OMG....lol
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They need to make Eastland Mall go the same way as Northland, close that puppy up.
i do not go to Eastland and I haven't gone there in years. I adore and support the many charming area businesses in our neighborhood and I feel no need to shop around a bunch of clueless folks shooting guns in the middle of the mall. i have advised my wife not to go there and she and I have warned our children to stay away from there for years.
I recently found out that my elderly mother went there a few months back and I had to convince her that it would be safer for her to patronize the area businesses that she also adores so much.
I love my neighborhood and my neighbors and I always support the many area businesses, especially the ones where when I go in the employees greet me by name or the ones who employ wonderful area children in the summer. I feel no need to risk my safety nor do I want to spend my money at clueless mall stores.
Not too sure what you're referring to with the clueless mall store comments. Go over to the Apple Store at the mall and watch the customers pull hundred dollar bills out of their pockets like they're at the casino. They don't need your money, they're doing fine without it.
Apparently, Ashkenazy Acquisition Corp has missed a payment on the mortgage for Eastland as they did with Northland before closure. The mall could be in trouble.
http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...suit/27789433/
http://www.freep.com/story/money/bus...uble/26136967/
Eastland Mall was in trouble long before the payment was missed. Especially when Shopper's World moved in.
I'm not sure if it was stated in the article, but the main differences between Northland and Eastland are:
1. Eastland still has its anchors [[with the exception of losing Sears), whereas Northland lost all of its anchors.
2. Eastland is still making a profit, although barely.
3. Logistics. With the exception of maybe Macomb Mall [[which is just as dead from what I saw today), Eastland doesn't really have to compete with other major shopping destinations like Northland did [[Tel-Twelve, Fairlane, Oakland, etc.).
313WX...J.C. Penny closed in 2000 at Eastland.
Macomb Mall is putting in a bunch of new stores [[H&M, ULTA) that should help it bring in a bit of business, at least from Eastsiders who are disinclined to shop on Hall Road.
The problem with Eastland is that there isn't a single store that I can think of that I would make the trip to go to. I was in Macy's the other day and it seems like they have consolidated everything onto two floors--kids, houseware, furniture, ladies fashion, and the luggage section were all jammed on top of each other. It looked like they were getting ready for a giant jumble sale.
Actually, that motive sounds more likely than investing in Macomb as an ongoing retail facility. It baffles me as to why an investor would even consider sinking money into a property where the main anchor [[Sears) was already circling the drain at the time the renovations were being considered.
It's very likely that huge space will become a vacant albatross before the renovations are even complete.
At 385,000 sq. ft. I think that's either the 2nd or 3rd largest Sears in Michigan too [[surpassed for sure by OAkland Mall at 411,000 sq. ft. and possibly the old Livonia Mall), and I'm sure at this point it's probably one of the larger locations in the entire chain.
The thing is, the space was built specifically for Sears. There are very few, if any big box retailers in 2015 who will desire THAT much space [[never mind what has been a general slow decline of the surrounding area in the past 20 years). So you're probably right about it sitting vacant.
With the risk of drifting too far OT, Sears has been burning the furniture to heat the house for several years. There isn't enough retail revenue at most of the stores to make a profit. Since many of the locations were paid off decades ago, Sears' only remaining asset is their real estate--and the value of that has been declining precipitously as American consumers have been increasingly shunning traditional malls.
Eddie Lampert's latest financial shell-game has been to sell a 50% partnership of the Sears stores to Simon/Macerich, the largest regional mall management company in the US. Sears will now pay rent to itself [[new spun-off real estate holding corp) & Macerich.
In order to generate enough retail revenue to meet the rent, the other half of the hare-brained scheme is for Sears to sublet portions of those over sized relics to other retailers. Good luck with that, Eddie. What retailer, with any business sense, would tether themselves to the Titanic known as Sears Holdings is beyond me.
As to the property remaining vacant for a long time if Sears goes under---we only need to look around the corner to the former Kmart at 13 Mile & Harper. It sat abandoned for two decades before Kroger finally decided to develop it.