Maple Hill Pavilion (formerly Maple Hill Mall) is a

strip mall A strip mall, strip center or strip plaza is a type of shopping center common in North America where the stores are arranged in a row, with a sidewalk in front. Strip malls are typically developed as a unit and have large parking lots in front. ...

serving the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States. Maple Hill Mall became a " dead mall" after several years of decline and the loss of several major tenants. The center has since been re-developed as a strip mall called Maple Hill Pavilion which features

DSW Shoe Warehouse Designer Brands Inc. is an American company that sells designer and name brand shoes and fashion accessories. It owns the Designer Shoe Warehouse (DSW) store chain, and operates over 500 stores in the United States and an e-commerce website. T ...

Hobby Lobby Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., formerly Hobby Lobby Creative Centers, is an American retail company. It owns a chain of arts and crafts stores with a volume of over $5 billion in 2018. The chain has 969 stores in 47 US states. Hobby Lobby is owned by ...

Marshalls Marshalls is an American chain of off-price department stores owned by TJX Companies. Marshalls has over 1,000 American stores, including larger stores named Marshalls Mega Store, covering 42 states and Puerto Rico, and 61 stores in Canada. M ...

PetSmart PetSmart is a privately held American chain of pet superstores, which sell pet products, services, and small pets. It is the leading North American pet company, and its direct competitor is Petco. Its indirect competitors are Amazon, Walmart, ...

, Pier One Imports, Office Max, Rooms Today and

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, f ...

as its anchor stores. Maple Hill Pavilion is managed by ShopOne Centers REIT.

History

Maple Hill Mall opened in 1971 on West Main Street ( M-43) on the northwestern side of

Kalamazoo Kalamazoo ( ) is a city in the southwest region of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is the county seat of Kalamazoo County. At the 2010 census, Kalamazoo had a population of 74,262. Kalamazoo is the major city of the Kalamazoo-Portage Metropoli ...

. Originally anchoring the mall were

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 ...

, as well as three local department stores: Grand Rapids-based Steketee's and Wurzburg's, as well as Kalamazoo-based Gilmore Brothers. A combination Turn Style/ Jewel Food Stores was located next to Wurzburg's, but was detached from the mall. Wurzburg's closed in the 1970s and was converted to mall space. The west end of the building contained the High Wheeler Ice Cream Parlor, located near Meijer Square. In the mid-1980s, Turn Style closed and was replaced with Meijer Square, a concept store of Grand Rapids-based superstore chain

Meijer Meijer Inc. (, ; stylized as meijer) is an American supercenter chain that primarily operates throughout the Midwest. Its corporate headquarters are in Walker, Michigan, which is a part of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. Founded in 1934 ...

, as well as the only Meijer store to be located in an enclosed mall. Meijer Square was strictly a

discount department store A discount store or discounter offers a retail format in which products are sold at prices that are in principle lower than an actual or supposed "full retail price". Discounters rely on bulk purchasing and efficient distribution to keep down cost ...

, lacking the full-line grocery section normally found at Meijer stores. By the early 1990s, Meijer relocated to West Main and 9th Street. The old Meijer Square location was demolished and replaced with

. Gilmore Brothers closed in 1995. The former Gilmore Brothers became mall space. Montgomery Ward and Steketee's closed in 2000 and 2003, respectively.MiBiz - Michigan's Business Advocate: Sometimes smaller is better in world of Kalamazoo retail Without the draw of its anchor stores, the mall lost customer traffic and many inline tenants. Several big box tenants were opened in the late 1990s and early 2000s to fill the increasing number of vacancies, including Office Max and

. Kimco Realty acquired the mall in 2003, with plans for renovation. Value City Furniture and

opened in 2004, each taking half of the former Montgomery Ward. Immediately prior to demolition, only four inline tenants remained - GNC,

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 ...

, Regis Hairsylists and Glamour Nails (a nail salon).

Maple Hill Pavilion

Kimco began demolition on the mall in summer of 2004. The mall's anchor stores were all left standing, as was a Secretary of State office next to Target. After demolition was complete, a new strip mall called Maple Hill Pavilion was built connecting the remaining spaces. GNC, Regis, Dollar Tree and Glamour Nails all opened new locations in the strip. Since the opening of the strip mall,

, Rue 21, Pier One Imports, GameStop and

have also opened. In 2006, the Value City Furniture store was renamed Rooms Today. It was again named Value City Furniture.

References

External links

Photo of the mall under construction, from Portage District Library
{{Shopping malls in Michigan Shopping malls in Michigan Shopping malls established in 1971 Buildings and structures in Kalamazoo, Michigan Strip malls