My thoughts are that as long as people are getting around in cars and 5 freeways come together right there, that land is always going to be some big regional draw. One of the early proposed sites for what would become the Silverdome was in Walled Lake for the same reasons.
But 20 years from now, I'm not so sure much of the 1977 Gruen footprint still exists. I don't think it hurts to think 20-30 years in the future and imagine it.
If the people of Metro Detroit ever decide that an expanded regional transit system is what they want, that location has been designated a transit center because that interchange lends itself to another hub in the freeway spokes. If that happens, there needs to be more density there. I could very easily see 20-story buildings there. I don't think the current arrangement would be the most efficient use of that land. I could see some sort of regional draw [[perhaps even a stadium or something of that type), with or without parts of the 1977 building. I think it looks drastically different in 2040.
There's a ton of value locked up in that land that I'm sure TCO would [[and should) monetize. Parking structure[[s) would free up more.
If you've seen the proposal for the Lakeside site, that's what needs to happen at Twelve Oaks too. That's smart future planning. Novi may be able to support a greater ratio of retail than the Lakeside site [[and portions of the building may survive), but there needs to be more than just retail. And that needs to be addressed in Novi now as planning can take a decade. I don't think what TCO did with Beverly Center is going to work in Novi, but the site is very different and BC has always had issues with its design. 12OM is very clean in comparison with a big wide canvas of parking surrounding it [[and a few vacant buildings facing Novi Rd apparently still owned by Best Buy, from a failed attempt to build a 2-story store there about 10 years ago).
Regardless, as with all of this era of malls, the parts that Gruen originally envisioned [[the true mixed-use community downtowns) that developers cut... those need to be built. He was right. A retail-only shopping mall will not cut it. Main Street doesn't just have retail.
But if all else fails, maybe... Twelve Oaks Mall Outlets. Or maybe it loses a few limbs and keeps on as is. I hope it can.
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