1. Lakeview Square Mall's aura fades amid retailing shift
DillonDavis, Battle Creek Enquirer 3:36 p.m. EDTOctober 24, 2015
David Haysmer is beaming at the other end of the
phone, reminiscing of a bygone era. "How in the
world did you find me?" he asks with a hearty laugh.
Haysmer has made a more than 35-year career in
the world of real estate and property management.
His journey has taken him to a high-level role within
JLL, a commercial real estate company, with he and his family based in southern
Florida. In the early 1980s, Haysmer was an up-and-coming talent with The Forbes
Co., charged with managing the company's voyage into Calhoun County:
the Lakeview Square Mall.
These days it's admittedly a little foggy to Haysmer, but as soon as gets going, the
memories start rushing back. He remembers the 10,000 orange and black balloons
sailing into the sky on opening day; he remembers the mall's layout and many of its
stores.
He even recalls the desolation of Beckley Road before the mall's arrival, and he's not
at all surprised that the surrounding area has evolved into the shopping focal point of
Battle Creek.
"It was a great experience for me," he recalled. "It was the first time I actually started
running a mall that came out of the ground. I was involved in construction meetings
and mall meetings and landscape meetings. I didn't have the direct responsibility (for
everything), but you had to know what's going on and know the people.
"That was an important time."
In its day, Lakeview Square was one of the brightest lights shining in Battle Creek. It
was a sign of expansion, of commerce, as well as governmental and private industry
fortitude sought after in communities in every corner of the United States. We had
arrived.
However, more than three decades after the mall opened its doors, the lights have
dimmed a bit at Lakeview Square after multiple property sales and the appearance of
empty storefronts. In some ways, the mall has become a shadow of its former self, a
convex mirror reflection of the image projected when it opened 32 years ago.
'Thehippest and coolest place'
Lakeview Square Mall is a relic of the time it was built, an enclosed shopping center in
the era of MTV VJs, high-waisted pants and the Rubik's Cube. The $40 million facility,
spearheaded by developers Sidney Forbes and Maurice Cohen, was built after years
of governmental bickering, settling in on a then-rural part of Beckley Road not far
from I-94. It was to create about 1,200 jobs in nearly 100 storefronts -- including three
anchor stores -- with 2,800 parking spaces to accommodate southwestern Michigan
shoppers.
Amid much fanfare, including performances by singer Tony Bennett and bandleader
Count Basie and his orchestra, the mall opened to the public on Aug. 3, 1983.
More than 10,000 attended the opening ceremony, in which Mayor Floyd Oglesby
remarked that it was "the most beautiful mall in Michigan and perhaps all of America."
Its featured marble flooring, visually appealing staggered storefronts and extensive,
oak-trimmed planting areas as well as artwork tastefully placed throughout its 650,000
square feet of space.
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2. "The artwork that was put in, it was just, things that typically didn't go into malls in
those days," Haysmer said earlier this month. "This one was head and shoulders
above (other malls) in terms of design. ... It was just different than what was out there
at the time."
It opened at 70 percent occupancy with 15 women's apparel shops, six men's shops,
11 shoe stores, five jewelry stores and nine food service outlets, according to
Enquirer archives.
Anchor stores JCPenney, which shuttered its downtown store in favor of Lakeview
Square, Sears and Hudson's were the focal points of the mall with luscious planters
surrounding them and skylights drawing the eye to the storefronts.
Alook inside the Lakeview Square Mall prior to when it was finished in 1983. (Photo: Enquirer file)
The early years saw crowds flood these stores for their sales on high-end
apparel once found in downtown Battle Creek and elsewhere. Over time, the mall
welcomed stores for music (Camelot Music and Recordtown), electronics (Radio
Shack and Shaak Electronics), books (Waldenbooks and B. Dalton Bookseller),
shoes (Foot Locker and Big Sky) and restaurants and food options (The Great Wall,
Cafe Mexico, The Cookie Bin, Chi Chi's, The Great Hot Dog Experience and A'Roma
Villa, among many others).
John Hart, an independent contractor who oversees downtown development in Battle
Creek, was a teenager when the mall opened, and he remembers the environment it
once had. Hart said the beginning of its existence featured bands and car shows and
many activities that motivated shoppers, young and old, to go there to keep up with
the trends.
"It was so vibrant and such a place to be that you had to go and check it out every
weekend," Hart recalled. "If you weren't checking it out every weekend, things were
changing and you were behind the times. You wouldn't be considered in-the-know
and you had to check it out."
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3. More than 10,000people were in attendance when the Lakeview Square Mall opened to the
publicon Aug. 3, 1983. (Photo: Enquirer file)
It was an attractive draw to vendors such as former Battle Creek mayor and longtime
local business owner, John Godfrey. Godfrey, who was the owner of Godfrey Jewelers
in the downtown area, opened a second location at Lakeview Square in early 1984.
"The idea of Lakeview Square Mall was there was so much shopping dollars that were
leaving the community at that time," Godfrey said. "Kalamazoo had both West Main
and Maple Hill malls, the big mall in Ann Arbor had come about and they were pulling
retail dollars out of Battle Creek."
Doubledilemma
Lakeview Square quickly became the epicenter of the area's shopping culture. And
while it was a celebrated entity among many, others bemoaned its negative effect
on commerce in the downtown area.
The construction of Lakeview Square drew nervous criticism from downtown
businesses, many of whom aired them out in a July 31, 1983, edition of the Enquirer.
Some believed Lakeview Square would be another nail in the downtown's coffin,
draining it of commerce dollars.
The BeckleyRoad corridor captured in this undated Enquirer photo. (Photo: Enquirer file)
"The first few months after Lakeview Square opens will have an impact on us
downtown retailers," Helen Devine of Devines' Great Frame & Art Supply Co., told the
Enquirer at the time. "Certainly it will not be the death of the downtown, which is going
through a revitalization to make it very attractive."
Of course, there was a downtown answer to the Lakeview Square project. The same
era brought the creation of the Michigan Mall, completed for about $2 million in 1976,
and the area's "Superblock," which featured a Stouffer's Hotel -- now the McCamly
Plaza Hotel -- Kellogg Arena and McCamly Place. McCamly Place was expected to be
a juggernaut with 35 stores, restaurant options and food stores, the Enquirer
reported.
It was adjacent to the freshly built Kellogg Co. world headquarters which also was
expected to reinvigorate a large portion of the area.
However, the area never flourished -- hobbled by its own design and by the dollars
spent at Lakeview Square. By 1992, the City Commission voted to tear out the
Michigan Mall and reopen Michigan Avenue.
For Godfrey, it wasn't much of a surprise.
"When you look at it now, (the Michigan Mall) was allowing traffic to circumvent the
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4. downtown because we closed off the main street and put big, one-direction signs on
Jackson and State Street," Godfrey said. "It allowed people to go around the
downtown rather than into the downtown. So, that had an additional devastating effect
on the downtown."
Shoppers navigate the corridor on Nov. 25, 1989at Lakeview Square Mall. (Photo: Enquirer file)
In spite of Lakeview Square's success in drawing businesses, and commercial
growth along the rest of the once-desolate corridor, it gradually repelled local
businesses.
Godfrey, who left the mall in about 1990, said it's "very costly" for a local business to
operate within the confines of a mall structure. On top of monthly rent, he said he was
required to pay additional fees for center court and parking lot maintenance that was
not stipulated in the lease, echoing a common complaint by local businesses setting
up shop at the mall. Still, Godfrey said creating a new store in the mall "was a great
ego trip," and he and his staff were sad to leave.
Adapt and create
The death of the modern mall has been widely publicized, and by some accounts, a
little overblown. As photographers and adventurous trespassers across the
country document ruin in abandoned malls, like the Rolling Acres Mall in Akron, Ohio
and the Cloverleaf Mall in Chesterfield, Va., it only has strengthened the narrative
that malls are struggling.
A mall's survival is tied to the market it inhabits, store occupancy rates and
management's ability to create a flourishing atmosphere. The environment
surrounding the mall also plays a factor, as thriving facilities often mimic the
convenience and style of a downtown area, Hart said.
John Hart is leading Battle Creek’s efforts to improve downtown. (Photo: KennyRead/For the
Enquirer)
"I don't see malls as a bad thing, but part of their problem is they're not mixed-use;
they're destination only," Hart said. "If you're going there, you're going for one thing --
shopping or dining or some sort of experience. You go in and you're out. You don't
live within blocks so it's not like you're doing convenience-type shopping; you're doing
destination-type shopping."
Green Street Advisors, a North American real estate analyst company that studies
malls, groups them into four categories: A++, A, B and C/D -- B malls are the most
common. According to the firm's 2015 U.S. Mall Outlook, the top centers are defined
as a "dominant mall in a top market" with "strong demographics" and a "strong tourist
draw." Malls on the lower end of the spectrum, however, have lower sales productivity,
"declining occupancy," and "one or more anchor vacancies."
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5. In an Aug. 7 email to the Enquirer, a company spokesperson said about "two dozen
enclosed malls have been closed" since 2010, and that "an additional 75 are on the
brink" of closure.
The company declined to classify Lakeview Square for this story. But Pat Huddleston,
a professor of advertising and public relations at Michigan State University who's
familiar with the classification system, said Lakeview Square likely would be
considered a class C shopping center, similar to the Meridian Mall in Okemos.
Battle Creek's Lakeview Square Mall. (Photo: KennyRead/For TheEnquirer)
Huddleston said malls fail for a number of reasons, whether it's high vacancy rates,
a bad location or the rise of online shopping. The ones that adapt to challenges to
create a vibrant place to shop, she said, will survive. She cited stores such as
Cabela's, which she called "a destination store," that provides customers a "fun
shopping experience."
"Malls are not going to completely die out," she said. "Some malls are going to fail and
we're already seeing that. They are building -- in some places like Miami, for example
-- they're building class A malls. People are going to continue to shop, but they want a
unique shopping experience when they do go."
Thefuture
It's difficult to know where Lakeview Square Mall is headed. The mall has gone
through a series of sales over the years from Forbes/Cohen Properties to General
Growth Properties in 1998 to Cushman & Wakefield in 2011 and to GK Development
Inc. in 2013.
GK Development, a Barrington, Ill.-based real estate company, purchased Lakeview
Square out of foreclosure for $8.8 million, according to Enquirer archives. City
records have Lakeview Square and the 32 acres it sits on assessed at $13.1 million
as recently as 2012. Upon purchase of the mall, Marianne Fasano, a public relations
consultant for GK, told the Enquirer in 2013 the company was planning "an
aggressive leasing effort" for the mall, but she couldn't specifically detail what that
meant.
The past 15 years has seen the mall welcome major chains -- Dunham's, Barnes &
Noble, Shoe Dept. Encore and Buffalo Wild Wings, which takes up a large portion of
the former food court -- while some stores -- Old Navy, Steve & Barry's, Radioshack,
Deb and Spencer's, among others -- have closed up shop in the mall. The mall's
movie theater, Carmike Lakeview Square Cinemas, and Applebee's are hot spots and
its anchor slots remain filled by JCPenney, Sears and Macy's, the eventual purchaser
of Hudson's after it had been acquired years earlier by Dayton-Hudson Corp. and
rebranded as a Marshall Field & Co. store.
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6. Battle Creek's Lakeview Square Mall. (Photo: KennyRead/For TheEnquirer)
The mall's website currently lists 51 total vendors at Lakeview Square, including the
three it counts for JCPenney's family of services and Don Pablo's, which is not
attached to the mall but sits on the mall's property.
Still, questions remain. At the corporate level, JCPenney and Sears have reported
slumping sales, causing both to rethink strategies nationwide. Also, Macy's
announced in September the chain plans to close as many as 40 stores by early
2016, and company spokesperson Jim Sluzewski said in a Sept. 28 email to the
Enquirer the company "has not yet finalized decisions" on what stores will close.
Losing one or more anchor stores would be a major blow to Lakeview Square and its
remaining tenants. There are plenty of empty spaces where vibrant storefronts once
stood.
Mark Dycus, the general manager of Lakeview Square Mall, and Fasano declined
requests for interviews for this story. When asked to set up a meeting with the
Enquirer, Dycus replied with a statement that said in part that GK is "using a variety of
marketing tools and strategies, including space re-configurations, to aggressively
address a challenging retail environment. When new information is available, we will
be happy to share it with you."
It remains unclear what the plans are for the future of Lakeview Square Mall, and GK
has made it clear it's not willing to share them.
What is clear, however, is Lakeview Square's lasting impact on Beckley Road. The
creation of the mall revealed a demand for shopping that since has been filled by the
nearby Harper Village, the Minges Creek Mall and many other
businesses, restaurants and grocery stores along the strip. It also fosters a sense of
optimism among city leadership for future developments in the area, Ted
Dearing, Battle Creek's assistant city manager, said.
Battle Creek Assistant CityManager for Communityand EconomicDevelopment Ted Dearing
says with communitysupport, BCVision can accomplish all goals set bythe project's sixaction
teams. Dearing, also aco-chair of the culture of vitalityaction team, spoke during BCVision's 100-
daycelebration Wednesdayevening at Festival Market Square. (Photo: KennyRead/For TheEnquirer)
"Sometimes, what appears to be a very big project, is not as difficult to execute as you
think," Dearing said Friday. "What (the construction of the mall) really was was a
response to consumer demand. Everything you see out there is a response to market
demands. These kinds of things can come together in Battle Creek pretty quickly."
Lakeview Square carries on, though the architecturally rich interior has been stripped
down. Gone are the lush planters and babbling water fountains and high-dollar stage
performances. Those have been replaced with stained wooden benches, cell phone
kiosks and motorized stuffed animals to ride the length of the corridor.
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7. Hart is among those watching and waiting to see how things play out for the mall in
these changing times.
"A lot of communities, some of those larger malls don't exist as they've been torn
down," Hart said. "I don't think ours is at risk of that level.
"It's not so large that it can't probably reinvent itself."
Contact Dillon Davis at 269-966-0698 or dwdavis@battlecreekenquirer.com. Follow
him on Twitter: @DillonDavis
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