Genesee Valley Center

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Facts and statistics
Genesee Valley Center

Location	Flint Township, Michigan, United States
Opening date	1970
Management	Jones Lang LaSalle
Owner	Jones Lang LaSalle
No. of stores and services	approx. 140
No. of anchor tenants	6
Total retail floor area	1,300,000 square feet (121,000 m²)^[1]
No. of floors	1, plus partial upper level (all anchors are 2-story)
Website	http://geneseemall.com

Genesee Valley Center is an enclosed shopping mall located in Flint, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1970, the mall currently features more than 140 stores and restaurants; at 1,300,000 square feet (121,000 m²) of gross leasable area^{[citation needed]}

Anchor stores at Genesee Valley Center include Barnes & Noble, Burlington Coat Factory, JCPenney, Macy's, Sears, and Steve & Barry's; in addition, the mall features a food court, and an external concourse known as the Outdoor Village. The mall is managed and owned by Jones Lang LaSalle.

1 History
2 1990s and 2000s
3 References
4 External links

[edit] History

Genesee Valley Center was developed in 1970 as a one-level, enclosed shopping mall, consisting of a straight-line concourse with an anchor store at either end. Sears was the first store to open, doing so in May 1970; Detroit, Michigan-based Hudson's followed two months later.^[2] These two stores served as the northern and southern anchor stores, respectively.

On August 8, 1970, the mall itself was opened to the public.^[2] At the time, it comprised fifty-six tenants, including Hamady, a local supermarket chain, and Cunningham Drug, a local pharmacy chain.^[2] By September, Woolworth had opened next to Sears.^[2]

Two new wings were added to the mall in the 1980s. The eastern wing was the first to open, featuring JCPenney as a third anchor store; Montgomery Ward would later be added adjacent to the JCPenney store. By 1987, the western wing was completed, bringing in Mervyns as the mall's fifth department store. A mezzanine featuring a food court was also added to center court in 1987.^[3]

[edit] 1990s and 2000s

Woolworth closed in the 1980s as the chain declared bankruptcy; its space was eventually divided into several smaller stores, including a large arcade called Tilt! Eventually, most of these stores relocated, and the majority of the former Woolworth space was reconfigured as Steve & Barry's University Sportswear.^{[citation needed]}

In 2001, Montgomery Ward had closed the last of its store nationwide. The same year, Hudson's was renamed Marshall Field's; five years later, Marshall Field's would be one of several nameplates to be converted to Macy's. The former Montgomery Ward location was demolished in 2005 for a new section called the Outdoor Village;^[4] opened in early 2006, this addition features additional mall tenants in an outdoor setting.^[3] Anchoring the Outdoor Village is a Barnes & Noble bookstore, the opening of which resulted in the closure of a B. Dalton bookstore within the mall itself.^[5]

Mervyns also closed its Michigan operations in 2006; a year later, their space at the mall was replaced with Burlington Coat Factory, which relocated from an existing store nearby.^[6]