Southland Center (Michigan)

Southland Center (also known as Southland Mall) is an enclosed mall located at 23000 Eureka Road in Taylor, Michigan (a Downriver community located southwest of Detroit), exactly halfway between U.S. Highway 24 (Telegraph Road) and the Interstate 75 freeway. The mall features Macy's, JCPenney, and Best Buy, in addition to a 12-screen stadium Cinemark Theatres. It is the newest of the Detroit area's original four "land" malls (Northland, Southland, Eastland, Westland). Southland Center opened on July 20, 1970. It is owned and managed by Brookfield Properties, one of the largest mall owners in the United States.

Southland Center
Southland Center logo
Southland Center from the eastern Eureka Road entrance, November 2014
LocationTaylor, Michigan
Coordinates42.200038°N 83.254201°W / 42.200038; -83.254201
Opening dateJuly 20, 1970 (1970-07-20)
DeveloperDayton-Hudson Corporation
ManagementBrookfield Properties
OwnerBrookfield Properties
ArchitectVictor Gruen, Louis G. Redstone
No. of stores and services80
No. of anchor tenants6
Total retail floor area920,000 sq ft (85,000 m2)
No. of floors1 (2 in JCPenney, 3 in Macy's)
Public transit accessBus transport SMART 125, 160, 275
Websiteshopsouthlandcenter.com
[1]

History

An interior entrance to the Macy's store in May 2015. This was taken before the store opened for the day.

Southland Center was designed by Victor Gruen Associates and Louis G. Redstone Associates, and the newly formed Dayton-Hudson Corporation (a merger of Dayton's of Minneapolis and Hudson's of Detroit) developed the mall.[2] When opened in 1970, Southland Mall was originally anchored by a three-level; 272,000-square-foot (25,300 m2) Hudson's at the center of the mall and junior-anchored by a Woolworth's dime store off the center court and a Kroger supermarket on the eastern side. A two-screen movie theater, located off the west court, opened just weeks after the rest of the mall. Kroger built a larger facility across Eureka Road in the mid-1970s, with the former store gutted and divided into several smaller stores, attached to a new wing ending in a new two-level; 215,000-square-foot (20,000 m2) JCPenney store in 1976. In 1986, the theater, by then a four-screen venue, was purchased by AMC Theatres. In 1988, a small addition was built onto the western side, including a 75,000-square-foot (7,000 m2) Mervyns store that opened on August 12 of that year,[3] and in October, The Rouse Company acquired the mall from its previous owners.[4][5]

First announced in 1991,[6] a food court called Picnic In The Garden[7] broke ground on February 13, 1992[8] and opened on November 19, 1992,[9] featuring a large triangular-shaped skylight,[10] along with an expansion to Champs Sports' store and a new Lerner New York store. AMC's four-screen theater closed in January 1999[11] and was replaced with a 22,500-square-foot (2,090 m2) Borders Books & Music a year later. Hudson's became Marshall Field's in 2001 and transitioned to Macy's in 2006. Also in 2006, Mervyns exited Michigan and the food court, was razed and rebuilt for Best Buy.[12] Later, in 2011, the Borders store shuttered a long with the chain. Rouse Properties was spun off from General Growth Properties in January 2012. The company then added several new tenants; including rue21, Torrid and Taco Bell, to Southland Center, in addition, several existing tenants also renovated their stores.[13] Forever 21 moved from a smaller pre existing storefront to the previous Borders space opening in spring 2013.[14] Then, later in 2013, several smaller store spaces near JCPenney were demolished and replaced by a new 11,300-square-foot (1,050 m2) Shoe Carnival store (which relocated from a strip development across Eureka Road).

In July 2014, Rouse Properties announced that the previous Mervyn's space would be replaced by a 12-screen, all-digital, Cinemark multiplex theater accompanied by several outdoor sit-down restaurants.[15][16][17] In addition, in the late summer of 2014, a complete renovation of the mall began. This project added new flooring and lighting, removed the fountain and replaced it with seating and electronic-device chargers and added several more tenants including Pink and Zumiez. This project was completed in the summer of 2015.[18] Ulta opened a location in the mall along the corridor between Macy's and Best Buy in August 2014. H&M opened in October 2015.[19]

As of September 2018, a section on the third floor of Macy's became a Macy's Backstage.[20]

References

  1. "Southland Center". Brookfield Properties.
  2. Redstone, Louis G. (29 May 1973). New dimensions in shopping centers and stores. McGraw Hill. ISBN 9780070513686. Retrieved 29 May 2018 via Google Books.
  3. "Mervyn's advertisement". Detroit Free Press. August 7, 1988. pp. 2E. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  4. "Investor Group acquires Ridgedale Mall, Southland Mall from Ridgedale Center Shopping Mall". Alacra Store. 20 October 1988. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  5. "The Rouse Co". Detroit Free Press. October 26, 1988. pp. 7B. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  6. "Southland Mall to add food court in expansion". Detroit Free Press. September 13, 1991. pp. 2E. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
  7. "Southland Center, 1998". Flickr.com. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  8. "Southland Expands". Detroit Free Press. February 7, 1992. pp. 1E. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
  9. "Advertisement". Detroit Free Press. November 15, 1992. pp. 7R. Retrieved May 6, 2021.
  10. "Retail: Battling for shoppers: Metro Detroit's older malls fight for customers, survival: Competition, changing needs drive evolution in shopping". The Detroit News. 19 September 1999. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  11. "Taylor cinema closes doors: AMC execs say they can't compete with megaplex theaters". The Detroit News. 27 January 1999. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  12. "TAYLOR: Owners of Southland Center file for bankruptcy". Southgate News Herald. 18 April 2009. Retrieved 16 April 2010.
  13. "Southland Center adds youth-friendly tenants". The Detroit News. 18 October 2012. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  14. "Detroit Free Press". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved 29 May 2018.
  15. "Grimaldi's Pizzeria location in Southland Center shuts off the oven". Southgate News Herald. July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
  16. "Cinemark coming to Southland Center as another theater chain picks Taylor". Southgate News Herald. July 2, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  17. "National chain Grimaldi's Pizzeria to locate at Taylor's Southland Center". Southgate News Herald. March 19, 2015. Retrieved April 9, 2015.
  18. "Southland mall is battleground for rival movie theater proposals". Detroit Free Press. July 2, 2014. Retrieved July 3, 2014.
  19. "H&M slated to open soon at Taylor's Southland Center mall". Southgate News Herald. September 24, 2015. Retrieved September 24, 2015.
  20. "Southland Center defaults on $75M loan, but analyst says it's 'not a dead mall'". Southgate News Herald. August 17, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
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