Bay City Town Center

Bay City Town Center

Interior of Bay City Mall, December 2013.
Location Bangor Township, Bay County, Michigan
Coordinates 43°37′37″N 83°53′28″W / 43.627°N 83.891°W / 43.627; -83.891Coordinates: 43°37′37″N 83°53′28″W / 43.627°N 83.891°W / 43.627; -83.891
Address 4101 E. Wilder Rd.
Opening date 1991[1]
Developer Homart Development/Robert B. Aikens[2]
Management Bay City Mall Partners
No. of stores and services 50+[1]
No. of anchor tenants 2
Total retail floor area 530,000 square feet (49,000 m2) (GLA)
No. of floors 1

Bay City Town Center, formerly the Bay City Mall, is an enclosed shopping mall serving Bay City, Michigan. Opened in 1991, the mall features two anchor stores in J. C. Penney and Younkers, with two vacancies last occupied by Target and Sears. Other major tenants include Marshalls, Shoe Department Encore, Dunham's Sports, and a 10-screen movie theater owned by Goodrich Quality Theaters. It is managed by a partnership of Lormax Stern. It is the second mall in Bay County, Michigan, the first being the defunct Hampton Square Mall.

History

The south entrance, showing Marshalls and Target.

Target opened in 1990, and the rest of the mall, including Sears and an H. C. Prange Co. department store (bought out by Younkers in 1992), opened the next year.[3] It was developed by Homart Development, a now-defunct retail arm of Sears, who sold most of its retail properties to General Growth Properties in 1995.[4] In 2005, the mall received media attention when Bryan Johnson, who was costumed as the Easter Bunny during an Easter event at the mall, was attacked by a 12-year-old customer.[5]

Younkers.

Old Navy opened a store at the mall in 2007.[6] Several tenants at Bay City Mall closed in the late 2000s, including a B. Dalton bookstore[7] and a classroom maintained by Bay-Arenac Intermediate School District, which had been at the mall since 1995.[8] A Ruby Tuesday restaurant across from the mall also closed in 2009.[9] These closures led to rumors that further stores, or the mall itself, might close.[10] In 2010, the mall owners at the time, General Growth Properties, listed Bay City Mall among its least profitable malls, and announced plans to place it and eleven other malls under management of a new company.[11] In February 2010, ownership of the mall was turned over to a trust of unidentified lenders, who hired Cushman & Wakefield Inc. to oversee the mall.[12] These new owners have planned a $200,000 renovation of the mall property, including a new sign on Wilder Road.[13] Old Navy closed in mid-2012.[14] Planet Fitness opened in October of the same year.[15]

Cushman & Wakefield sold the mall in April 2013 to Bay City Mall Partners LLC, which is a partnership of Lormax Stern and Wayzata Investment.[16] Marshalls and rue21 both joined in late 2013.[17] The movie theater complex was expanded in 2014, adding two new auditoriums with stadium seating for a total of ten screens.[18]

Sears announced that the closure of its store at Bay City Mall store would begin on October 31, 2014. Sears has operated a store in Bay City since at least 1928.[19] Target announced one month later that its store at Bay City Mall would close in 2015.[20]

In 2016, Younkers announced the opening of a home and furniture store in half of the former Sears.[21] Mall owners announced in May 2017 that the mall's food court would be removed for a PetSmart, while Ollie's Bargain Outlet would open in the other half of the vacated Sears.[22]

References

  1. 1 2 "Center information for Bay City Mall". General Growth Properties. Archived from the original on 25 December 2010. Retrieved 4 January 2011.
  2. ↑ "Stores: the bulletin of the N.R.D.G.A.,". National Retail Dry Goods Association. 74 (7-12). 1992.
  3. ↑ Marsh, Nicole (31 January 2010). "Years Past: This date in history from The Bay City Times". The Bay City Times. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  4. ↑ "Sears announces Homart transactions". PR Newswire. 31 July 1995. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  5. ↑ "Rabbit season: Bad eggs make the Easter Bunny's job risky business". The Southeast Missourian. 27 March 2005. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  6. ↑ Stanton, Ryan J. (21 February 2008). "Retail: Malls plug vacancies in adverse economy". Mlive.com. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  7. ↑ Wayland, Michael (14 January 2010). "B. Dalton bookstore in Bay City Mall closes Saturday, everything 50 percent off". The Bay City Times. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  8. ↑ Dodson, Andrew (17 August 2009). "Classroom getting facelift at Bay-Arenac ISD". The Bay City Times. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  9. ↑ Waterman, Cole (7 January 2009). "Ruby Tuesday chain closes restaurant across from Bay City Mall". The Bay City Times. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  10. ↑ Johnson, Amy Jo (14 January 2009). "Officials say there's no truth to rumors that Bay City Mall is closing". The Bay City Times. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  11. ↑ Lynch-Morin, Kathryn (30 March 2010). "Great Lakes Bay Region malls fight for sales in tough economy". The Bay City Times. Retrieved 6 January 2011.
  12. ↑ Wayland, Michael (17 February 2011). "New owners to tour mall Friday". The Bay City Times.
  13. ↑ Setter, Holly (18 February 2011). "Bay City Mall gets $200,000 investment from new owners". The Bay City Times. Retrieved 16 March 2011.
  14. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2012/07/bay_city_mall_losing_old_navy.html
  15. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2012/10/planet_fitness_expanding_into.html
  16. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2013/04/bay_city_mall_sold_for_75_mill.html
  17. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2013/04/marshalls_rue21_stores_opening.html
  18. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2014/02/construction_of_new_theaters_t.html
  19. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/business/mid-michigan/index.ssf/2014/10/sears_store_at_bay_city_mall_c.html
  20. ↑ http://pressroom.target.com/news/target-announces-upcoming-store-closures
  21. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2016/05/bay_city_mall_buys_target_buil.html
  22. ↑ http://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/index.ssf/2017/05/petsmart_opening_in_bay_city_m.html
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.