Wonderland Village

Wonderland Village

Location	Livonia, Michigan, United States
Opening date	2007 (Village)
Management	Schostak Corporation
Owner	Schostak Corporation
No. of stores and services	40 +
No. of anchor tenants	2
Total retail floor area	TBD
No. of floors	1

Wonderland Village is an outdoor shopping center in Livonia, Michigan, United States, a suburb of Detroit. The center is located at the southwest corner of Middlebelt Road and Plymouth Road, approximately one mile south of I-96. Wal-Mart and Target serve as anchor stores.

From 1959 until 2004, a shopping mall called Wonderland Mall (previously Wonderland Center) operated on the site. Originally an outdoor shopping center, Wonderland Mall was enclosed and expanded in the 1980s (with a second renovation in the late 1990s), although loss of major anchor stores and competition from nearby Westland Center caused Wonderland Mall to decline, eventually being classified as a dead mall. The old center was closed in 2004 and demolished a year later for construction of the newer shopping center.

History

Wonderland Center opened as an open-air shopping center in August 1959, on the site of a former airport. The center, at the time, featured Montgomery Ward and Federal Department Store (Federals) as its anchor stores. Other early tenants included S. S. Kresge Corporation and F. W. Woolworth Company, as well as a Farmer Jack supermarket. Federals closed in the 1970s and was replaced with Folands, a catalog showroom chain. Farmer Jack closed in the late 1970s and was replaced with a restaurant called Spaghetti Company in 1977. S. S. Kresge closed its store at the mall in the early 1980s, with Designer Depot taking its place.

Other than the changes in anchor stores, Wonderland Center was largely unchanged, and by the 1980s, the mall was considered outdated in appearance; in addition, it was largely an outdoor complex, and was thus considered undesirable in Michigan's cold winter weather. The Schostak Corporation of Southfield, Michigan purchased Wonderland Center in 1983 and began renovations, enclosing the center and adding more than 100,000 square feet (10,000 m²) of retail space being added. After renovations were completed in 1985, the complex was re-named Wonderland Mall. Target, AMC Theatres, and a food court were added in 1989, while Service Merchandise replaced Foland's, which closed in the early 1990s. Dunham's Sports and Office Max were added in the early 1990s as well, bringing the mall up to 862,000 square feet (80,100 m²) in size.

Demise

Schostak continued to renovate Wonderland Mall extensively throughout the 1990s, in attempts to maintain the center's viability as a competitor to nearby shopping centers, such as Westland Center. The mall's food court was rebuilt in the late 1990s, and new tenants such as American Eagle Outfitters, Old Navy and Bath & Body Works were added, as well as a discount store called Mazel's. Woolworth closed in 1997 and was soon replaced with f.y.e.; in addition, an indoor amusement park called Jeepers! was opened as part of an attempt to add entertainment options to the mall. The mall also introduced Cyberspace Safari, a marketing program that allowed patrons of the mall to surf the Web and learn about the Internet. The addition of these entertainment venues soon boosted mall sales 20%.

Despite the increase in sales brought on by the addition of entertainment venues, the mall gained a reputation for crime, which combined with the demise of two anchor stores, led to the mall's downfall. Service Merchandise closed in 1999 with the chain; the space was originally slated to be replaced with Burlington Coat Factory, one of several anchor stores which was proposed but never came to fruition. In 2000, Montgomery Ward closed the last of its stores nationwide; many of the other inline tenants began to close as well.

Redevelopment

Wonderland Mall was officially shuttered in 2003, except for Target, Office Max, and Dunham's Sports, the latter two of which closed in 2004. After the mall was closed, plans were announced to demolish the entire structure and an adjacent former Kmart store (which also closed in 2003), and build a new shopping center anchored by a new Target store, as well as a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

The Wal-Mart proposal was met with opposition by members the community, who cited the nearby presence of another Wal-Mart store, while other residents simply did not want a 24-hour Supercenter in their neighborhood. Opponents of the mall's redevelopment held a civic meeting in late 2005, which was interrupted by pranksters shouting epithets, and other opponents picketed in front of the vacant mall. Despite the local opposition, plans were approved for the new shopping center. Demolition of the old mall structure began in 2006.

Present-day

The demolition of the old Wonderland Mall made way for construction of the new Wonderland Village shopping center, on which construction began in late 2006. Target opened its new store on July 25, 2007, followed by Wal-Mart a month later. Other tenants which have since opened include Noodles & Company, Johnny's Lunch, Qdoba, Verizon, FedEx Kinkos, Dot's, Chili's, InkStop, and Casual Male XL.