Worcester officials are hoping that a new developer will purchase the Worcester Common Outlet Mall, demolish and rebuild a portion of the property and buy into the city’s vision for a mixed-use complex that reconnects the downtown.

The Worcester Common Outlet Mall’s days are numbered. After years of lobbying for at least part of the failed retail outlet’s demolition, the city’s mayor, and some residents, may have finally gotten their way. Within weeks of the city’s announcement that it intends to explore the demolition of at least part of the retail monster, by eminent domain if necessary, the mall’s owner has decided to sell.

It’s unclear how much Cigna Investments wants for its mall, a sale that also will include two adjacent Class A office towers and parking garages.

Meredith & Grew’s Executive Vice President David Pergola, who is brokering the property with colleague Lisa Campoli, said that an asking price has not yet been established. The city has assessed the property values at $13.6 million for the mall and $16.5 million and $11.2 million for the office towers.

Meredith & Grew is in discussions with capable investor-developers interested in a mix of residential, retail and office, Pergola said.

“There’s a lot of interest – it’s 22 acres of land in the heart of downtown Worcester. It’s a very exciting opportunity for someone,” he said.

A Worcester market study signaled a need for upscale housing in the downtown, a development that officials say would fit perfectly on the mall acreage, adjacent to Union Station and the commuter rail.

“If you could sum it up, we want none of the same,” said Philip J. Niddrie, Worcester’s chief development officer.

City officials are hoping that the next owner will buy into its vision for a new downtown center – one that would retain the mall’s Class A office towers but demolish at least a portion of the retail center, a section the mayor dubbed a “white elephant.”

“As a Worcester resident, I would like to see the downtown thriving,” said Daniel Benoit of Benoit Reardon Architects in Worcester. Benoit has been advocating for the mall’s demolition since 1993, a desire he went public with in 1999. “I don’t think an urban mall will be a success; it needs to change in a dramatic way.”

As a former employee of the city’s development office in the mid-1990s, Benoit participated in the last mall makeover and the city’s convention center project. He’s also witnessed the city’s investment of $500 million in economic development projects.

“I see it becoming a real city center again, with new buildings and a sense of place,” he said. “That’s what’s been missing in downtown Worcester.”

Greyfield to Goldmine?

In the late 1960s, swept up in the spirit of Urban Renewal, the city of Worcester demolished dozens of buildings to make way for the 20-acre mall along Front Street. The retail center experienced some fleeting success, but the wave of suburban malls opening across the state soon had the retail center reeling. In a final blow, Filene’s and Jordan Marsh moved out. Cigna, along with the previous co-owner New England Development, tried a different approach and in 1994 reopened the center as an outlet mall. The concept flopped. According to the city, the mall’s assessed value fell from a high of $21.6 million to $13.5 million.

Worcester is not the only city with a “white elephant” shopping center. A 2001 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers found that 18 percent of the country’s malls had declined so much that they required significant public or private investments to prevent further decay. A new store or facade improvement often didn’t help these so-called “greyfields” – defined as developed sites that are economically and physically ripe for major redevelopment – and many had been reduced to land value.

The study found an additional 200 to 250 malls in danger of becoming greyfields. Some expand beyond their initial scope, host a new anchor store or are converted to office use. However, only full redevelopment of the site provides the combination of housing, retail, office and public space that residents and public leaders desire, according to the report.

Instead of the giant cement block in the center of downtown, Worcester Mayor Timothy P. Murray envisioned a mixed-use complex in which residents could live, work and shop in a neighborhood that would once again be connected to the downtown and Washington Square. The vision fit in with the millions the city and other public and private entities poured into projects surrounding all sides of the outlet mall, including the cleanup and construction of the Worcester Medical Center campus, the Worcester Centrum, renovations to the public library, Union Station, the common, and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy’s rehabilitation of an older building and its subsequent expansion.

The mall didn’t work and Murray wanted a solution. Murray likened a series of failed reuse tactics to “putting lipstick on a pig.”

“[Cigna] has been slowing down our momentum and preventing our full potential,” Murray said.

In March, Murray began a campaign to redevelop the outlet mall – with or without Cigna’s help. Murray, along with two research assistants, developed a blueprint for change and titled it “A New Front: Clearing the Way for Worcester’s Future.” The message was clear: the mall is dead and the city must take action with demolition and re-use.

Murray distributed it to anyone who would take a copy.

“Everyone was clearly frustrated with Cigna,” he said. “It was what everyone was thinking.”

Murray officially launched his blueprint for change in August. Within weeks, Cigna announced its intentions to sell the property.

Cigna did not immediately return calls for comment.

The potential sale marks a big victory for the mayor and his supporters. In the meantime, the city has been repositioning itself for the next ring of growth outside Boston.

“We’ve seen the trend coming, people are getting priced out of [Interstate 95]/Route 128 and this has stimulated more interest,” he said. “But the city’s not going to sit back. We can’t let our tax base erode that way. Our hope is that a like-minded developer will buy this from Cigna; if they don’t, we have the ability to use the stick – eminent domain.”