 A 2002 news article in "The Akron Beacon Journal" described the mall and the area around it as having "faltered since the early 1990s" due to perceptions of high crime and lack of renovations to the mall, compared to the renovations that Chapel Hill Mall and Summit Mall had both received in the 1990s.At the time of purchase by Heywood Whichard, Rolling Acres was about 65 percent occupied.The same article also noted that Heywood Whichard had a track record of buying faltering malls at low prices and making no attempt to revitalize them, to the point that many of their properties were ultimately demolished or converted to non-retail use.