More stores close at struggling Eastland Center mall

Tenants continue to flee metro Detroit's long-struggling Eastland Center mall, which recently lost Burlington department store, one of its last remaining anchor stores.

The store formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory shut its doors this month, leaving the distressed mall in Harper Woods with just one significant anchor tenant, Shoppers World. Eastland's other anchor stores — now all closed — included Target, Macy's and Sears. All of those store buildings sit vacant.

Eastland's total occupancy rate is now only 39%, and the mall's appraised value, once as high as $60 million in 2007, had collapsed to $3.25 million prior to this year's Target and Burlington closures, according to reports by the Trepp commercial real estate data firm.

The nearby Home Depot and Lowes Home Improvement stores, which aren't attached to the 1.4 million-square-foot mall, remain open.

How much longer Eastland can persevere is an open question as many lower- and mid-tier shopping malls across the region and country continue to struggle — and in some instances close — amid major shifts in consumers' buying habits.

The slightly older Northland Center mall in Southfield shut down completely in 2015 after losing all of its anchor stores.

Eastland mall was foreclosed on by mortgage lenders in April 2016 with $36.5 million still outstanding on a $39.5 million loan from 2006. Eastland's loan was combined with other commercial loans and packaged into securities sold to investors.

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Eastland is currently in a complex ownership situation involving a special servicer, Maryland-based CWCapital, and day-to-day management and leasing under the Spinoso Real Estate Group.

Mall staff declined to take any questions Tuesday and referred all media inquiries to Spinoso's New York-based headquarters, which didn't return a message. CWCapital representatives also wouldn't comment.

Despite its loss of tenants, Eastland still managed nearly $2 million in net operating income last year, according to the Trepp report.

However, the mall has "large areas of deferred maintenance" and needs at least $10 million in capital improvements, including a full replacement of its roofs and parking lots, the report said.

Eastland mall has also been the scene of occasional shootings in recent years, including a December 2015 execution-style killing of a 16-year-old youth by another teenager outside the Burlington store.

Opened in 1957, Eastland was part of a group of shopping centers built and managed by J.L. Hudson. It was originally planned as suburban Detroit's first major shopping mall, but construction was delayed by a steel shortage brought on by the Korean War.

Both Eastland and Northland malls had been owned by a New York-based real estate firm, Ashkenazy Acquisition, which stopped making payments on the properties' loans in 2015 and 2014, respectively.

Contact JC Reindl: 313-222-6631 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @JCReindl.