Great Lakes Crossing

Infobox shopping mall
shopping_mall_name = Great Lakes Crossing


image_width =
caption =
location = Auburn Hills, Michigan, United States
opening_date = 1998
developer = Taubman Centers
manager = Taubman Centers
owner = Taubman Centers
number_of_stores = 150+
number_of_anchors = 13
floor_area = 1,400,000 ft²
floors = 1
website = http://shopgreatlakescrossing.com

Great Lakes Crossing is an enclosed shopping mall located in the city of Auburn Hills, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, United States. Developed and owned by Taubman Centers, Great Lakes Crossing features over 180 stores and restaurants, a food court, and a 25-screen Star movie theater. Anchor stores of the mall include Bed Bath & Beyond, Burlington Coat Factory, Bass Pro Shops, The Children's Place Outlet, Circuit City, Marshalls, Neiman Marcus Last Call Clearance Center, Off 5th, The Sports Authority, and TJ Maxx.

History

In 1991, the Mills Corporation planned to open a 2 million square foot shopping mall, called Auburn Mills, near wetlands along Baldwin and Joslyn Roads in the Auburn Hills area. [http://www.metrotimes.com/news/stories/news/17/44/mall.html Untitled article] ] The planned mall never came to fruition, however, due to local opposition. [http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:3ecDKHEq6h8J:www.auburn-hills.org/departments/citycouncil/1997%2520Meeting%2520Minutes/cc041497.DOC+%22auburn+mills%22+%22Great+lakes+crossing%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=5&client=firefox-a City Council Meeting minutes, Great Lakes Crossing] ] Later on, Taubman Corporation presented its own plans for an outlet mall to be built on the site where Auburn Mills would have been built. Taubman's mall, dubbed Great Lakes Crossing, was similar in design to the proposed Auburn Mills mall; however, Great Lakes Crossing featured a smaller design that proved to be less intrusive on adjacent wetlands.

The mall, with a design scheme based on Michigan's outdoors, opened on November 18, 1998 with over 200 stores laid out in a mile-long racetrack layout. In addition, the shopping center brought several "firsts" to the state of Michigan [ [http://retailtrafficmag.com/mag/retail_development_digest_33/ Development Digest] ] , including Bass Pro Shops, GameWorks, Neiman Marcus Last Call Clearance Center, and Rainforest Cafe, as well as the first mall-based location for discount sportswear chain Steve & Barry's. [ [http://www.specialtyretail.net/issues/may04/steve.htm FEATURE Steve & Barry's] ] [ [http://www.brandkeys.com/news/press/072605.DetFreePress.Retail.pdf DetFreePress.Retail.pdf] ] In addition, Great Lakes Crossing included a food court and 25-screen AMC movie theater. Despite bringing such "firsts" to its market, Great Lakes Crossing featured several vacancies from the start.Fact|date=December 2007

J. C. Penney closed its outlet store at the mall in April 2002. [ [http://www.retailers.com/news/retailers/02dec/mr1202retrospective.html More churn for retail industry in '02] ] Since the store's closure, Circuit City has opened in a portion of the former JCPenney Outlet, while some of the space is now The Children's Place. H&M now occupies the remaining space of the former J.C. Penney Outlet space, opening in June 2007. Sportmart was acquired by Sports Authority and re-named; and Steve & Barry's closed in 2007 and was replaced by Urban Behavior.

A portion of the film Bowling for Columbine was filmed here.Fact|date=October 2008 The restaurant shown was, at the time, Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill. This restaurant is no longer part of Great Lakes Crossing.

References

ee also

*Architecture of metropolitan Detroit
*Metro Detroit
*Tourism in metropolitan Detroit

External links

* [http://www.shopgreatlakescrossing.com/ Shop Great Lakes Crossing Official Site]