Future of Northland Center in Southfield to be discussed at public meeting

 

The shuttered mall—once America's largest—is scheduled to come down and a new development is expected to rise in its place. The public input meeting is to allow residents the opportunity to let the city and developers hear their opinions on what should happen with the 114-acre site.

The public input meeting is being held Tuesday, Aug. 23 from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Southfield Public Library Auditorium, located at 26300 Evergreen Rd. A similar forum was held June 22.

Northland Center is sentimental for many across metro Detroit. The mall, which opened in 1954 and closed in 2014, had many features in addition to the stores, including unique works of art and even a nuclear fallout shelter. One of those works, the Boy and the Bear, was saved by a fundraising campaign that received more than $55,000 in donations.

Jerry Naftaly, a former mayor of nearby Oak Park who says that, during his childhood, the mall was his family's downtown, wrote a book about Northland Center. In an interview published in July, he told Metromode's Maureen McDonald that, "The last mall manager took me on a tour of the tunnels that once served as pathways for truck deliveries to Northland stores, including places for storage and 484 rooms of varied sizes. There were old mannequins, computer junk, purses and shoes, and an anonymous letter from a guy who squatted a month down under the mall." 

 

The tunnels and the bomb shelter on the lowest level will add to the demolition cost, which the city estimates at $8 to $10 million.

 

Read more about Northland Mall >>>

Representatives from architecture, engineering, and planning firm OHM Advisors, commissioned by the city to create a master plan for the redevelopment, will be on hand at the public input meeting. They will also present their latest thinking on the Northland Center site.

Got a development news story to share? Email MJ Galbraith here or send him a tweet @mikegalbraith.