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.