Eastland Center was an enclosed shopping mall located in the city of

Harper Woods Harper Woods is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The city had a population of 15,492 at the 2020 census. Harper Woods is a northeastern suburb of Metro Detroit and shares its southern and western border with the city of Det ...

, an inner-ring suburb of

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 ...

, United States. Opened in 1957, the mall has been expanded several times since.

K&G Fashion Superstore Tailored Brands, Inc. is an American retail holding company for various men's apparel stores, including the Men's Wearhouse and Jos. A. Bank brands. The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas, with additional corporate offices in Fremon ...

and Shoppers World serve as

anchor stores 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 ...

, with four vacant anchors left by

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 ...

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 ...

Burlington Burlington may refer to: Places Canada Geography * Burlington, Newfoundland and Labrador * Burlington, Nova Scotia * Burlington, Ontario, the most populous city with the name "Burlington" * Burlington, Prince Edward Island * Burlington Bay, no ...

, and

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 ...

History

The shopping center would have been Michigan's first shopping center constructed on 8 Mile and Kelly Road but the idea was scrapped. The mall was developed in 1957 by

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 ...

, a Detroit-based

department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...

chain (and corporate predecessor of Target Corp) that also developed

Northland Center Northland Center was a shopping mall on an approximately site located near the intersection of M-10 (the John C. Lodge Freeway) and Greenfield Road in Southfield, Michigan, an inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Construction ...

, another Detroit area mall. In 1975, Eastland Center was enclosed, with

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 ...

opening as an additional anchor store. 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 ...

and movie theater were added to the eastern wing in 1985.

MainStreet Main Street is the generic street name (and often the official name) of the primary retail street of a village, town, or small city in many parts of the world. Main Street may refer to: Places Canada * Main Street (Toronto, Ontario) * Main Stre ...

, a department store chain based in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, opened at the mall in the 1980s. The MainStreet chain was bought out and renamed by

Kohl's Kohl's (stylized in all caps) is an American department store retail chain, operated by Kohl's Corporation. it is the largest department store chain in the United States, with 1,165 locations, operating stores in every U.S. state except Hawai ...

in 1989. Kohl's closed at Eastland Center in 1995, and was replaced with

a year later. In 1993, Eastland underwent a major renovation and expansion. As part of this renovation,

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

was added as a new anchor. It closed in 1998, followed by

closing two years later.

2000s

After the loss of

in 1998, the mall was at 78% occupancy. Eastland Center was acquired by the Shopco Advisory Group in 1999, with plans for renovation; under Shopco's tenure, new stores were added. In 2001, the Hudson's was rebranded to

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 ...

. In September 2003,

opened in the former

space. The same year, the mall's twin theater was demolished, with a

Lowe's 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 ...

home improvement store (detached from the mall itself) being built on the site of the former twin theater in the northeastern corner of the property. A new, much smaller food court was created from retail space in the Sears wing. Marshall Field's, in turn, was acquired and renamed

in 2006.

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 ...

, a discount clothing retailer, opened on the first floor of the former Montgomery Ward store in 2004. At the time, the Eastland Center store was the second-largest Steve & Barry's in the chain. Shopco continued to manage the mall until selling it to

Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation Ben Ashkenazy (born 1968/69) is an American billionaire real estate developer. He is the founder, CEO, and majority owner of Ashkenazy Acquisition Corporation, which has a $12 billion property portfolio. Early life Ashkenazy was born in Israel, ...

in 2005.

Jones Lang LaSalle Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) is a global commercial real estate services company, founded in the United Kingdom with offices in 80 countries. The company also provides investment management services worldwide, including services to insti ...

assumed management of the mall in 2005. With the management change came some new stores, including the addition of

in 2006. In 2007, Target completed a renovation of its interior and exterior, as well as an expansion to accommodate a

pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it links heal ...

Starbucks Starbucks Corporation is an American multinational chain of coffeehouses and roastery reserves headquartered in Seattle, Washington. It is the world's largest coffeehouse chain. As of November 2021, the company had 33,833 stores in 80 c ...

, and

Pizza Hut Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...

. Eastland Center announced in 2008 that

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with it ...

would be added to the east end of the mall, which opened in September 2009.

2010s to present

In 2010, the mall saw Shoppers World take over the former Steve & Barry's space. Sears closed in 2013. Just like Northland, Spinoso bought Eastland in July 2015.

closed its store at the mall on March 19, 2017, after nearly sixty years of business under various nameplates. The following year, Target also closed its Eastland store on February 3, 2018. Two months later, Burlington shuttered its store at the mall in April 2018. In October 2018, the mall was sold to

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 ...

. Then, in June 2021, Kohan sold the mall to NorthPoint Development, who plans to demolish the mall and convert the property to warehouses and industrial buildings. The mall was slated stay open through the holiday season, but the interior closed in November. K&G and Shopper's World remain open.

"The Lion and Mouse"

One of the mall's centerpieces upon opening was a nine-foot sculpture of a lion and a mouse, titled "The Lion and Mouse" sculpted by

Marshall Fredericks Marshall Maynard Fredericks (January 31, 1908 – April 4, 1998) was an American sculptor known for such works as ''Fountain of Eternal Life'', ''The Spirit of Detroit'', ''Man and the Expanding Universe Fountain'', and many others. Early life a ...

. In 1957, the mouse was stolen from the sculpture, only to be replaced by another mouse; in total, the sculpture has gone through no fewer than six mice. In 2007, the sculpture's original mouse was returned to the mall by the person who stole it.

Violence

The mall has been the location of much gang violence. On September 24, 2010, 30-year-old Cedell Leverett was shot four times as he sat outside the mall in a Mercedes. Police say someone inside a burgundy Chrysler 300 pulled the trigger. In November 2010 two people were critically wounded when two gunmen opened fire. In August 2014 two people were seriously injured by assault rifle fire in the mall parking lot. The day after Christmas 2015, a shooting occurred outside the Burlington Coat Factory at the mall, causing the mall to be locked down and later closed early. The victim of that shooting was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, three suspects were arrested. The area immediately west of Eastland Center, between Schoenherr and Kelly roads, is reported by the

Detroit Police Department The Detroit Police Department (DPD) is a municipal police force based in and responsible for the U.S. city of Detroit, Michigan. Founded in 1865, it has nearly 2,500 officers, making it the largest law enforcement organization in Michigan. Histo ...

as among the most dangerous areas in Detroit, with 2,770 reported gunshots over a 14-month period between October 2014 and December 2015, leaving residents of both

and

as well as visitors to Eastland Center wary of gun violence.

References

External links

Official website
{{Shopping malls in Michigan Shopping malls in Wayne County, Michigan Shopping malls established in 1957 Defunct shopping malls in the United States JLL (company) 1957 establishments in Michigan Victor Gruen buildings Shopping malls disestablished in 2021