Grand Traverse 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 ...

serving

Traverse City, Michigan Traverse City ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Grand Traverse County, although a small portion extends into Leelanau County. It is the largest city in the 21-county Northern Michigan region. The population was ...

, located in Garfield Township. Opened in 1992, the mall features five

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American department store chain, selling at prices generally lower than other major similar stores. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in ...

, 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 ...

. It is managed by

Brookfield Properties Brookfield Properties is a North American subsidiary of commercial real estate company Brookfield Property Partners, which itself is a subsidiary of alternative asset management company Brookfield Asset Management. It is responsible for the pro ...

, the successor of its original developer General Growth Properties.

History

The mall opened in phases:

and

opened in October 1991, followed by the mall itself in March 1992 and

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 ...

in July. It featured 110 stores and a nine-screen

Kerasotes Theatres Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, LLC is a movie theatre operator in the United States. Based in Chicago, Kerasotes Showplace Theatres, LLC was the sixth-largest movie-theatre company in North America with 957 screens in 95 locations in California, ...

complex, making it the largest mall north of

Saginaw, Michigan Saginaw () is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the seat of Saginaw County. The city of Saginaw and Saginaw County are both in the area known as Mid-Michigan. Saginaw is adjacent to Saginaw Charter Township and considered part of Greater ...

. As with all other Hudson's stores in Michigan, the Grand Traverse Mall location converted 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 2001 and

in 2006. Before its opening, it was involved in a lawsuit started by an existing mall in town (Cherryland Mall, now

Cherryland Center Cherryland Center (formerly Cherryland Mall) is an outdoor shopping mall in Traverse City, Michigan. Opened in 1976 as an enclosed mall, it was renovated as an outdoor property in 1999. From 2018 until June 2022, the center's sole anchor store was ...

) over concerns that mall construction would pollute a nearby creek, and that it would add too much retail space to the region. This lawsuit was settled out of court. Another lawsuit, regarding

conflict of interest A conflict of interest (COI) is a situation in which a person or organization is involved in multiple interests, financial or otherwise, and serving one interest could involve working against another. Typically, this relates to situations i ...

among township officials who sold land to the mall developers, was ruled in favor of the developers. General Growth Properties, which developed the mall, transferred ownership to Rouse Properties in 2012. In October 2014, a dead body was found at the mall, causing it to be closed for a day while the body was investigated. The body was eventually determined to be a night shift custodian. Gap and

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 ...

both closed at nearby Horizon Outlets (now Buffalo Ridge Shopping Center), both moving into new spaces at Grand Traverse Mall. The space occupied by Old Navy was previously an

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 ...

store and the space occupied by Gap was previously an Abercrombie & Fitch and Toys R Us Express. The Gap closed in 2021. The mall's movie theater complex closed in 2015 when a newer theater was built by owner

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 ...

. Mall officials announced in 2016 that the theater space would be demolished for a

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores an ...

, originally to open in Fall 2016. Dick's canceled its plans to open the store in December 2016, The space instead became

. The store opened on October 27, 2017. An H&M clothing store, added to the mall in 2017, closed in 2021. It was replaced by Grand Traverse Bay Gymnastics in 2021. The mall also gained Shoe Dept. Encore in 2019.

References

External links

Grand Traverse Mall
{{Brookfield Properties Shopping malls in Michigan Brookfield Properties Shopping malls established in 1992 Traverse City, Michigan Buildings and structures in Grand Traverse County, Michigan 1992 establishments in Michigan