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Location | Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States |
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Coordinates | 42°15′21.8″N83°41′15.2″W / 42.256056°N 83.687556°W |
Opening date | 1961, redeveloped 1999 |
Developer | Taubman Centers (original mall) Simon Property Group (1980s mall) |
Owner | Brixmor Property Group |
No. of stores and services | 26 |
No. of anchor tenants | 7 |
Total retail floor area | 406,736 sq ft (37,787.0 m2) |
No. of floors | 1 |
Public transit access | ![]() |
Arborland Center is a shopping center located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1961 as an unenclosed shopping mall, the center was redeveloped as a power center in 1998. [1] Current anchor stores include Marshalls, Petco, Kroger, Ulta, Old Navy, Gardner-White Furniture (that used to be a Toys "R" Us), and Bed Bath & Beyond.
Arborland was Ann Arbor's first suburban mall, opened in the early 1960s. The original Arborland featured JCPenney, [2] Kresge, Kroger, and Montgomery Ward among its anchor stores. In 1973, the larger Briarwood Mall opened, and JCPenney moved to a newer store there. Competition from Briarwood caused Arborland to lose tenants throughout the end of the 1970s. [3] [4] E.N. Maisel & Associates purchased the mall in 1980 and enclosed its formerly open-air concourses, while replacing the vacated JCPenney store with Crowley's. [5] Despite these additions, the mall continued to lose tenants, including Montgomery Ward, Sibley's Shoes, and Pearle Vision in early 1983. [6]
Melvin Simon & Associates (now Simon Property Group) began renovations on converting the mall to discount and outlet stores in 1983, [7] which necessitated closing of the Crowley's store as it was incompatible with the discount format. [6] At the time of Simon's purchase, the center had only 13 tenants. [8] Simon attracted over 45 new stores, including new anchor stores Burlington Coat Factory, Service Merchandise, F&M, Toys "R" Us, and Marshalls, along with a food court. [3]
In the late 1990s Freed and Associates purchased it on the cheap and razed most of the structure, transforming it into a big box cluster. Toys "R" Us was rebuilt during the "de-malling" of the center, while Marshalls and the former F&M building (now occupied by OfficeMax) were retained. Freed's purchase price was around $6 million; within a decade, in 2005, Freed was said to be seeking a buyer for over $100 million. [4] Freed did shortly find a buyer for the 409,000 sq ft (38,000 m2) center. The facility was purchased by AmCap, through a joint venture with Los Angeles-based Hart Realty Advisers for a reported $102 million. [9]
The Borders in Arborland closed in April 2011. [10] [11] A year later, its space was split between Five Below and Ulta. [12] Nordstrom Rack was confirmed in 2013 for a space vacated by Circuit City in 2009. [13]