The Lakes 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 the city of

Muskegon, Michigan Muskegon ( ') is a city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Muskegon County. Muskegon is known for fishing, sailing regattas, pleasure boating, and as a commercial and cruise ship port. It is a popular vacation destination because of the expa ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. Opened in 2001, the mall features more than sixty retailers, plus 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 ...

, in of

gross leasable area In architecture, construction, and real estate, floor area, floor space, or floorspace is the area (measured as square feet or square metres) taken up by a building or part of it. The ways of defining "floor area" depend on what factors of the buil ...

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 ...

s are

Bed Bath & Beyond Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. is an American chain of domestic merchandise retail stores. The chain operates many stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Bed Bath & Beyond was founded in 1971. It is counted among the Fortune 5 ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

, with two vacancies last occupied 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 ...

and

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 ...

History

The Lakes Mall was developed by CBL & Associates Properties of

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, on a site south of town, near the junction of Interstate 96 and U.S. Highway 31, at the southeastern corner of Sternberg Road and Harvey Street. Construction began on the property in late 1999. On August 15, 2001, the mall's grand opening was announced, although Sears had been operational since March of that year. The mall, upon opening, featured

and

among its anchor stores. JCPenney had relocated from a standalone store, while Sears had relocated from the former

Muskegon Mall Muskegon Mall was an enclosed shopping mall in downtown Muskegon, Michigan. Opened in 1976, it closed in 2001 and was torn down for redevelopment. History Muskegon Mall construction began in 1974, and the mall opened for business on March 27, 1 ...

downtown.

was added in late 2004. On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Younkers would be closing as parent company

The 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 ...

is going out of business. The store closed in August 2018. On December 28, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 80 stores nationwide. The store closed on March 14, 2019. Bed Bath & Beyond closed in 2023

Impact on the community

Prior to the development of the mall, the only major business that operated at the intersection of Sternberg Road and Harvey Street was a strip mall known as the Lakeshore Marketplace. This center, a former

outlet mall An outlet store, factory outlet or factory shop is a brick and mortar or online store in which manufacturers sell their stock directly to the public. Traditionally, a factory outlet was a store attached to a factory or warehouse, sometimes allowin ...

, was eventually redeveloped into

big box Big Box, Big box, or Big-box may refer to: *Big-box store A big-box store (also hyperstore, supercenter, superstore, or megastore) is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, ...

space (including

Toys "R" Us Toys "R" Us is an American toy, clothing, and baby product retailer owned by Tru Kids (doing business as Tru Kids Brands) and various others. The company was founded in 1957; its first store was built in April 1948, with its headquarters loc ...

Barnes & Noble Barnes & Noble Booksellers is an American bookseller. It is a Fortune 1000 company and the bookseller with the largest number of retail outlets in the United States. As of July 7, 2020, the company operates 614 retail stores across all 50 U. ...

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 ...

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

Elder-Beerman The Elder-Beerman Stores Corp., commonly known as Elder-Beerman, was an American chain of department stores founded in 1883 and whose last stores closed in 2018. The chain, based primarily in the Midwestern United States, was composed of 31 stor ...

, which was converted to a Younkers furniture store in 2008), and several restaurants soon opened along The Lakes Mall's periphery. Muskegon Mall, an older mall created by enclosing several blocks of Muskegon's downtown, had operated in downtown Muskegon since 1976. However, it was not considered a major retail draw for the Muskegon area, because it lacked the major chain stores present at the malls in

Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is a city and county seat of Kent County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 198,917 which ranks it as the second most-populated city in the state after Detroit. Grand Rapids is the ...

. Since its opening in 2001, The Lakes Mall has been cited as the most popular retail destination in the Muskegon area.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lakes Mall, The Shopping malls established in 2001 Namdar Realty Group Shopping malls in Michigan Buildings and structures in Muskegon, Michigan Tourist attractions in Muskegon, Michigan 2001 establishments in Michigan