Livonia Marketplace is an open-air

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 ...

in the

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 ...

suburb of

Livonia, Michigan Livonia is a city in Wayne County, Michigan, Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. The population was 95,535 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, which ranked it as Michigan's ninth most-populated municipality. Livonia is a part ...

. Opened in 2010, the center is anchored 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 ...

and

Walmart Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

. It occupies the site of the former Livonia Mall, which was an enclosed mall built in 1964. Livonia Mall lost the majority of its tenants in the 2000s, including its previous anchor stores of

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 ...

(later

Value City Value City was an American discount department store chain with 113 locations. It was founded in 1917 by Ephraim Schottenstein, a travelling salesman in central Ohio. The store was an off-price retailer that sold clothing, jewelry, and home good ...

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 ...

Mervyns 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, ...

, and Children's Palace. The mall was closed in May 2008, with only the Sears remaining from the original property. Sears closed in April 2020.

History

Livonia Mall opened on October 29, 1964 as the second mall to be constructed in Livonia with Kresge and

as the original anchors. The site had been zoned for agriculture and was rezoned by the Livonia City Council for commercial use. A farm house, a large barn and other agricultural structures were demolished before construction began. The Livonia Mall became one of the first enclosed shopping malls to open in the state of Michigan. The site now hosts one of the many strip malls located within Livonia and Metro Detroit. The mall was developed by the Schostak Brothers as an enclosed mall. At the time of its opening, Detroit's suburbs were expanding and new shopping malls were being developed within their boundaries. Livonia already featured an open outdoor mall in Wonderland Center (later Wonderland Mall), which opened in 1959 and closed in 2004. A year after the mall opened, a

General Cinema General Cinema Corporation, also known as General Cinema, GCC, or General Cinema Theatres, was a chain of movie theaters in the United States. At its peak, the company operated about 1,500 screens, some of which were among the first cinemas certi ...

theater, the first multiplex cinema in Michigan, was added in the

wing. During the early years of operation the facility housed two grocery stores and provided space for a doctor's office and a dentist. Julius Young opened the first

Hot Sam Pretzels Hot Sam Pretzels was an American restaurant chain selling soft pretzels. Julius Young opened the first outlet at Livonia Mall in a Detroit suburb in Michigan. In 1971, the owners sold the company to General Host, who then owned the Detroit-based ...

at the mall in 1966. Livonia Mall remained largely unchanged until the late 1980s. In 1987, a new wing ending in a

department store was added. Children's Palace, 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 Paintball is a competitive team shooting sport in which players eliminate opponents from play by hitting them with spherical dye-filled gelatin capsules called paintballs that break upon impact. Paintballs are usually shot using low-energy ai ...

arena which closed in the mid-2000s.

bought the Crowley's store and two other mall-based Crowley's stores (at Universal Mall and

Macomb Mall Macomb Mall is an enclosed shopping center located in Roseville, Michigan. Opened in 1964, it features Kohl's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Hobby Lobby, and At Home as anchor stores. The mall is managed by Lormax Stern. History Macomb Mall was develop ...

) in 1999, operating these as Crowley's Value City but later removing the

name. Konover Properties bought the mall in 2005. By 2007,

Dollar Tree Dollar Tree, Inc. is an American multi-price-point chain of discount variety stores. Headquartered in Chesapeake, Virginia, it is a ''Fortune'' 500 company and operates 15,115 stores throughout the 48 contiguous U.S. states and Canada. Its st ...

GameStop GameStop Corp. is an American video game, consumer electronics, and gaming merchandise retailer. The company is headquartered in Grapevine, Texas (a suburb of Dallas), and is the largest video game retailer worldwide. , the company operates 4,5 ...

Jo-Ann Fabrics Jo-Ann Stores, LLC, more commonly known as Jo-Ann (stylized as JOANN), is an American specialty retailer of crafts and fabrics based in Hudson, Ohio. It operates the retail chains ''JOANN Fabrics and Crafts'' and ''Jo-Ann Etc''. The headquarter ...

and

Foot Locker Foot Locker Retail, Inc. is an Americans, American sportswear and footwear retailer, with its headquarters in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, and operating in 28 countries. Although established in 1974, and founded as a separate company in ...

were the only national chains with a presence there (besides the anchor stores), and the remaining tenants were local, independent shops. The mall also lost its Mervyns store in early 2006 when the chain exited Michigan. 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. Value City subsequently closed in March 2008 when the chain went out of business, and the entire mall was shuttered except for Sears and Jo-Ann Fabrics on May 31, 2008. Demolition began in February 2009.

Redevelopment

In September 2008, the City Council held a meeting to discuss redevelopment plans for the mall. Demolition of the vacant mall began in February 2009, and concluded in August of the same year. The Marketplace opened in mid-2010 with a

Walmart Supercenter Walmart Inc. (; formerly Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.) is an American multinational retail corporation that operates a chain of hypermarkets (also called supercenters), discount department stores, and grocery stores from the United States, headquarter ...

as a second anchor. Walmart opened in August 2010 along with Great Clips, a

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...

dealer, a Dots clothing store and a

coney island Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...

restaurant. A

store opened March 2012. On February 6, 2020, it was announced that

would be closing as part of a plan to close 31 stores nationwide. The store closed in April.

References

{{coord, 42, 25, 39.9, N, 83, 20, 12.5, W, type:landmark, display=title Shopping malls in Wayne County, Michigan Livonia, Michigan Shopping malls established in 2010 2010 establishments in Michigan