Some have had plenty of fun at the expense of Macomb County's newest art installation in the Hall Road/M-59 median, an orange, 35-foot-tall ring recently dubbed The Halo.

But the 10.5-mile road's retail scene is no laughing matter.

In fact, it's one of the most active in the region, catering to hundreds of thousands of people along a heavily traveled state highway shopping in big-box, junior-box and smaller retailers, plus a pair of regional shopping centers in Lakeside Mall and The Mall at Partridge Creek.

"There are three Walmarts, two Targets and two Home Depots," said Louis Ciotti, an associate broker with Farmington Hills-based Landmark Commercial Real Estate specializing in Macomb's dense retail footprint. "That defines the amount of retail and traffic right there."

While not everything is roses — Lakeside Mall has long struggled and has been in foreclosure for nearly three years to its lender on a more than $60 million mortgage — new retail regularly flocks to Hall Road between Mound Road and I-94, which handles a combined 90,000 to 110,000 cars per day, eastbound and westbound combined, according to the Michigan Department of Transportation.

"It's one of those corridors we jawbone day to day from a national perspective," said Simon Jonna, executive managing director of investments for The Jonna Group in Southfield, a division of Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Investment Services Inc., based in Calabasas, Calif. Others include Big Beaver Road in Troy, Novi Road in Novi and Ford Road in Canton Township.

"Hall Road is the epitome of it all," he said. "It is very much built out as a massive commercial corridor, and it generates north of $1 billion in retail sales per year on its own legs."

That has helped spur job growth, according to Macomb County data.

The county says it has added retail jobs almost every year since 2010, rising from 38,768 to 43,611 in 2017, a 12.5 percent bump, more than double the state's 6.2 percent gain (from 461,458 to 490,024) during that same time period.