Birchwood Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located in Fort Gratiot Township, outside the city of

Port Huron, Michigan Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

, United States. The Mall features more than 100 stores and a

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

. The mall's anchor stores are CubeSmart,

Dunham's Sports Dunham's Sports is an American sporting goods retail chain owned by Dunham's Athleisure Corporation, with stores located in the Midwestern to Southeastern United States. The chain specializes in athletic equipment, clothing, firearms, and other ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, and

Target Target may refer to: Physical items * Shooting target, used in marksmanship training and various shooting sports ** Bullseye (target), the goal one for which one aims in many of these sports ** Aiming point, in field artillery, fi ...

. Other major tenants include

Planet Fitness Planet Fitness (PFIP LLC) is an American franchisor and operator of fitness centers based in Hampton, New Hampshire. The company reports that it has 2,039 clubs, making it one of the largest fitness club franchises by number of members and loca ...

and AMC Birchwood 10. There are 3 vacant anchor stores that were once

Carson's Carson Pirie Scott & Co. (also known as Carson's) is an American department store that was founded in 1854, which grew to over 50 locations, primarily in the Midwestern United States. Sold to the holding company of Bon-Ton in 2006, but still ope ...

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

, and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

. The mall is located on 24th Avenue (

M-25 M25 or M-25 may be: Aerospace * M-25 Dromader Mikro, a variant of the Polish PZL-Mielec M-18 Dromader agricultural aircraft * Cors-Air M25Y Black Devil, an Italian aircraft engine * Shvetsov M-25, an aircraft radial engine produced in the Soviet ...

), north of

Interstate 69 Interstate 69 (I-69) is an Interstate Highway in the United States currently consisting of 10 unconnected segments with an original continuous segment from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, at ...

(I-69) and I-94.

History

Birchwood Mall opened in April 1991, with

, and

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

-based department store chain Prange's as its anchor stores. Upon opening, the mall attracted

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

shoppers, who crossed over from

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes where Lake Huron fl ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

on the

Blue Water Bridge The Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span international bridge across the St. Clair River that links Port Huron, Michigan, United States, and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Water Bridge connects Highway 402 in Ontario with both Interstate 69 ( ...

. The Prange's chain was acquired by

Younkers Younkers Inc. is an American online retailer and former department store chain founded as a family-run dry goods business in 1856 in Keokuk, Iowa. The retailer had evolved over more than 150 years to include a presence in locations throughout Iowa ...

in 1992, and all Prange's stores were re-branded. Three years later, Detroit-based

Hudson's The J. L. Hudson Company (commonly known simply as Hudson's) was an upscale retail department store chain based in Detroit, Michigan. Hudson's flagship store, on Woodward Avenue in Downtown Detroit (demolished October 24, 1998), was the tallest d ...

announced that it would add a store to the mall, and this store opened in 1997.

Old Navy Old Navy is an American clothing and accessories retailing company owned by multinational corporation Gap Inc. It has corporate operations in the Mission Bay neighborhood of San Francisco, California. The largest of the Old Navy stores are its ...

was also added in the Younkers wing in the late 1990s, followed by

Chuck E. Cheese's Chuck E. Cheese (formerly known as Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theatre, Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza and simply Chuck E. Cheese's) is an American family entertainment center and pizza restaurant chain founded in 1977 by Atari's co-founder Nolan Bu ...

was added in 2004 and closed in 2014. On February 2, 1999,

Lowe's Home Improvement Lowe's Companies, Inc. (), often shortened to Lowe's, is an American retail company specializing in home improvement. Headquartered in Mooresville, North Carolina, the company operates a chain of retail stores in the United States and Canada. A ...

opened next to the mall. In 2001, Hudson's changed its name to that of its Chicago-based sister nameplate

Marshall Field's Marshall Field & Company (commonly known as Marshall Field's) was an upscale department store in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in the 19th century, it grew to become a large chain before Macy's, Inc acquired it in 2005. Its eponymous founder, Mar ...

. On September 9, 2006, Marshall Field's was one of several nameplates to be converted to the

name. Old Navy closed in late 2007. The space was later occupied by

Rainbow Shops Rainbow USA Inc. (commonly referred to as Rainbow Shops or simply Rainbow) is a privately held, moderately priced American retail apparel chain comprising several lifestyle brands primarily targeting teenagers and young women. The company is he ...

and is now

. In January 2013, the Younkers store changed its name again, this time becoming

. On January 13, 2016, it was announced that one of its anchor stores, Sears was planning to close its doors after being at the Birchwood Mall since its opening in April 1991. The store closed in March 2016. There are no current plans for that particular retail space. In March 2016

Carmike Cinemas Carmike Cinemas was a motion picture exhibitor headquartered in Columbus, Georgia. As of March 2016, the company had 276 theaters with 2,954 screens in 41 states, and was the fourth largest movie theater chain in the United States. The company b ...

announced closure of the movie theater for remodeling. The remodeling would last two weeks. Upon first opening, the mall had neon lighting in some archways in the mall. Most of it was later removed or turned off. On July 8, 2016, a

Five Below 5 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 5, five or number 5 may also refer to: * AD 5, the fifth year of the AD era * 5 BC, the fifth year before the AD era Literature * ''5'' (visual novel), a 2008 visual novel by Ram * ''5'' (comics), an awar ...

went in the former Chuck E. Cheese's. On January 3, 2018, it was announced that Macy's would also be closing as part of a plan to close 11 stores nationwide. The store closed in March 2018. On April 19, 2018, Carson's parent company

Bon-Ton Bon-Ton Holdings Inc. is an American online retailer and former department store chain founded in 1898. After rapid expansion in the 1990s and early 2000s, the original company had financial troubles, ultimately filing for bankruptcy in 2018 ...

announced they were unable to find a buyer and was going out of business. The store closed on August 29, 2018. After the closure of Carson's, the mall only has 2 of its 5 anchor stores occupied, JCPenney and Target. However, Dunham's Sports moved into the former Carson's space in September 2020. In February 2021, the mall was sold to the

Kohan Retail Investment Group Kohan Retail Investment Group is a shopping mall investment company based in Great Neck, New York. They primarily purchase endangered/troubled shopping malls. History Kohan bought Northland Mall from Developers Diversified Realty for $1.8 milli ...

for $5.6 million. Later in the year, a CubeSmart Self Storage opened in the former Macy's.

References

External links

Official website
{{Shopping malls in Michigan Kohan Retail Investment Group Buildings and structures in St. Clair County, Michigan Shopping malls established in 1991 Shopping malls in Michigan Tourist attractions in St. Clair County, Michigan