Wonderland Village
 |
|
| Location | Livonia, Michigan, United States |
|---|---|
| Opening date | 2007 |
| Developer | Schostak Corporation |
| Management | Schostak Corporation |
| Owner | Schostak Corporation |
| No. of stores and services | 40 + |
| No. of anchor tenants | 2 |
| No. of floors | 1 |
Wonderland Village is an outdoor shopping center in Livonia, Michigan, United States, a suburb of Detroit. The center is located at the southwest corner of Middlebelt Road and Plymouth Road, approximately one mile south of I-96. Wal-Mart and Target are the complex's anchor stores.
Contents |
[edit] History
From 1959 until 2004, a shopping mall called Wonderland Mall operated on the site. Originally an outdoor shopping center, Wonderland Mall was enclosed and expanded in the 1980s and further renovated in the 1990s. Wonderland Mall had Montgomery Ward and Service Merchandise among its tenants. The old center closed in 2004 and demolished a year later for construction of Wonderland Village.
Wonderland Center was developed as an open-air shopping center in August 1959 on the site of a former airport.[1][2] The center, at the time, featured Montgomery Ward and Federal's as its anchor stores.[2]
In 1985, the mall was converted from an open-air complex to an enclosed shopping mall. This renovation added 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of gross leasable area. Further renovation in 1989 added a Target store and a movie theater operated by AMC Theaters, followed by Service Merchandise, OfficeMax and Dunham's Sports in the early 1990s. After these latter expansions, Wonderland Mall was 862,000 square feet (80,100 m2) in size and comprised more than 80 tenants.[2]
Schostak continued to renovate Wonderland Mall extensively throughout the 1990s. By the end of the decade, the company relocated some stores from a wing to add entertainment-oriented tenants such as an f.y.e. music store and an indoor amusement park called Jeepers![3] The mall's food court was also redesigned and increased in size by 40%, adding national chain restaurants such as Burger King, Sbarro and Steak Escape.[2] The mall also introduced Cyberspace Safari, a marketing program that allowed patrons of the mall to surf the Web and learn about the Internet.[4] The addition of these entertainment venues soon boosted mall sales 20%.[5]
Despite the increase in sales brought on by the addition of entertainment venues, the mall gained a reputation for crime, which combined with the demise of two anchor stores, led to the mall's downfall. Service Merchandise closed in 1999 with the chain; the space was originally slated to be replaced with Burlington Coat Factory, one of several anchor stores which was proposed but never came to fruition. In 2000, Montgomery Ward closed the last of its stores nationwide; many of the other inline tenants began to close as well.
[edit] Redevelopment
Wonderland Mall was officially shuttered in 2003, except for Target, Office Max, and Dunham's Sports, the latter two of which closed in 2004. After the mall was closed, plans were announced to demolish the entire structure and an adjacent former Kmart store (which also closed in 2003), and build a new shopping center anchored by a new Target store, as well as a Wal-Mart Supercenter.[6][7]
The Wal-Mart proposal was met with opposition by members the community, who cited the nearby presence of another Wal-Mart store,[8] while other residents simply did not want a 24-hour Supercenter in their neighborhood.[9] Opponents of the mall's redevelopment held a civic meeting in late 2005, which was interrupted by pranksters shouting epithets,[10] and other opponents picketed in front of the vacant mall.[11] Despite the local opposition, plans were approved for the new shopping center.[12] Demolition of the old mall structure began in 2006.[7]
[edit] Description
The demolition of the old Wonderland Mall made way for construction of the new Wonderland Village shopping center, on which construction began in late 2006. Target opened its new store on July 25, 2007, followed by Wal-Mart a month later.[13] Other tenants which have since opened include Noodles & Company, Johnny's Lunch (now closed), Qdoba, Verizon, FedEx Kinkos, Dot's, Five Guys, Chili's, InkStop, [14] and Casual Male XL.[15]
[edit] References
- ^ "Redevelopment, expansion adds retail space". Michigan Retailer. May 2006. http://www.retailers.com/news/retailers/06may/mr0506reretailers.html. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
- ^ a b c d McCloud, John (May 1, 1999). "Jeepers! Wonderland Mall sports fun look". http://retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_jeepers_wonderland_mall/. Retrieved December 24, 2010.
- ^ Retail Traffic Mag - Real Reality
- ^ Schostak Brothers Puts The 'Wonder' In Wonderland Mall (Brief article)
- ^ Nreionline.com
- ^ Livonia to tackle plans for Wonderland Mall
- ^ a b AmericaJr.com : Update: Wonderland Mall demolition is underway
- ^ Wake Up Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart plan spurs backlash
- ^ Wake Up Wal-Mart: Hundreds share anger over Wal-Mart Reputation, clientele fuel opposition to move
- ^ Pranksters hold up rally in Livonia
- ^ Mall proposal divides Livonia
- ^ Livonia Board Approves Plans for New Wal-Mart
- ^ "Two Retailers are Now Open inside Livonia's Wonderland Village shopping district". AmericaJr.com. 11 August 2007. http://americajr.com/news/wonderland-village-open.html. Retrieved 24 December 2010.
- ^ Wonderland Village update
- ^ Snyder, Christine (2008-01-10). "Casual Male clothing chain grows in Metro". The Detroit News. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080110/BIZ/801100323. Retrieved 2008-03-28.
[edit] External links
- Wonderland Mall (Archive)
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Coordinates: 42°22′6.9″N 83°20′1.7″W / 42.368583°N 83.333806°W
