Courtland Center

Courtland Center, formerly Eastland Mall, is an enclosed shopping mall in Burton, Michigan, a suburb of Flint, Michigan, USA. It opened in 1968, two years before the larger Genesee Valley Center on the other side of the Flint metropolitan area. Courtland Center includes four anchor stores: J. C. Penney, Dunham's Sports, Staples,^[3] and Jo-Ann Etc., plus one vacant anchor last occupied by Steve & Barry's.

History

In September 1964, Burton Township board rezoned the property at the southwestern corner of East Court Street and Center Road from single family residential to commercial. Forest City Enterprises began building on the property after the rezoning on the Court Mall Center with expectations for a second quarter 1965 opening.^[4]

Eastland Mall

Court Mall Center opened in late October 1957 as Eastland Mall in what was then Burton Township under the ownership of Forest City and Jack Shifron.^[4] At the time, it featured it had a 1000-seat theater and 47 stores including three anchor stores: discount chain Woolco^[5] on the eastern end, The Fair on the western end and Detroit, Michigan-based Federal's in the center. Federal's closed in the late 1970s, and briefly became a Robert Hall Village store before J. C. Penney took over the space.

Later that same year, Woolco closed as the parent company, F.W. Woolworth Company, closed the last of the American Woolco stores. Later in the 1980s, the mall's theater complex was closed. Also, The Fair closed in 1987 and became Mervyn's.

Courtland Center

Eastland Mall was renamed Courtland Center in 1986. In August 1986, the former Woolco space was subdivided and occuped by Crowley's department store and additional stores: B. Dalton Booksellers, Kinney Shoes, Silverman's, The Limited, Beverly Jean Cosmetics, Connie Shoes, County Seat, Deck the Walls, D.O.C Optical, Foot Locker, Leroy's Jewelers Lechter Housewares, Rave women's clothing, Summit Stationers and Things Remembered. Summit Stationers also took some space formerly used by the former Gutman location.^[4]

In the 1990s, J. C. Penney expanded its presence at the mall by moving its home goods into a space that had been vacated by Perry Drug Stores, and some of the women's apparel into an adjacent storefront formerly occupied by a Marianne clothing store. The mall had 80 stores in 1994.^[4] Crowley's closed in 1997, and the theaters added an expansion in November 1998 under the management of National Amusements.^[6]

2000s redevelopment

Tucker Development acquired the mall from Forest City Enterprises in the early 2004 and began renovations on it. The far end of the former Crowley's was converted to Old Navy in July 2000, while the rest remained vacant. Also the late 1990s, the theater was renovated to become a first run complex with six screens, after the addition of stadium seating. Old Navy relocated inside the mall in 2005, displacing a former f.y.e. which had closed, and a Payless ShoeSource which was relocated.^[7] Later that same year, Staples moved from a nearby strip mall into Old Navy's former location, while the remainder of the former Crowley's was split between a new Jo-Ann Etc. store (resulting in the closure of the existing Jo-Ann Fabrics store) and Dunham's Sports, which had also moved from a nearby strip mall.^[7]

Mervyns closed in early 2006 when the chain exited Michigan. In late 2007, J. C. Penney announced that it would relocate its existing stores in the mall to a newer, larger location in the former Mervyns space. While the former Mervyns space was being redeveloped and expanded, the roof of the store caught on fire, causing the mall to close for a day in September 2007.^[8] Old Navy closed its store at the mall in January 2008,^[9] and J. C. Penney's new store opened on March 1, 2008, resulting in the closure of the three former J. C. Penney stores.^[10] The new location included several departments which were not present in the former locations, such as an inline Sephora store.^[10] JCPenney's former main store in the middle of the mall was replaced by Steve & Barry's, which opened on May 15, 2008,^[10][11] while the two sub-stores were vacated. Steve & Barry's closed December 2008, and the theaters re-closed in 2009 along with a B. Dalton bookstore.^[12] Planet Fitness replaced the Old Navy space in February 2011.^[13]

Planet Fitness opened a 15,998-square-foot location in January 2011.^[4] On May 20, 2011, the cinema was reopened by NCG Cinemas as NCG Courtland Cinemas to replace NCG's Clio location.^[14] In 2013, the mall was sold by Tucker Development to a limited liability company from Delaware.^[1]

Goodwill Industries of Mid-Michigan opened a 5,000 square feet temporary Christmas store by November 2015, which would operate until mid-December. While its Center Road Burton location moving to a permanent place in the mall by January 2016 to take up a 15,000-square-foot space.[3]

Mall theater

The mall theater opened with one screen in 1967 as Eastland Mall Theatre.^[4][5] In 1977, only three movies were played that year, "Star Wars," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "A Star is Born". The theater was selected along with only 104 other theaters as a first-run location for "The Empire Strikes Back", the Star Wars sequel, in 1980 by installing a 70-millimeter projector and six-track Dolby stereo unit. Under Redstone Management, the theater added another screen in December 1983.^[4]

In 1991, the cinemas were closed by National Amusements (NA). In 1998, the location was reopened by and as Silver Cinemas with six screens. NA purchased Silver's business soon there after and was renamed back to Courtland Center Cinema.^[15] The theaters added an expansion in November 1998 under the management of National Amusements.^[6] The cinemas closed in January 2009.^[4]

On May 20, 2011, NCG Cinemas reopened the theater as NCG Courtland Cinemas^[15] using equipment from its just closed Clio location.^[14]

References

External links

• Official website