Courtland Center

Courtland Center, formerly Eastland Mall, is an enclosed shopping mall in Burton, Michigan, a suburb of Flint, Michigan, United States. It opened in 1968, two years before the larger Genesee Valley Center on the other side of the Flint metropolitan area. Courtland Center includes four anchor stores: JCPenney, Dunham's Sports, Staples,[3] and Jo-Ann Etc., plus an exhibit space operated by Sloan Museum.

Courtland Center
North side of Courtland Center
LocationBurton, Michigan, United States
Coordinates43.017°N 83.631°W / 43.017; -83.631
Address4190 E. Court St.
Opening date1968
DeveloperForest City Enterprises
OwnerSMA Courtland LLC[1]
No. of stores and services60
No. of anchor tenants5
Total retail floor area460,000 square feet (43,000 m2) [2]
No. of floors1
Websitecourtlandcenter.com

History

In September 1964, the Burton Township board rezoned the property at the southeastern corner of East Court Street and Center Road from single family residential to commercial. Forest City Enterprises began building on the property after the rezoning on the Court Mall Center with expectations for a second quarter 1965 opening.[4]

Eastland Mall

Courtland Center opened in late October 1968 as Eastland Mall in what was then Burton Township under the ownership of Forest City and Jack Shifron.[4] At the time, it featured it had a 1000-seat theater and 47 stores including three anchor stores: discount chain Woolco[5] on the eastern end, The Fair on the western end and Detroit, Michigan-based Federal's in the center. Federal's later closed and briefly became Robert Hall Village until 1977, when it closed due to bankruptcy.[6] The space was later occupied by JCPenney. In 1983, Woolco shuttered all of their U.S. locations.[7]

Courtland Center

In August 1986, the mall was renamed Courtland Center. In 1987, The Fair closed and became Mervyn's. The former Woolco space was subdivided and occupied by Crowley's department store and additional stores.[4] The mall had 80 stores in 1994.[4] Crowley's closed in 1997, and the theaters added an expansion in November 1998 under the management of National Amusements.[8]

2000s redevelopment
Interior of Courtland Center in 2018

Tucker Development acquired the mall from Forest City Enterprises in the early 2004 and began renovations on it. The far end of the former Crowley's was converted to Old Navy in July 2000. They relocated inside the mall in 2005, displacing a former f.y.e. which had closed, and a Payless ShoeSource which was relocated.[9] Later that same year, Staples moved from a nearby strip mall into Old Navy's former location, while the remainder of the former Crowley's was split between a new Jo-Ann Etc. store (resulting in the closure of the existing Jo-Ann Fabrics store) and Dunham's Sports, which had also moved from a nearby strip mall.[9]

Mervyns closed in early 2006 when the chain exited Michigan. In late 2007, JCPenney announced that it would relocate its existing stores in the mall to a newer, larger location in the former Mervyns space. While the former Mervyns space was being redeveloped and expanded, the roof of the store caught on fire, causing the mall to close for a day in September 2007.[10] Old Navy closed its store at the mall in January 2008,[11] and JCPenney's new store opened on March 1, 2008, resulting in the closure of the three former JCPenney stores.[12] The new location included several departments which were not present in the former locations, such as an inline Sephora store.[12] JCPenney's former main store in the middle of the mall was replaced by Steve & Barry's, which opened on May 15, 2008,[12][13] while the two sub-stores were vacated. Steve & Barry's closed December 2008, and the theaters re-closed in 2009.[14] Planet Fitness replaced the Old Navy space in February 2011.[15]

On May 20, 2011, the cinema was reopened by NCG Cinemas as NCG Courtland Cinemas to replace NCG's Clio location.[16] In 2013, the mall was sold by Tucker Development to a limited liability company from Delaware.[1]

Goodwill Industries of Mid-Michigan opened a 5,000 square feet temporary Christmas store by November 2015, which would operate until mid-December. While its Center Road Burton location moving to a permanent place in the mall by January 2016 to take up a 15,000-square-foot space.[3] In 2018, Sloan Museum opened an exhibit space in the former JCPenney/Steve & Barry's.[17]

Mall theater

The mall theater opened with one screen in 1967 as Eastland Mall Theatre.[4][5] Under Redstone Management, the theater added another screen in December 1983.[4]

In 1991, the cinemas were closed by National Amusements (NA). In 1998, the location was reopened by and as Silver Cinemas with six screens. NA purchased Silver's business soon there after and was renamed back to Courtland Center Cinema.[18] The theaters added an expansion in November 1998 under the management of National Amusements.[8] The cinemas closed in January 2009.[4]

On May 20, 2011, NCG Cinemas reopened the theater as NCG Courtland Cinemas[18] using equipment from its just closed Clio location.[16]

References
  1. Acosta, Roberto (26 March 2013). "Courtland Center mall sold, hopes high in Burton for revitalized facility". Mlive.com. Retrieved 26 October 2013.
  2. "Courtland Center". Tucker Development. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  3. Acosta, Roberto (November 11, 2015). "Burton Goodwill store set to move into Courtland Center mall". Flint Journal. Mlive Media Group. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  4. Acosta, Roberto (August 14, 2014). "A look back at Burton's Courtland Center over the years". Flint Journal. Mlive Media Group. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
  5. "Michigan manpower review". 22–23. Michigan Employment Security Commission. 1967. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  6. Barmash, Isadore (1977-07-13). "United Merchants, Citing Losses, Files Voluntary Bankruptcy Action". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  7. Kleinfield, N. r (1982-09-25). "Woolworth Calls It Quits on Woolco". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  8. Sicard, Allyson J. (1999-09-01). "Midwest Development Projects". Retail Traffic Mag. Archived from the original on 2006-10-17. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  9. "JoAnn Moving; Staples on the Way — Courtland Center Mall is Changing Inside and Out". The Flint Journal. Archived from the original on 2008-09-24. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  10. Mickle, Bryn; Holly Klaft (2007-09-21). "Fire on the roof closes Courtland Center in Burton". The Flint Journal. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  11. Klaft, Holly (2008-01-15). "Old Navy store at Courtland Center closing". The Flint Journal. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  12. Lowe, Elizabeth (2008-06-20). "Steve & Barry's and JC Penney provide strong anchor to buoy Courtland Center". The Burton News. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  13. Burden, Melissa (2008-02-21). "Courtland Center mall getting Steve & Barry's, bigger JCPenney". The Flint Journal. Retrieved 2008-10-10.
  14. Lowe, Elizabeth (2009-01-31). "What's ahead for Burton's Courtland Center? Some mall vendors confident, despite closings". Burton News. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
  15. Acosta, Roberto (2 February 2011). "Burton's Courtland Center opens new gym business with hopes of getting residents, shopping center into shape". The Flint Journal. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
  16. Acosta, Roberto (May 18, 2011). "Burton's NCG Courtland Cinemas pushing back against trend of Genesee County theater closures". The Flint Journal. Retrieved 2012-05-08.
  17. WJRT. "Sloan Museum brings massive dinosaur exhibit & Buick Gallery to Courtland Center in Burton". www.abc12.com. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  18. "NCG Movies to reopen Courtland Cinemas this Friday". Burton View. View Newspapers. May 19, 2011. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved November 11, 2015.
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