Eastland Center (Harper Woods, Michigan)
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| Eastland Center | |
| Facts and statistics | |
|---|---|
| Location | Harper Woods, Michigan, United States |
| Opening date | 1957 |
| Developer | J.L. Hudson Corparation |
| Management | Jones Lang LaSalle |
| Owner | Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. |
| No. of stores and services | 88[1] |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4 |
| Total retail floor area | 1,415,557 sq ft (131,509.5 m²).[1] |
| Parking | 7613 spaces[1] |
| No. of floors | Mall - 1 plus partial basement Sears, Steve & Barry's - 2 Macy's - 4 |
| Website | http://www.shopeastland.com/ |
Eastland Center is an enclosed shopping mall located in the city of Harper Woods, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1957, the mall has been expanded several times since. It currently features over 88 stores, as well as a small food court, with Macy's, Sears, Steve & Barry's and Target serving as anchor stores.[1] Eastland Center is managed by Jones Lang LaSalle, and owned by Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp. who acquired it in 2005.[2]
Contents |
[edit] History
The mall was developed in 1957 by J.L. Hudson Corporation, a Detroit-based department store chain that also developed Northland Center, another Detroit mall.[3] Like Northland, Eastland was developed by Victor Gruen as an open-air mall, with Hudson's as its main anchor store.[citation needed]
In 1975, Eastland Center was enclosed, with JCPenney and Montgomery Ward opening as additional anchor stores.[citation needed] A food court and movie theater were added to the eastern wing in 1985.[4] MainStreet, a department store chain based in Chicago, Illinois, opened at the mall in the 1980s.[citation needed] The MainStreet chain was bought out and re-named by Kohl's in 1989. Kohl's closed at Eastland Center in 1995, and was replaced with Target a year later.[3][5] Montgomery Ward closed in 1998 due to the chain's financial troubles, with JCPenney closing two years later.[3] The Hudson's chain was re-branded Marshall Field's by its parent company Target Corporation in 2001. Marshall Field's, in turn, was acquired and re-named Macy's in 2006.
[edit] 2000s
After the loss of Montgomery Ward in 1998, the center began to falter. By 1998, the mall was down to 78% occupancy, and the mall's consumer base had shifted to minorities.[6][7] Eastland Center was acquired by the Shopco Advisory Group in 1999, with plans for renovation;[8] under Shopco's tenure, new stores were added.[9] In September of 2003, Sears opened in the former JCPenney space. The same year, the mall's food court annex was demolished, with a Lowe's home improvement store (detached from the mall itself) being built on the site of the former food court. A new, much smaller food court was created from retail space in the Sears wing.[10]
Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, a discount clothing retailer, opened on the first floor of the former Montgomery Ward store in 2004, shortly after the space had been temporarily leased to a furniture store called Cana Mex Interiors. At the time, the Eastland Center store was the second-largest Steve & Barry's in the chain.[11][12]Shopco continued to manage the mall until selling it to Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation in 2005.
[edit] "The Lion and Mouse"
One of the mall's centerpieces upon opening was a nine-foot sculpture of a lion and a mouse, titled "The Lion and Mouse". In 1957, the mouse was stolen from the sculpture, only to be replaced by another mouse; in total, the sculpture has gone through no fewer than six mice. In 2007, the sculpture's original mouse was returned to the mall by the person who stole it.[13]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Fact sheet for Eastland Center
- ^ Jones Lang LaSalle Awarded Six New Retail Assignments Totaling More Than Four Million Square Feet
- ^ a b c Eastland Center history (brief article)
- ^ Eastland Mall 5 - WaterWinterWonderland.com
- ^ Compass Retail, Inc. Managed Properties
- ^ Eastland struggles to fill empty stores, combat rival malls. (Eastland Center) (brief article)
- ^ Lehman team marketing four Class-B malls
- ^ Shopping Centers Today
- ^ Fixing Eastland; Owner looks to home stores to shore up mall.
- ^ Aging Detroit Mall Gains New Lease on Life with New Retailers. (Brief article)
- ^ Eastland Center welcomes STEVE & BARRYS UNIVERSITY SPORTS WEAR (Brief article)
- ^ .Macomb Daily Business Briefing, October 28, 2004
- ^ Prodigal mouse returns: Pilfered icon back at mall after 50-year trip
[edit] External links
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