Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, Auburn Hills, Michigan

This sign appears at all four of the vehicular entrances into Great Lakes Crossing Outlets. This enclosed outlet mall located about halfway between Detroit and Flint currently features nine anchor tenants.

Sorry for the massive lack of updates...well over a year, to be exact. But anyways, back to our regularly scheduled program...

Great Lakes Crossing Outlets (which will be abbreviated as GLX for the remainder of this entry unless when the full name must be used) is a massive enclosed outlet mall (true to it's slogan, "Michigan's Largest Outlet Center") located in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan, featuring 180 stores and nine anchors. This is perhaps one of three locations that contribute to Auburn Hills' significance-along with the city being the location of Chrysler's world headquarters and the Palace of Auburn Hills, the home arena of the NBA's Detroit Pistons.

The site, located approximately halfway between two Automotive Revolution powerhouses, Detroit and Flint, Michigan; along the south side of Interstate 75 between Baldwin and Joslyn Roads just north of Pontiac, Michigan; was once a quiet piece of land in what was once Pontiac Township in northern Oakland County that featured no more than forests and a small quarry, bordered to the south by only a small and quiet dirt road that was called North Lake Angelus Road (that name still exists west of Baldwin). However, in 1991, the Rouse Company began to propose an "Auburn Mills" outlet mall which was about two times larger than the current GLX structure.

However, Auburn Mills was opposed by many locals, who feared that such a big structure would dominate over the wetland terrain. Despite this, however, in case the mall would actually be constructed, the Michigan Department of Transportation upgraded the I-75/Baldwin Road interchange in 1994 by widening Baldwin into a boulevard and reconfiguring the loop ramps. The Joslyn Road interchange was already prepared to face Auburn Mills traffic, although that was done for the benefits of both General Motors' Orion Assembly plant and the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Eventually, the Auburn Mills proposal died off, but later in the decade, Bloomfield Hills-based Taubman Centers released plans to construct a smaller (and thus less intrusive on the wetlands) enclosed outlet mall that was named "Great Lakes Crossing" on the exact same site. GLX was to be primarily themed on outdoor life in Michigan and laid out similar to similar-vintage Mills outlet malls-the stores were to be laid out in a "racetrack" floorplan.

Construction began in 1997 and GLX first opened to the public on November 12, 1998. During construction, North Lake Angelus east of Baldwin was paved, widened, had it's alignment changed and renamed Great Lakes Crossing Drive. It initially featured more than 200 inline tenants. The original anchors included several retailers that were new to Michigan-these included Bass Pro Shops, Gameworks, Neiman Marcus Last Call Clearance Center and Rainforest Cafe. Steve & Barry's also opened it's first mall store at GLX and local theater chain Star Theaters opened it's largest facility there too, with a staggering 25 screens! Other charter tenants included JCPenney Outlet, Sportmart; Bed, Bath & Beyond; Marshall's, Saks Off 5th, Burlington Coat Factory and TJ Maxx.

Great Lakes Crossing Outlets directory, August 2013

 

The first major change occurred in April 2002, when the JCPenney Outlet store closed. Much of that space was taken over by Circuit City, which itself closed during massive closure rounds in late 2008. 25% of the former JCPenney Outlet space is occupied by H&M, which opened in June 2007. The remainder of the former JCPenney Outlet space includes a Children's Place Outlet and a 22,000+-square foot, 650-seat Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill.

Sportmart was eventually acquired by Sports Authority and rebranded to that nameplate. In January 2006, AMC acquired Loews Theaters (which owned Star Theaters at the time) and renamed the theater to the AMC Star Great Lakes Crossing 25. In 2007, Steve & Barry's relocated to a former Home Quarters in an outlot at the nearby and then-dying Summit Place Mall in Waterford Township. S&B's former GLX location was soon taken over by Urban Behavior. During the fourth quarter of 2009, Coach Factory Outlet and BCBG Max Azria opened at GLX. The mall's Gameworks was a fatality of company restructuring undertaken by parent company Sega (the company more well known for Sonic the Hedgehog, as you all know) and closed on March 29, 2010.

Later in 2010, however, massive changes were undertaken-on September 27, GLX was renamed "Great Lakes Crossing Outlets" and officially reopened on October 12. Also, several new stores would open in the same timeframe, including the first Michigan locations of Lord & Taylor Outlet, Hugo Boss Factory Store, Talbot's Outlet and Movado Company Store. Polo Ralph Lauren Factory Store, Wilson's Leather Outlet, Lacoste Outlet, Aerie Outlet and Swim & Sport Outlet also opened around the same time. Also, Forever 21 relocated to the former S&B/Urban Behavior spot (dead center in the middle of the mall structure) and Art Van Furniture opened it's first mall store, in the former JCP Outlet/Circuit City space.

 

This mall has only been around for over 15 years and yet already has quite an interesting history-even more interesting is that Taubman continues to own the mall today. All pictures shown here were taken on August 19 and September 22, 2013.

 

Lord & Taylor Outlet's mall entrance-as evident by the storefront design, this was Forever 21's original GLX location.

 

Storefronts within GLX

 

 Just look at that ceiling!

Loft Outlet

A service hallway

District 2 near the entrance to District 1

The court in District 1 where Saks Off 5th; Bed, Bath & Beyond and a Sander's kiosk are located

Art Van Furniture is one of four retailers currently occupying the area originally occupied by JCPenney Outlet.

Sports Authorty's mall entrance, it was originally Sportmart.

Bar Louie, this was originally an American Bandstand Grill which closed in 2002.

The AMC Star 25 theater-interestingly, it still uses Star Theaters signage!

The former Gameworks space, which was occupied by a temporary Halloween store when I visited in September 2013-there are now plans to build an aquarium here.

Rainforest Cafe interior

The food court-which features a large "GREAT LAKES CROSSING" sign, a rooftop skylight and pictures of outdoor Michigan and the Detroit cityscape from 1998.

Bass Pro Shops' mall entrance