Copper Country Mall

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The Copper Country Mall is a shopping mall located at 47420 Highway M-26 in Portage Township just outside the city of Houghton, Michigan. It is owned by Developers Diversified Realty.

[edit] History

Copper Country Mall opened in 1981 with JC Penney, Kmart, Spurgeon's Department Store, and City Drug as anchors, as well as a two-screen theatre and about 40 tenants. Many national chains called the mall home, including Zales Jewelers, Musicland (later Sam Goody), Payless ShoeSource, B. Dalton, Carousel Hot Dogs, and Hallmark. Over the years, many of these chains would leave, some being replaced by local stores.

In the early 1990s, City Drug closed and was replaced with Dunham's Sports. Also in the early 1990s, Spurgeon's department store declared bankruptcy and closed all locations. Most of the Spurgeon's space became a Jo-Ann Fabrics, while the rest became part of a large Foot Locker store. The Copper Country Cinemas would expand to five screens as well, eating up some inline mall space.

Kmart Corporation closed their store at Copper Country Mall in 2002, when the chain filed for Chapter 11; their store would remain empty until Steve & Barry's filled most of the vacant store in late 2005. Jo-Ann Fabrics also left in 2005; their space is still empty.

Since the 2002 closure of the mall's Kmart [1], many stores in the mall have closed. Questions about the future of the mall[2] have continued with the November 2004 closing of the Payless ShoeSource store. A few chain tenants do remain, including GNC, B. Dalton, Foot Locker and Bath & Body Works.