Livonia Mall

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Livonia Mall was an enclosed shopping mall located in Livonia, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Located at the corner of 7 Mile Road and Middlebelt Road, the mall opened in 1964 with Sears and Crowley's as its anchor stores; Mervyn's and Child World were added in the late 1980s. Throughout the 1990s and 2000s, the mall lost the majority of its stores to newer malls such as Laurel Park Place (also located in Livonia), thus becoming a dead mall. Two of the three anchor stores were closed off as well: first Mervyns in 2006, followed by Value City (which acquired the former Crowley's store in 2000) in March 2008.

Livonia Mall is owned by Konover Properties, who purchased the mall from its previous owner in 2005.^[1] Konover closed the entire mall, except for Sears and Jo-Ann Fabrics, at the end of May 2008, and has announced plans to demolish and redevelop the property.^[2]

History

Livonia Mall opened in 1964. The mall was developed by Jack Shenkman as an outdoor mall,^[2] with Sears, Crowley's, and Kresge as anchor stores. At the time of its opening, Detroit's suburbs were expanding, and new shopping malls were being developed in these suburbs. Livonia already featured one such mall in Wonderland Center (later Wonderland Mall), which opened in 1959, was enclosed and expanded in the mid-1980s, and closed in 2004.^[2]

Livonia Mall remained largely unchanged until the mid-1980s, when the formerly open-air concourses were enclosed.^[2] Also in 1985, a new wing ending in a Mervyn's department store was added. Child World, a toy store chain, was added to the west end of the mall in 1989. This store closed three years later and was eventually converted to a paintball arena which closed in the mid-2000s. Crowley's was converted to Value City in 2000, initially dual-branding as "Crowley's Value City" before dropping the Crowley's name three years later. Additionally, Mervyns closed in early 2006 as the chain eliminated all of its Michigan locations.^[3] The Value City store was one of six Michigan stores to be closed by the chain, doing so in March 2008.^[4]

Re-development and demolition

Livonia Mall saw the majority of its stores close up due to competition from newer malls nearby; during the last few years of its operation, most of its remaining stores are small, independent shops. By 2007, Dollar Tree and Foot Locker were among the only national chains with a presence there.^[5]

Konover Properties announced plans in 2007 for a possible redevelopment of the mall, including the addition of a new big box retailer. Originally, plans called for the demolition of everything but the Sears and Value City stores.^[5] After the closure of the latter, however, the mall's manager stated that redevelopment plans were "wide open".^[4] All of the remaining stores closed, except for Sears and Jo-Ann Fabrics, on May 31, 2008.^[2] In September 2008, the Livonia City Council held a meeting to discuss redevelopment plans for the mall. Although plans for redevelopment are not fully known, it has been confirmed that Livonia Mall will be converted to a strip mall that will be known as Livonia Marketplace, with only Sears, Jo-Ann Fabrics, and an outlot restaurant (Baker's Square) remaining in place. These 3 buildings refuse to be part of the new development plans at the new site, planned for a summer 2010 opening.^[6]

References

External links

• Livonia Mall website