Maple Hill Mall

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Maple Hill Mall was an enclosed mall serving the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Despite the opening of The Crossroads Mall on the other end of town a decade later, Maple Hill stayed viable throughout the 1990s. However, as it lost anchor stores, Maple Hill became a dead mall, and has been torn down for a strip mall.

1 History
2 Trivia
3 Current Major Tenants
4 Former Major Tenants
5 External links

[edit] History

Maple Hill Mall opened in 1971 on West Main Street (M-43) on the northwestern side of Kalamazoo. Early 1970s Kalamazoo Gazette articles indicate that Maple Hill was originally to be called "Kalamazoo Mall", but this caused a stir among Kalamazoo residents, because the downtown pedestrian mall (Burdick Mall) was often referred to as "The Kalamazoo Mall". The developers of Maple Hill sought suggestions from the public, and hundreds were submitted by mail. The name "Maple Hill" was agreed upon shortly before the mall's opening. Originally anchoring the mall were Gilmore Brothers, Montgomery Ward, Rite Aid, Steketee's, and Turn Style (with an adjacent Jewel Foods).

In the mid 1980s, Turn Style closed and was replaced with Meijer Square, a failed concept store of regional supercenter chain Meijer. Meijer Square was only a discount department store without a grocery section.

Eventually, Jewel Foods moved across the street to replace JCPenney at West Main Mall; Meijer then expanded into the former Jewel space, converting the "Square" store to a regular Meijer. By the early 1990s, Meijer moved to a larger location down the road; the old location was torn down and replaced with Target. Maple Hill Mall survived the 1990s, despite falling on hard times in the latter half of the decade. Gilmore Brothers closed in 1997, followed by Montgomery Ward and Steketee's in 2000 and 2001, respectively. As the mall lost these anchors, traffic declined in the mall itself; as a result, many of the tenants moved out or closed up entirely.

Dunham's Sports, Old Navy, Office Max and Marshalls all opened in the mall in the early 2000s to fill the increasing number of vacancies. Both Dunham's Sports and Old Navy lasted only a couple years in the mall, however. Kimco Realty acquired the dying mall in 2003, with plans for renovation. In the summer of 2004, demoltion began on the mall structure, just after Value City Furniture and Hobby Lobby opened in the former Montgomery Ward. Those two new stores were left standing, as were Marshalls, Office Max, Target, and a Secretary of State office next to Target. After demoliton was complete, a new strip mall was built connecting the remaining spaces. GNC, Regis Hairstylists, Dollar Tree, and a nail salon called Glamour Nails - all of which which had previously been in the old mall - all opened new locations in the strip. Since then PetSMART, Rue 21, Pier One Imports, and DSW Shoe Warehouse have also opened. This new strip mall is called Maple Hill Pavilion.

[edit] Trivia

Maple Hill Mall was built across the street from an older mall, West Main Mall, which opened in the 1960s. West Main Mall featured W. T. Grant (later JCPenney, then Jewel Foods), Kroger, and Federal Department Store (later Zayre, then Ames) for anchors. West Main Mall was shuttered and demolished in the mid 1990s, except for its anchor spaces.

The Meijer Square store at Maple Hill was the only Meijer store located in an enclosed shopping mall.

At one point in the 1990s, nearly half of Maple Hill Mall's tenants could also be found at The Crossroads in Portage.

Storetrax data indicate that a Texas Roadhouse and a big box bookstore (most likely Borders or Barnes & Noble) were planned for Maple Hill Mall in the early 2000s, and the Storetrax lease plan even indicates space for these stores. For some reason, these stores never opened.