Drive east on Eastgate Boulevard this month and the contrast is hard to miss. On one side, Eastgate Mall sits with the same half-empty parking lot it's had for years, wrapped in a redevelopment plan that still exists mostly on paper. On the other side of Union Township, construction fencing has gone up around a former car wash, a Kroger lot has been cleared for something new, and a volleyball facility is taking shape off Round Bottom Road. The mall is the landmark everyone in Clermont County talks about. The action is happening around it.
That gap between where people expect Union Township's growth to show up and where it's actually showing up is worth understanding if you live here, whether you're weighing a Friday night out or just wondering what that fencing near the library is for.
The Corridor Is Filling In Around a Mall That Isn't
Union Township has been talking about redeveloping Eastgate Mall for years. In 2023, the township brought in MSP Design to run community input sessions on what a rebuilt Central Retail Corridor could look like, and residents showed up with strong opinions about walkability, green space, and a real gathering place to replace the mall's dated footprint. One resident told a local news crew he'd bring his own sledgehammer if it would speed up demolition.
That energy hasn't translated into a project. The township's own Envision Eastgate page is direct about where things stand: there's no active development proposal advancing right now. The visioning work exists to shape whatever eventually gets pitched for the site, but as of this year, nothing has broken ground inside the mall property itself.
Meanwhile, the parcels around the mall have kept moving. That's the part of the story that doesn't get the same attention, and it's the part that actually changes what Friday nights and weekend errands look like for people who live here.
What's Actually Going Up
While the mall waits, Union Township has confirmed several projects along the Eastgate corridor that are further along than the mall's own future:
- Wawa is replacing the former Mount Carmel Kroger, a swap the township confirmed after demolition and site prep began on that lot.
- Panda Express cleared the old car wash next to the Union Township Library for a new location, though the timeline shifted while nearby overpass construction was underway.
- Cincinnati Sands Volleyball is building a new facility off Round Bottom Road, just north of Hamilton Safe, with township permits issued and county permitting the next step.
- The Cove, a 16,000 square foot mixed-use building at the roundabout where Eastgate Boulevard meets Ferguson Drive, cleared its zoning approval with retail space, a drive-through pad for a restaurant or coffee shop, and second-floor office space in the plan.
None of these are as visible from the road as the mall itself, and none of them come with the community meetings and design renderings that Envision Eastgate has generated. But taken together, they say something the mall's stalled timeline doesn't: the corridor's growth is happening in smaller, faster-moving pieces, not in one big redevelopment announcement.
The Two Weeks That Just Wrapped
If you wanted proof that Union Township's real social calendar runs through its parks rather than its retail centers, the first half of August delivered it. Police Night Out filled Veterans Memorial Park on Clough Pike on August 6, with the fire department's equipment on display, a dunking booth, and the kind of low-stakes community mixing that a shopping center redevelopment can't manufacture on its own. Nine days later, Clepper Park on Summerside Road hosted the Pickleball Slam, a recreational tournament that started at 8 a.m. and used the church across the street for overflow parking.
Both events are already behind us as of this writing, and that's part of the point. Veterans Memorial Park, at 25 acres, carries tennis courts, basketball courts, soccer fields, baseball diamonds, sand volleyball, a walking track, a fishing pond, and picnic shelters that get booked out for exactly this kind of programming. Clepper Park does the same work on a smaller footprint. These aren't backdrops waiting for a mall renovation to make them relevant. They're already doing the job a rebuilt Eastgate is supposed to do someday.
The township's own language around Envision Eastgate keeps returning to the same idea: residents want a common gathering place. Union Township already has three of them, and they're called Veterans Memorial Park, Clepper Park, and Mount Carmel Park.
Still Running Every Friday
The township's Farmers Market has been open on the Civic Center campus since it kicked off the summer concert series on June 5, when Audio Graffiti played the first show of the season. Market activities start at 4 p.m., with food trucks and a beverage stand running through 9 p.m. on concert nights. It's a smaller, quieter routine than the mall debate, but it's the one that's actually been reliable all summer, week after week, without waiting on a developer's timeline.
What's Ahead Before the Season Turns
Two dates worth putting on the calendar now that August's headline events have passed. The Union Township Fireworks Celebration returns to Eastgate South Drive on Saturday, September 26, with live bands, Touch-A-Truck vehicles, and a block party built around a fireworks show from Rozzi's Famous Fireworks. The township is running it in partnership with three businesses that already anchor daily life in the area: RJ Cinema Distillery & Taproom, Jungle Jim's International Market, and Crossroads East Side. That list matters because it's a preview of what an Eastgate rebuild might eventually formalize: local operators, not just national chains, providing the anchor points for a public event.
After that, an outdoor Sip & Shop takes over the Civic Center campus on Saturday, October 17, with vendors selling handcrafted goods, produce, and baked items in a fall-afternoon format that's become a fixture on the township calendar.
The Read for Anyone Who Lives Here
None of this means the Eastgate Mall conversation is dead. Township trustees have kept the visioning documents alive specifically so they're ready if a developer brings a real proposal forward. But if you're gauging the health of this part of Clermont County by watching the mall parking lot, you're watching the wrong lot. The corridor's actual momentum is visible in a Wawa replacing a shuttered grocery store, a volleyball facility rising off Round Bottom Road, and a mixed-use building cleared for construction at a roundabout that didn't have much reason for foot traffic a few years ago.
The township's park system has been carrying the weight of community life this whole time, mall or no mall. Police Night Out and the Pickleball Slam already proved it this month. The Fireworks Celebration and Sip & Shop will prove it again before the leaves turn.
If you're a longtime resident tracking what's changing block by block, or you know someone eyeing a move to this corner of Clermont County and wondering what daily life here actually looks like beyond the mall headlines, that's the kind of on-the-ground read Andrea Carter puts together for Union Township and the surrounding suburbs. You can browse more of what's happening across the area on the Union Township neighborhood guide, and when the conversation turns from what's new in the corridor to what a home here is actually worth, Andrea's a call or click away. Let's connect. Get your free home valuation whenever you're ready.
