Livonia Mall closed

http://www.detroityes.com/ has a whole thread devoted to the fact that Livonia mall has finally closed. The thread states that The only stores till open are the sears and the Jo-ann Fabrics.
I knew it was comming soon; especially after the closing of VCDS. There are plans to redevelop it into as mixed use retail/residental complex. Its about time, just like Universal mall. Livonia Mall was just so ugly and dated looking, it brought down the entire area.

You can view the entire thread here:
http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/5/146865.html?1216099840

Value City Department Store closing all Mall locations

This is probably not new news to most of you, but VCDS has decided to close all their mall locations. I was flipping through the Detroit News today and saw a full page advertisement that said that 3 Metro Detroit Locations only have 8 days left and that all items are up to 60 percent off. Two of the locations are obvious, the stores at Livonia Mall and Universal mall. The 3rd location was Macomb mall in Roseville. Universal mall is as I already mentioned closing and will be torn down to build the newest fad in retail shopping; a lifestyle center. Livonia mall still has no plans to close that I am aware of, but I'm positive that this won't help matters. Macomb Mall does fairly well considering its age and proximity to Oakland and Lakeside and Eastland malls. I doubt this closure will hurt macomb much. I can totally see a Burlington Coat Factory and Steve and Barry's filling the vacant space.

VCDS has no plans to close any of their stand alone or strip mall store ( I only know of one, anyway) so thats good I suppose. I have been in several VCs and did not care form them much. It felt very generic and just blah. Nevertheless, it is another blow to the hurting retail landscape in Michigan; definately not what we need.

Livonia Mall; Livonia Michigan

Livonia is a suburb approx. 20 miles to the west of Detroit. While it may be an older detroit suburb, it still thrives which is kind of unique considering the condition of Livonia Mall. Its not really the fault of a struggling city, but more of the density of the surronding area that caused this mall to die. In the 60's and 70's the western detroit suburbs boomed with growth while the retail sector tried to keep up. To meet the demand of the growing area, 3 malls were constructed withing a very short distance of each other. Livonia was the 1st, then Wonderland (also in livonia) and finally Westland Mall (in Westland) in 1965. Livonia mall sits on the corner of 7 Mile rd and Middlebelt rd, Wonderland was on the Plymouth rd and Middlebelt, and Westland Warren Ave and Wayne rd. . I did the math and all of these malls were only an average of 5 miles from each other! Thats a lot of malls in a small area! In 1989 they made things worse by adding Laurel Park Place mall on 6 Mile rd close to I-275. LPP is a very upscale mall and that, combined with several other factors spelled doom from Livonia mall.

Livonia mall opened in 1962 and most of the decor hasn't changed much from then, especially the exterior.

Sometime in the 80's a wing with a Mervyn's was added and some of the decor was updated with the typical pastel colors, recessed lighting, and fake plants of the era. This makes the mall look strange and nothing flows together as it should. The 1960's exterior was nice back then, but today after years of neglect it just looks drab and dingy. Not doing much to upgrade the looks combined with the previously mentioned hurt the mall. When in its prime, the mall had 5 anchors: Kresge, Sears, Crowleys, Children's Palace, and Mervyns. Kresge closed in the late 80's and the space I assume was subdivided into smaller stores to add to the malls mix. I'm not sure when the Children's Palace closed, but it was vacant until the late 90's when a paint ball fortress began leasing the space. Crowley's became a Value City in the late 90's and Mervyns closed all of their Michigan locations in 2006, leaving the mall with 2 out of the 4 anchors currently occupied. The lack of stable anchors and competition from other malls caused the many of the smaller chain tenants to leave the mall and now many storefronts are vacant. Most of the reamaining tenants are mom and pop stores, but there are a few national chains still there. I think footlocker, Waldenbooks, and GNC (the last store a dying mall closes) are still open.
Plans were made in 2006 to tear down the mall and convert it to a strip mall, but Sears (who owns their building) could not agree on anything and such plans have stalled. The mall has changed ownership and management several times in the past few years. No one seems to be willing to deal with it lol.

The Former Children's Palace space; now a paintball fortress:

The Former Mervyns space complete with label scar:

The movie theater marquee:

One of two updated entrances. Too bad they are one the backside of the mall and face away from the main roads:

Two shots from inside taken in 2004. As you can see noone is shopping: