Malls, for the most part, just aren’t the retail centers they used to be. Online shopping has eaten into department stores, and many malls in the country are struggling to find tenants.
One way these properties have been able to continue their useful life is through conversion. Malls throughout the country are becoming everything from apartments to corporate offices.
Crain’s Detroit Business is reporting that the word is Ford Motor Company is going to take up 220,000 square feet of the mall, the former Lord & Taylor space, for engineers and development employees.
All told, the Dearborn-based automaker plans to take 220,000 square feet in the mall, with about 120,000 of that being in the two-story former department store with 60,000-square-foot floor plates and another approximately 100,000 square feet in the attached portion of the mall, sources said.
Build-out is expected to begin, and employees are expected to start occupying the space, by the end of the year, according to sources.
The mall opened in 1976 and was built on a chunk of Henry Ford’s Fairlane estate. At one point, there was a monorail running from the mall to a nearby hotel.