A party Saturday with balloons, candy, face-painting, and contests for costumes and for hot-dog eating will be the first event in a self-marketing campaign by new tenants at Toledo's North Town Square Mall.

,“I really don't believe [the owners] are marketing this mall anymore, so we will do some of our own advertising as a group,'' said Sylvia Jackson, owner of Syl's Touch of Elegance, a clothing shop that opened at North Towne Oct. 1.

For Saturday's event, red ribbons will be strung across the entrances to all the new businesses - some traditional mall type stores, others not so traditional - and ribbon-cuttings will take place at various times.

Ken Simon, a marketing specialist at the Woodville Mall, which, like North Towne, is owned by Simon Property Group of Indianapolis, said all the new businesses were attracted by cut-rate leasing deals offered this summer.

North Towne offered one-year leases at $3 a square foot a year, compared with $8 to $10 at the Great Eastern shopping center.

Ms. Jackson moved her store from Summit Street downtown to North Towne. ``I was downtown two years, but I like this. I like this a lot better,'' she said. ``It's not a lot of people here all the time, but it's a steady flow. It's been a blessing, that's what it is.''

Brian Krabach, a pastor at Paradox, a new church that is opening at North Towne, said, ``There's a lot of business owners that didn't have the financial resources to go elsewhere. But at $3 a square foot, North Towne said, `C'mon and just give it a try and see what happens.'''

Mr. Krabach leased two other spaces in the mall. One is being used for playing strategy games like “Pokemon” or “Magic: The Gathering” and the other - the former theater -is being converted to an indoor skateboard park.

A skateboard shop, two restaurants, a pet store, a Christian bookstore, a candy store, and a graphics shop are among other new tenants.

An existing tenant, MC Sports, has gotten into the team spirit by reopening its inside-mall entrance, which it had closed because of security concerns.

Mr. Simon said North Towne will do some printing of flyers for the new tenants, but no marketing money is available.

``This is all being done by the new tenants. They want to make it known that North Towne is growing and they want to get people back in it,'' he said.

First Published October 22, 2002, 10:38 a.m.