I’m going off the cuff for this post.

To catch everybody up on the Summit Park Mall, it opened in 1972, and was shuttered in 2009 due to bankruptcy (as I previously mentioned, Sears owns its own land, so it stayed).

In 2013, the mall flooded when a pipe burst. You can blame vandals.

In 2014, Zoran Cocov bought the mall and got a tax break.

In late 2015/early 2016, Cocov announced he was putting in a sportsplex and inflatable dome.

The project was stalled (if you want to hear about that, go to Red Hooded Manatee; there’s a lot of ranting about that stall).

Last December, Cocov talked about putting in a brewery.

So now, where are we at?

Well, the brewery is looking for grant money, which it will hopefully receive. The sports domes are set to open on October 1, and there are already teams lined up to play apparently.

Personally, I loved the Summit Park Mall. I also hate having to get in my car to drive from Sears to Bon-Ton, so having the main mall concourse open will be exciting. I have a lot of nostalgia for the mall, so there’s that, too.

I hope this project goes through. It would be good for the community, and Red Hooded Manatee can finally rest (well not really, but one less news story to keep track of is great).