The heyday for malls has long been in the rearview mirror, with stores of all types shutting their doors, leaving millions of square feet empty. But one mall in central Ohio is getting a new life thanks to Newark Local 1105.
“This is exactly the kind of reimagining that malls were built for,” Daryl Jones, Local 1105’s special projects coordinator, said of the union’s purchase of a vacant Sears store that used to be an anchor in the Indian Mound Mall. “Instead of a hollowed-out retail store, we’re filling the space with careers, education and steady economic activity.”
The demand for electrical workers is soaring across the U.S. and Canada. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, employment of electricians is projected to grow 6% annually until 2032. Meanwhile, department stores like Sears have been closing brick-and-mortar stores as consumer tastes shift. But their offline footprint — at more than 90,000 square feet per store — is proving to be a near-perfect fit for training the next generation of electrical workers.
“The new space will let us train apprentices on a much larger scale than we can right now,” said Corey Smith, manager for Hilscher-Clarke Electric, a NECA contractor. “With the extra room, we’ll be able to bring more people through the program faster, helping them become journeymen sooner and giving our contractors the manpower they need for the large projects happening in the area.”
Local 1105 had been looking for a new space to meet the increasing demand for a few years, but every time they found a space, they outgrew it before they could get the purchase under contract, Jones said.
“When Sears became available, it was the first building in the region large enough, open enough and structurally flexible enough to serve as a true state-of-the-art training facility,” Jones said.
The list of what the JATC will be able to do in the 92,000-plus square feet of the Sears building that it can’t in its current 14,000-square-foot facility is long. To name a few, the instructors will be able to run multiple classes and labs simultaneously without competing for space, the local can launch a community-based kindergarten-through-12th-grade electrical career exploration center, and it can run large-scale safety trainings.
The JATC had 780 apprentices in 2025. With the new space, they’ll be able to bring in 2,000, Jones said.
“Every month, we indenture new apprentices and distribute training assignments, and the following week we get calls from contractors asking for more apprentices,” he said. “This expansion is a direct response to the needs of signatory contractors, community leaders and the statewide workforce.”
The purchase doesn’t just benefit the IBEW and NECA. It’s a boost for the whole area, Smith said.
“It’ll bring new energy to the mall with the foot traffic of our apprentices grabbing food or stopping into a store before training,” he said. “Our apprentices come from all over the 1105 jurisdiction, and now they’ll be getting oil changes, filling up their tanks and supporting local businesses while they’re here.”
The new training facility will sit in the middle of other revamped terrain as part of the city of Heath’s downtown revitalization project
“It’s great to see such a large space that’s been sitting empty for years get this kind of second life,” Smith said. “The building is going to have a huge 1105 JATC sign on it, so everyone will know exactly what’s happening there.”
