Genesee County’s largest shopping mall celebrates a milestone this year, and continues to find nontraditional retailers to fill store vacancies.
Genesee Valley shopping center, at the corner of Miller and Linden roads, celebrates 40 years in business this year.
The mall plans to celebrate its birthday on May 12 with local dignitaries, business leaders, vendors, store managers and other invited guests in the mall’s center court. A 13-foot replica birthday cake will be showcased in the mall later this month.
Since opening in August 1970, the mall has grown from about 55 stores to more than 130 today, many of them service- and family-oriented, said Kristen Cassabon, marketing manager for Genesee Valley.
“It kind of goes back to the way we were 40 years ago,” she said. “We had a bank, a butcher shop, a grocery store. It kind of all comes full circle again.”
The shopping center, which has changed ownership over the years and currently is managed by Jones Lang LaSalle Retail, has filled some of its vacancies with nontraditional tenants such as the University of Phoenix, which opened an 18,000-square-foot student learning center in the mall’s Outdoor Village this past fall.
“We’ll probably see more of that,” Cassabon said.
The International Council of Shopping Centers expects some malls will continue to fill some spaces with nontraditional tenants such as karate schools, gyms or doctor’s offices, said Jesse Tron, a spokesman for the council.
“You want to have a unique tenant base,” he said. “Bringing people into the center for other purposes could have crossover or spillover effect in terms of shopping or retail sales.”
Genesee Valley features a branch of the Genesee District Library, which has been in the mall since 2002, and has other tenants offering teeth-whitening, massage and eyebrow-shaping in the center aisles.
Earlier this month, a new Merle Norman Salon & Spa opened, offering services such as massages, facials, makeup application, nail and pedicures. The salon and spa relocated from the Courtland Center mall in Burton.
Malls nationally will continue to add more dining and entertainment options in the future, as well as open-air shopping components, Tron said.
Genesee Valley, which features an Outdoor Village open air shopping section, also has added American Fun Center Arcade, Portrait Innovations and Brow Art this year, and a Cinnabon is expected to open this fall near center court.
Cassabon said the mall’s vacancy rate is “well below the national average” — 8.9 percent in the first quarter and the highest percentage since 2000 — and that mall retailers in the first quarter are seeing some sales growth over the same quarter in 2009.
“We’ve got great tenants and a great shopper base,” she said.
Shopper Brittany Coulman, 19, of Lapeer County’s Hadley Township, makes the drive to Genesee Valley over other malls because she likes to check out new fashions about once a week at one particular retailer.
“I just come for The Buckle,” she said, while eating in the mall’s food court with her mom, Jackie Coulman, 48. “It’s my favorite store.”
Ron and Judy Humitz, a retired couple from Argentine Township, said they come to the mall maybe three to four times a year.
“It’s a beautiful mall,” Judy Humitz said last week after shopping for a new bedspread at Sears. “They have good selections.”
“You feel comfortable,” added Ron Humitz. “It’s airy. It’s nice. It’s relaxing.”
A half dozen of Genesee Valley’s first retailers remain in business at the mall.
One is Palace Coney Island, which has been serving up coney dogs, french fries and gyro sandwiches and homemade soups at the mall since 1970. The business opened as a sit-down restaurant on the first floor and moved into the food court when that opened in 1987.
The business is owned by Gus Vergos and Francis. Haddad says part of the restaurant’s success is made-to-order, quality food.
“It’s a family-owned business,” Haddad said. “We’ve got customers coming here for years and years and years.”
About Genesee Valley shopping center
• Opened: The first store, Sears, opened in May 1970, followed by Hudson’s in July 1970. The mall officially opened on Aug. 3, 1970 with more than 55 stores (including a full-service bank, Hamady Bros. grocery store and Karl’s Butcher Shop. It was built on 120 acres and cost $25 million. Six of the first retailers remain: Sears, Macy’s, Baker Shoes, Lane Bryant, Pearle Vision and Palace Coney Island.
• Expansions: In 1979, JCPenney and 30 specialty stores opened; A $3-million, 25,000-square-foot food court was added in 1987; A Mervyn’s and Montgomery Ward and 23 other retailers opened in the mall after a 1993 expansion and renovation project; In 2006, the 65,000-square-foot Outdoor Village wing opened after the vacant Montgomery Ward was demolished; Burlington Coat Factory opened in 2007 in the vacant Mervyn’s space.
• Remodels: 1979, 1987, 1993, 2006 and 2008.
• Today’s features: The mall includes Sears, Macy’s, Burlington Coat Factory and JCPenney anchor stores, Barnes & Noble in the Outdoor Village and a total of more than 130 retailers, covering 1.27 million square feet.
Sources: Genesee Valley shopping center and Flint Journal files
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