Cherryland Center
Cherryland Center (formerly Cherryland Mall) is an outdoor shopping mall in Traverse City, Michigan. Opened in 1976 as an enclosed mall, it was renovated as an outdoor property in 1999. The center's sole anchor store is Big Lots. The center is now widely considered a dead mall.[2]
Entrance to the outdoor promenade | |
Location | Traverse City, Michigan |
---|---|
Coordinates | 44.735°N 85.598°W |
Address | 1150 S. Airport Rd. W. |
Opening date | 1976 |
Closing date | 1999 (demolished 1999) |
Developer | Schostak Brothers |
Owner | McKinley, Inc.[1] |
No. of stores and services | 30+ |
No. of anchor tenants | 4 (1 open, 3 vacant) |
Total retail floor area | 167,505 square feet |
No. of floors | 1 |
History
In April 1976, the first tenants for Cherryland Mall were confirmed: a Kmart discount store, a Kroger supermarket, and a branch of Michigan National Bank.[3] Kmart opened in November 1976,[4] followed by Kroger in December.[5] The same month, H. C. Prange Co. (now Younkers) and Sears had been confirmed as the other anchors.[6][7] The Sears store replaced a catalog merchant located downtown.[8] By late 1977, the rest of the mall was opened.[8] Peripheral development the same year included two smaller strip malls and a Zantigo fast food restaurant.[9]
In 1998, plans were announced to demolish the interior mall portion while leaving all four anchors intact. Under these plans, the Sears and Younkers stores would also be expanded.[10] As part of this renovation, Sears expanded its store into the western third of the mall in 1999. When renovation was complete, the center was converted to an outdoor mall.[11] The mall was foreclosed on by Wells Fargo in 2010; also, Tom's Food Market, which had taken over the supermarket space in 1986, closed.[12] In June 2011, the space became Big Lots.[13]
On June 6, 2017, Sears Holdings announced that Kmart would be closing as part of a plan to close 72 stores nationwide. The store closed in September 2017.[14]
On April 18, 2018, it was announced that Younkers would also be closing as parent company The Bon-Ton is going out of business. The store closed August 2018.[15]
On May 31, 2018, Sears Holdings announced that Sears would be closing as well in September 2018 as part of another plan to close 72 stores nationwide. The closures of both Younkers and Sears leave Big Lots as the only anchor left.[16]
Presently, Only a few business are open in the space anymore. Plans to turn the former Kmart property into a U-Haul center in 2018 were scrapped.
References
- "Cherryland Center". McKinley Properties. Archived from the original on 29 June 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
- "DeadMalls.com: Cherryland Mall: Traverse City, Michigan". deadmalls.com. Retrieved 2018-12-24.
- "Kroger store in new mall '99% sure'". Traverse City Record-Eagle. 29 April 1976.
- "But suburban centers grew". Traverse City Record-Eagle. 28 February 1977.
- David Hayes (27 January 1977). "Mall ready to grant leases". Traverse City Record-Eagle.
- David Hayes (17 December 1976). "Prange department store to go in mall". Traverse City Record-Eagle.
- David Hayes (1 February 1977). "Fashion to be theme of many mall stores". Traverse City Record-Eagle.
- David Hayes (20 October 1977). "Sears consolidates in Cherryland Mall". Traverse City Record-Eagle.
- David Hayes (23 July 1977). "$35 million in building starts here". Traverse City Record-Eagle.
- Bill Echlin (2 September 1998). "Cherryland mall to get a facelift". Traverse City Record-Eagle. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
- "Shopping mall to become Cherryland Center". Traverse City Record-Eagle. 7 February 1999. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
- Bill O'Brien (11 September 2010). "Cherryland Tom's to close". Traverse City Record-Eagle. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
- Bill O'Brien (29 June 2011). "Big Lots heading to Cherryland Center". Traverse City Record-Eagle. Retrieved 5 April 2013.
- http://www.record-eagle.com/news/business/traverse-city-kmart-to-close/article_7086e245-b95d-534b-9b24-1db0c9158e50.html
- http://www.record-eagle.com/news/business/traverse-city-younker-s-to-close/article_e6654dee-568e-5a3b-b402-fd1df3258ca4.html
- http://www.record-eagle.com/news/local_news/update-tc-sears-to-close/article_20537ae6-9d60-5962-85a9-b8f57caf5213.html