The Morouns have purchased the Bel Air Centre on Detroit's northeast side.

The family's Warren-based Crown Enterprises Inc. real estate company finalized the sale last month, according to Wayne County land records. The purchase price was not disclosed.

The shopping center is about 450,000 square feet on more than 40 acres.

The precise plans for the property are not known. Michael Samhat, president of Crown Enterprises, confirmed the purchase and said the site's future does not include retail. He would only say it would be "repurposed."

My translation of that: Its buildings will be demolished, although when is not known. Samhat said some of the retailers are looking to break their existing leases and others are staying open, but he declined to specify which ones.

Johny Thomas, general manager for the Bel Air Luxury Cinema, said Tuesday afternoon that the theater still has 15 years left on its lease and it doesn't plan on going anywhere anytime soon.

In a city that doesn't have many sizable blocks of contiguous vacant land for new industrial and warehouse space, the site presents an opportunity for new development in that sector along a pair of major traffic arteries, Eight Mile Road and Van Dyke Avenue. Mayor Mike Duggan said in September that the city has to make more 30-acre contiguous parcels available for modern, single-story factories, as my colleague Chad Livengood wrote at the time.

As far as movie theaters, the city has just the Bel Air on the east side, Cinema Detroit on Third Avenue in Midtown and the Redford Theatre on the northwest side. Although there have been announcements of two new Detroit theaters around downtown — an Emagine Entertainment Inc. theater and an Alamo Drafthouse in Midtown — neither have started construction and it's not known when they will.