AKRON, Ohio – The owner of Akron’s Chapel Hill Mall, which is being foreclosed on by Summit County, has purchased a mall in Ashtabula for $10.2 million.

The title to Ashtabula Town Square was transferred Tuesday to the newly formed Ashtabula Mall Realty Holdings LLC, which is operated by New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group, according to Ashtabula County Auditor David Thomas.

Kohan also operates Chapel Hill Mall Realty Holdings LLC, which owes $753,732.82 to Summit County for unpaid real estate taxes, assessments, penalties and interest, according to a foreclosure complaint filed last month. Ohio Edison also has sued the mall for $195,714 in overdue bills, court records show.

Chapel Hill Mall has been threatened with water and electricity shut-offs multiple times in the past year, each avoided when Kohan made sufficient payments on the overdue bills.

Michael Kohan, of the Kohan Retail Investment Group, has not responded Friday to calls or emails from cleveland.com. The company owns dozens of malls across the country, including Richmond Town Square in Richmond Heights.

In an interview with the Star Beacon, which first reported the story, Kohan said he hopes to increase traffic and add tenants at the Ashtabula mall, which is at about half-capacity.

Thomas told cleveland.com that Kohan bought several parcels on and surrounding the mall complex for $10,250,000, and paid $4,050,000 in cash. The remaining $6.2 million has been mortgaged through New York-based TBG Funding, real estate records show.

Kohan bought the property from Sure Fire Group LLC, which bought it for $6.1 million in 2014, Thomas said.

“Ken Kister [of Sure Fire Group LLC], him and a group of local investors bought the mall and they literally poured their heart and soul into it, spending countless hours donating community space, donating time for free clinics and for different events through the mall,” Thomas said. “They really made it a place that we’re proud of.”

Thomas said he hopes the Kohan group continues to revitalize the mall and that the property doesn’t take a turn for the worse, like Chapel Hill.

“We’re always excited to see investment in our county and see people buying and developing areas, so we’re cautiously optimistic, given the background of the owner and what’s happened at other locations,” Thomas said.

Want more Akron news? Sign up for cleveland.com’s Rubber City Daily, an email newsletter delivered at 5:30 a.m. Monday through Friday.