Dort Mall (formerly Small Mall and Mid-America Plaza) is a shopping mall located in

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 ...

. It was built in two stages in 1964 and 1965, three years before Courtland Center and five years before

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 ...

, making it the oldest mall in Genesee County. It is owned by the Perani family, who also owns

Perani's Hockey World Perani's Hockey World is a retail chain founded by Bob Perani in 1976. They specialize in ice hockey. Indoor, outdoor and street hockey, and also lacrosse. With a main office in Flint, Michigan, Perani's has 19 stores in North America, with 9 loca ...

, which along with Bargain Hunterz and City Market, is one of the mall's

anchor tenant 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 ...

History

Dort Mall was built by local developer William Oleksyn in 1964. It was built on the site of a former drive-in theater and was the first enclosed shopping mall in the Flint area. Its original

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 were Yankee Stadium and A&P. 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 ...

movie theater was added in 1968, was divided into two screens in 1975, and closed in 1983. Also in the 1970s, a discotheque was located in the mall's basement. Despite this addition, the mall had a number of vacancies, especially after Yankee Stadium was sold to

Zody's Hartfield-Zodys was an American retail corporation begun in 1960. It operated the Hartfield chain of women's ready-to-wear apparel in the Los Angeles area, and starting in 1960, the Zodys chain of discount retail stores (1960–1986), which oper ...

and later closed. The mall was renamed Small Mall and Mid-America Plaza in the 1980s, a time at which point Sears Outlet and a comedy club were added. By 1993, the former A&P space had become Big Lots. The Dort Mall, with 239,000 square feet of interior space on 30 acres, is well known for its antique collection, mostly about automobiles and Mid-Michigan. Some of the antiques are housed inside vacant store locations. Many of the antiques were owned by mall owner Bob Perani. After Big Lots moved out in 2014, their space became a

flea market A flea market (or swap meet) is a type of street market that provides space for vendors to sell previously-owned (second-hand) goods. This type of market is often seasonal. However, in recent years there has been the development of 'formal' ...

References

{{Shopping malls in Michigan Shopping malls in Michigan Shopping malls established in 1964 Buildings and structures in Flint, Michigan 1964 establishments in Michigan