Courtland Center, formerly Eastland Mall, is an enclosed

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

Burton, Michigan Burton is a city in Genesee County in the state of Michigan and a suburb of Flint. The population was 29,999 at the 2010 census, making Burton the second largest city in Genesee County. Neighborhoods * Belsay is on Belsay Road at the rail trac ...

, a suburb of

Flint, Michigan Flint is the largest city and seat of Genesee County, Michigan, United States. Located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit, it is a principal city within the region known as Mid Michigan. At the 2020 census, Flint had a population of 8 ...

, United States. It opened in 1968, two years before the larger

Genesee Valley Center Genesee Valley Center is an enclosed shopping mall located in Flint Township, Michigan, outside the city of Flint, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1970, the mall is of leasable area. The mall has three anchor tenants: JCPenney, Macy's, and Pla ...

on the other side of the Flint metropolitan area. Courtland Center includes four

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

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 ...

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 ...

, Staples, and Jo-Ann Etc., plus an exhibit space operated by

Sloan Museum The Sloan Museum of Discovery is a nonprofit, public hands-on and interactive discovery museum located within the Flint Cultural Center in Flint, Michigan. The museum has four interactive primary galleries, including a hands-on earth scienc ...

History

In September 1964, the Burton Township board rezoned the property at the southeastern corner of East Court Street and Center Road from single family residential to commercial.

Forest City Enterprises Forest City Realty Trust, Inc. was a real estate investment trust that invested in office buildings, shopping centers and apartments in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and the greater metropolitan areas of New York ...

began building on the property after the rezoning on the Court Mall Center with expectations for a second quarter 1965 opening.

Eastland Mall

Courtland Center opened in late October 1968 as Eastland Mall in what was then Burton Township under the ownership of Forest City and Jack Shifron. At the time, it featured it had a 1000-seat theater and 47 stores including three anchor stores: discount chain

Woolco Woolco was an American-based discount retail chain. It was founded in 1962 in Columbus, Ohio, by the F. W. Woolworth Company. It was a full-line discount department store unlike the five-and-dime Woolworth stores which operated at the time. At its ...

on the eastern end, The Fair on the western end and

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

-based

Federal's Federal Department Store, or Federal's, was a department store chain based in Detroit. History Federal's was founded in 1929. In 1961, Federal's merged with Kobacker's of Columbus, Ohio and in 1969, it bought Shifrin-Willens Jewelers.

in the center. Federal's later closed and briefly became

Robert Hall Village Robert Hall Clothes, Inc., popularly known as Robert Hall, was an American retailer that flourished circa 1938–1977. Based in Connecticut, its warehouse-like stores were mostly concentrated in the New York, Chicago and Los Angeles metropolitan ...

until 1977, when it closed due to bankruptcy. The space was later occupied by JCPenney. In 1983, Woolco shuttered all of their U.S. locations.

Courtland Center

In August 1986, the mall was renamed Courtland Center. In 1987, The Fair closed and became

Mervyn's Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, ...

. The former Woolco space was subdivided and occupied by

Crowley's Crowley Milner and Company, generally referred to as Crowley's, was a department store chain founded in Detroit, Michigan, in 1909. After several years of financial difficulties, the company ceased operation in 1999 and its assets were sold. Its ...

department store and additional stores. The mall had 80 stores in 1994. Crowley's closed in 1997, and the theaters added an expansion in November 1998 under the management of National Amusements.

2000s redevelopment

Tucker Development acquired the mall from

in the early 2004 and began renovations on it. The far end of the former Crowley's was converted to

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 ...

in July 2000. They relocated inside the mall in 2005, displacing a former

f.y.e. 2428392, Inc. (doing business as FYE, the initials for For Your Entertainment) is an American chain of entertainment retail stores headquartered in Albany, New York. Formerly owned by Trans World Entertainment, it began in 1993 and was expande ...

which had closed, and a

Payless ShoeSource Payless (formerly known as Payless ShoeSource Inc.) is an international discount footwear chain. Established in 1956 by cousins Louis and Shaol Pozez, Payless was a privately held company owned by Blum Capital, and Golden Gate Capital. In 1961, i ...

which was relocated. 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

, which had also moved from a nearby strip mall. Mervyns closed in early 2006 when the chain exited Michigan. In late 2007, JCPenney 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. Old Navy closed its store at the mall in January 2008, and JCPenney's new store opened on March 1, 2008, resulting in the closure of the three former JCPenney stores. The new location included several departments which were not present in the former locations, such as an inline

Sephora Sephora is a French multinational retailer of personal care and beauty products. Featuring nearly 340 brands, along with its own private label, Sephora Collection, Sephora offers beauty products including cosmetics, skincare, body, fragrance, n ...

store. JCPenney's former main store in the middle of the mall was replaced by

Steve & Barry's Steve & Barry's was an American retail clothing chain, featuring casual clothing, footwear and accessories. By mid-2008, the chain operated 276 stores in 39 states. The company was headquartered in Port Washington, New York. The company liquidate ...

, which opened on May 15, 2008, while the two sub-stores were vacated. Steve & Barry's closed December 2008, and the theaters re-closed in 2009.

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 loc ...

replaced the Old Navy space in February 2011. On May 20, 2011, the cinema was reopened by NCG Cinemas as NCG Courtland Cinemas to replace NCG's Clio location. In 2013, the mall was sold by Tucker Development to a limited liability company from Delaware. 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. In 2018, Sloan Museum opened an exhibit space in the former JCPenney/Steve & Barry's.

Mall theater

The mall theater opened with one screen in 1967 as Eastland Mall Theatre. Under Redstone Management, the theater added another screen in December 1983. 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. The theaters added an expansion in November 1998 under the management of National Amusements. The cinemas closed in January 2009. On May 20, 2011, NCG Cinemas reopened the theater as NCG Courtland Cinemas using equipment from its just closed Clio location. On September 27, 2021, NCG Cinemas permanently closed NCG Courtland Cinemas in the Courtland Center Mall.

References

External links

Official website
{{Shopping malls in Michigan Shopping malls established in 1968 Shopping malls in Michigan