The Crossroads (Portage, Michigan) facts for kids
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| Location | Portage, Michigan, USA |
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| Coordinates | 42°13′13″N 85°35′39″W / 42.2203°N 85.5943°W |
| Opening date | July 24, 1980 |
| Developer | Westcor, Dayton-Hudson Corporation |
| Management | Brookfield Properties Retail Group |
| Owner | Brookfield Properties Retail Group |
| No. of stores and services | 100 |
| No. of anchor tenants | 4 (3 open, 1 vacant) |
| Total retail floor area | 769,801 square feet (71,516.9 m2) |
| No. of floors | 2 |
| Parking | 4006 |
The Crossroads is a large shopping mall found in Portage, Michigan. It has about 100 different stores. You can also find a food court there, which is a place with many restaurants.
The main, big stores at The Crossroads are called "anchor stores." These are JCPenney, Burlington, and Macy's. There used to be another big store, Sears, but it is now empty. Since 1999, Brookfield Properties Retail Group has owned The Crossroads Mall.
Contents
The Crossroads: A Shopping Adventure
How the Mall Started
The Crossroads Mall first opened its doors in Portage, Michigan, in 1980. It was a very special place back then. It was the only mall in Michigan with two levels, outside of the Detroit area.
When it first opened, two major stores were the main attractions: JCPenney and Hudson's. A few years later, in 1982, Sears also opened a large store there.
The mall was built by a company called Westcor. They worked with the Dayton-Hudson Corporation. This company owned the Hudson's store chain at the time. The mall was built on South Westnedge Avenue, close to Interstate 94.
Early Stores and Changes
On the very first day the mall opened, many popular stores were ready for shoppers. Some of these included Arby's (a fast-food restaurant), Casual Corner (a clothing store), Claire's (for accessories), County Seat (another clothing store), B. Dalton (a bookstore), Hickory Farms (for snacks), Kinney Shoes (a shoe store), and Consumer Value Stores (a pharmacy).
Later, in 1989, another big store joined the mall. This was Mervyns, which became the fourth anchor store.
Mall Ownership and Updates
In 1999, a new company called General Growth Properties bought the mall. They made some changes to make it even better. In the early 2000s, they added a new food court. This gave visitors more choices for food and drinks.
Over the years, some of the main stores changed their names or closed. Hudson's changed its name to Marshall Field's in 2001. Then, in September 2006, it became Macy's, which it still is today.
Mervyns, another anchor store, closed in early 2006. This happened when all Mervyns stores in Michigan closed down. After Mervyns left, a new store called Burlington Coat Factory opened in that space. This was Burlington's first store in the Kalamazoo area.
In August 2019, Sears announced it would be closing its store at The Crossroads. They started selling everything at lower prices on August 15. The Sears store officially closed on November 10, 2019. This left one of the main anchor spots empty.
