Hey everyone. I have decided that this will be my last post.  My wife and I just had a baby and I just don't have time to maintain another blog. I have 3 blogs and 1 social media site that I maintain currently. I will be reducing that to two.  Currently I have a live journal, a face book page, a Christian apologetics blog, and a general video blog about my life. I am going to keep the face book and my general video blog. I will use the general video blog to continue to blog about my life and will add the apologetics to that. I have already turned off the live journal, since it is redundant. I will also use the video blog to talk about sub-urban decay from time to time.

Thanks for reading and I hope you will watch my video blogs on sub-urban decay when I start them!

I will post a link here ASAP.

Upcoming commentaries

I have a few things in the works that I would like to share with all of you.

Since I now live west of Detroit, it will give me a chance to blog about several new shopping centers and malls that it would have been difficult to write about before:

Of course, I would like to give updates about a lot of my previous posts, such as:

The curse of Dix/Toledo Road

The Livonia Mall site

That Farmer Jack Shopping Center in Riverview

The Shops at park Plaza

and so on.....

A couple of my new blogs will include:

West Ridge shopping center in Westland Michigan

An unnamed strip mall on at Warren and Venoy, also in Westland

and much more of course....

So after 3 years I'm back

It has been roughly 3 years since my last post in which I said I would be updating soon. We all know how life tends to work sometimes, though. This blog really took a backseat to a lot of other things in my life; as is evident.

I will "try" and update this more often from now one. The truth is that not much has changed in Detroit are in recent years that have warranted my posting, anyway. Things have gotten better for some shopping centers or remained pretty much the same for others.

I will update on one particular shopping center that I had close ties to:

The Lincoln park Shopping Center is now completely vacant with the exception of the dollar tree store. When I was working at Radio Shack back in 2012, it looked like LPSC would indeed experience a revival. There was a sign posted at the corner of Southfield and Dix in front of the center stating that the center was being remodeled! I checked it out and yes, they started to do some cement work, began to update the Red pillars with modern stone facade, and began to apply a fresh coat of paint to the exterior. It was short lived, however. A month and a half later, the sign was taken down and all the work halted and the rest of the tenants moved out (except the dollar tree)  At that point, the rumor I heard was that Walmart had finally bought the center and bought out the remaining work and tenants. There were a few sticking points, though. One of which being Quandt Park. Quandt Park is directly behind LPSC and Walmart "had" to tear it down to make and entrance that was acceptable to city code. No one wanted that. So for that reason and a few others, the project stalled for like the 14th billionth time lol. And it sits like that today. I don't know if Walmart still owns the center or what...I would have thought they liquidated, but who knows.

At least the Sears is still there, but with the way Sears is doing these days, it might be on the chopping block soon.

Still around

I know its been a long time since I last put anything here and there are a lot of updates I want to share with everyone. There will definately be more comming soon!

No Revival for LPSC

LPSC continues to decine as more of the tenants move or close. Since my lst blog about LPSC, dots and foot action have closed their locations at there. Radio Shack has moved their store to a location directly off Southfeild, close to the road and with better visibilty. I was able to observe the movibng process of the Radio Shack firsthand and even have a few photos to share:

Well, I can't get the link to add photos to work, so I'll just have to add a link later. Sorry

Farmer Jack left his Mark

Its unmistakeable the impact that the closure of several big box retailers has had on the Detroit area. Here is another fine example of this at the corner of King Rd. and Fort St. in Riverview:

The Farmer Jack was the large building in the middle with the orange awning. Every space in the strip is empty except the Dunhams. Its also fairly ugly and run-down if you look up close. Its really sad that companies can't manage their affairs better. Circuit City, HQ, Farmer Jack, K-Mart. This would not have happened or been tolerated 10 years ago....I also love the moss growing on the Marquee sign.

More pics of the shops at Park Plaza is Lincoln Park

The shops at Park Plaza/Plaza at Lincoln Park

The Shops at Park Plaza or The Plaza at Lincoln Park...So...which name is the correct one? Is it the one on the Marquee to the right? It could also be the one on the banner sign that welcomes you as you drive in, pictured below. Whatever...lol I cannot even describe the untapped potential of this shopping center, which is one the most unique I have ever seen. Its in Lincoln Park off Fort Street with Emmons st. running down the middle of it. There is also access from Dix/Toledo rd; via Emmons, which is a resdential street...yes..it has a residential street running right down the middle of it.

I still havent figured out if thats a good thing or not, but anyway. The basic concept and design is pretty neat. There are a few problems though. Considering how large it looks, it actually a quite small strip mall. I you were to drive by it you would think it has more stores that are maybe hidden inside, but no...It only has 2 empty spaces; a former Farmer Jack and a carpet place, but whats left isnt enough variety to attract more shoppers. I doesn't help that the empty Farmer Jack is the largest space in the center..Even larger than the Jc Penny...The Farmer Jack space begs to be a 2 story Barnes and Nobel or Borders if you ask me. They could line the backside of the center with more stores giving the center a better mix. This of course is what I would do in a better economy though. Its too cool of a shopping center to let it go to such waste IMO. If I had the money I would snatch this place up and turn it for sure. Below are a few more pics. I'm sure you'll agree that it has a lot of unused potential.

More pics will be uploaded in the next few days...

Circuit City to close all remaining stores

Well, my camera broke before Christmas so I havent been able to get any pictures of Fairlane Town Center yet. They are still comming; trust me.

No suprise to anyone, but this years holiday shopping season was dismal. Working in Retail for both my jobs I noticed a significant difference versus last year. Much less people than last year and it was really sad. Other than spending time with loved ones, there wasn't much for anyone to celebrate this year. Many people that rely on getting a Christmas bonus wont be getting one this year and so on...

It seems as things are bad all over things are much worse in the Detroit area. Nothing could be worse then the death of another big box retailer. Say goodbye to Ciruit City; they are closing their remaining stores after failing to reach agreements with potential buyers. They closed 150 stores late last year in an attempt to buy time to reorganize and find a company willing to buy CC to attempt to save it. It was annonced yesterday that all deals that they had with potentail buyers have fallen through and that all remaining stores will close.

::sigh:: well there you have it. I really don't have anything else to say. When are we gunna step up and put a end to or severely limit outsourceing? Are we really saving money doing that anymore? We need to clean house here people. We are no longer the example of what to be; we are the example of what to avoid.

New life for LPSC?

My sources tell me that Walmart has abandoned their plans to build a store in LPSC and the center has been sold. The new managemant plans to to renovate and remarket the center with agressive advertising and annoucing that the spaces are available for lease once again. To me this is great news. A Walmart is not needed (or wanted IMO) considering that they have a brand new Supercenter just a few miles north in Dearborn.

I hope that the management team is successful at revitalizing LPSC. It really has a lot of value and I would hate to see its potential go to waste andy longer.

Next up:
Fairlane Town Center : Bucking the Trends

Sorry that I haven't updated in so long. I have just been really busy with my own life a lot of my hobbies and things like that took a back seat. Its getting cold in Michigan by now anyway, so its prolly going to be pretty hard for me to take any pictures of my explorations. There are still quite a few malls and shopping centers that I can put on here that I know of, though. Thankfully for the state of MIchigan, I haven't noticed any new significant closinging around here...well, other than Circuit City planning to close 150 stores nationwide soon. I can imagine more than a few of those being in Michigan...sigh...so that more empty hulks to plague our landscape. If you ask me with that state of things as far as these gigantic empty stores, they should all be torn down and turned into parks or something like that.

Take for instance all these empty Home Quarters buildings...nones ever going to buy or lease such large buildings, so they are just going to let them sit there all the while paying leases, utilities and property taxes? I don't pretend to know much about real estate so correct me if I'm wrong, but that just doesn't make sense to me. Metro Detroit is one of the most retail saturated merto areas that I know of as it is...we have way more choice than we need in some areas.

Another example:
Dearborn has a Best buy, a Target, and a Home Depot all adjacent to Ford Rd. and Southfield Fwy. If you hop on Southfeild and head maybe 2 miles south you will find the Fairlane Green shopping center Which also has ALL THREE OF THE SAME STORES plus lots more. Its wasteful and it worries me somewhat. Dearborn is right next to Detroit and I know that scares retail away more often than not. I think its planning ahead, but fro the worst. I see it this way; if the fourtunes of Detroit go down any further than it will beigin to infect the surrounding suburbs wich may force retailers to close stores like those in Dearborn and because of FG, the wont have to build a new store nearby to fill the void.

I'm trying to have a more optimistic view of the future these days though.

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

Mailbag: Universal Mall

PurpleBubba said...
"They started demolition on the mall. It's being turned into a lifestyle center and Target is moving here and leaving the store they have a few blocks south."

I read this in the Detroit News almost the same day Purble Bubba posted it. It was about time if you ask me. If a center is failing as bad as Universal was, you need to do something about it. I dunno how a Lifestyle center is going to do, but I do hope it is a success. Considering the poor state of the economy here, I'm not a cynical as I once was about lifestyle centers. I hate cold weather and because I think that other ppl feel the same way I do. lol

Anyway, I never had a chance to write about this mall here, but if you would like some backround, you can check out the commentary that I helped write on deadmalls.com:
http://www.deadmalls.com/malls/universal_mall.html

Taylor: Telegraph and Goddard

Sorry for my absence lately, I have been doing a lot that is not related to this. lol. I will try to get back on track in the next few weeks and have a lot more to share with you.

Anyway, this lil nugget is in Taylor on Telegraph and Goddard. At one time it was anchored by a K-Mart and Cattleman's at one end and a Med/Max (medical supplies and pharmacy) at the other. We all know what happened to K-Mart in the mid to late 90's, and this was of course one of the stores that they closed. It remained closed and for sale for something like 7 years until they tore it down and built a home depot. It was a lil late as all but 2 of the strip stores closed as well as the Med/Max.

The Home Depot Opened late 2006 I beleive and the empty Med/Max was renovated and became a new Dunhams. It has done little for the stip stores as all but the same 2 I mentioned eariler are still vacant. The 2 Stores that are still are a nail salon and some other business that I couldnt quite figure out and didn't have the courage to go up to to see what it was. There was also label scar from and Fantastic Sams and a Harmony House. The Cattlemans has stayed open, but the parking in front of it is virtually empty all the time. No one shops at butcher shops anymore anyway, people would much rather get all their grocery shopping done all in one location these days.

The center itself is in really nice shape and is very well maintained unlike the Lincoln Park Shopping Center. However, with Michigans economy the way it is; it matters very little.

To the Left, you can see the labek scar from the Fantastic Sams followed by the Nail Salon (Nails USA).

Empty, empty, empty

The other business that I mentioned, along with more empty spaces.

Yep......

The empty lot in front of Cattlemans.

The Home Depot seems to do pretty well, but ....well....yeah...

The Curse of Dix/Toledo Rd.

Dix Rd actually goes by many names as it makes its way from southwest Detroit to Woodhaven, Michigan. In detroit proper, Vernor HWY turns into Dix as it travels south through Lincoln Park and Melvindale. It eventualy turns into Toledo Rd in Southgate (The city in which this bolgs strip mall is in) and then finally merges into Telegraph Rd in Woodhaven where it dissappears all together.

One thing is for certian in my travels and thats Dix sucks for businesses. Dix has a mix of national chain retail, really run down mom and pop-businesses, and then you have nearly empty strip malls like the Lincoln Park Shopping center. In this case though, despite what the sign above may read. This power center strip mall is completely empty. Yep. Completely.

This Huge Strip at the corner or Eureka and Dix/Toledo once housed many thriving buinesses such as a Best Buy, Lone Star Steakhouse, a Home Quarters (think Home Depot or Lowes), and many other smaller stores. The nail in the coffin came early for this center as Home Quarters (the entire company) went out of business it seems like right after they opened. They closed all the stores that the opened and left huge empty hulks all over the Detroit area. This occured more than 10 years ago and some buildings like this one are still empty. The smaller stores began to wither soon after. The next major blow happend when Lone Star closed most of their locations in Michgan a few years back. This one was of course one of the ones that closed. The most recent tenant to vacate was the Best Buy (pictured above). The store went to greener pastures in the nearby Southland Mall in Taylor in 2006 where a new state-of-the art store replaced the malls food court (lol). By then there were only one of two small strip stores opened and those have since closed as well.

Now, as it sits today, a monument to corporate mismanagement and the hard times that the Detroit area finds itself in.

Empty, empty, empty.

Ohhhh, wait....a diamond broker?...ohh nevermind, they forgot to take the sign down I guess.

You can see the vastness of thins empty center pictured here. The now empty Lone Star Sits in the Middle.

Don't get your hopes up, they just left their sign up, too.

Below are pictures of the massive derelict HQ. Its one of biggest I have seen as it took me three pics to fit it in.

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.

The "Dead Zone"; Dearborn Michigan

There are several such "dead zones" that I know of in the area, but this one is my favorite. I don't know if there is a name for this strip mall, but its at the corner of Telegraph Road and Michigan Avenue in Dearborn. This area is kind of strange in the way that you have both very wealthy and very poor communities right next to each other. It sits to the south of the Gully/Cherry Hill corridor, which is where the richy-rich of Dearborn and Dearborn Heights live. Then travel 5 minutes to the west in you are in Inkster, one the poorest of the Detroit suburbs. This shoppin center is also isolated from Telegraph, as Michigan Ave is bridged over it. At its peak, the dead zone had a Wendy's, a Showcase Cinema (formerly the Dearborn Theater), Big Boy, IHOP, Chuckie Cheese, DTE energy customer service center, a Dental office, Kids Spot, Toys R Us, Pep Boys, and a Caddie Dealership. I site this centers demise for the following reasons:
1. Its Isolation from busy Telegraph RD.
2. The changing demographics of the area
3. The condition of the center
4. Its proximity to the stuggling city of Inkster.

The strip mall part of the center is pretty unexciting looking, with a dull exterior and a tore up parking lot. The 1st businesses to leave was the Pep Boys or the IHOP in the late 90's. The Pep Boy's remains vacant to this day, and the building itself is really falling apart. The old IHOP was torn down and replaced with a Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins. Something odd about this is that IHOP just opened a new location a mile north of where the old one was! The new location is on Ford Road and is a big success from what I hear. I drive by it everyday and the parking lot is always packed! Anyway, it was all downhill from there for the dead zone. The Showcase Cinema folded soon after cause of the new Star at Fairlane Town Center. It now sits boarded up and for sale. The Caddie Dealership moved their operation to a new, bigger showroom and lot in downtown west Dearborn (at least they tore the vacant building down). The DTE customer service center, another store, and most recently, the Wendys are also closed now. I visited the center earlier today and the parking lot was pretty empty. It looks like the remaining businesses aren't doing that well save the Big Boy. I wonder how bad it will get before the owners decide to invest some money in it. Its still a prime location and would do well if they would remodel and add a mix of stores that fit the area's clientele. Although, its isolation from Telegraph does not help. Inkster could do a lot to improve their situation as well. I will let you know if I find out anything about any changes to the dead zone or planned improvements.

From Telgraph RD going west:

Former Wendys

Former Showcase Cinema

Big Boy, the strongest business in the center.



Dunkin Donuts

The strip mall; Chuckie Cheese, Dentist, former DTE CSC, Kids Spot, Unidentified Vacant Space, and Toys R Us.

Former Pep Boys; Label Scar and all.

At least Caddie had enough sense to tear down their vacant building.