Fort Saginaw Mall

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Fort Saginaw Mall was the first of three enclosed shopping malls to open in the city of Saginaw, Michigan. While it was a viable shopping destination into the 1990s, high crime rates and competition from Fashion Square Mall forced the closure of the mall in the mid-1990s. For over a decade, the vacant shopping center was boarded up, though its Kmart store remained open much longer. Though it remains vacant, the center is owned by Cafaro Company.

1 History
2 The Mall Today
3 References
4 External Links

[edit] History

The first store to open at Fort Saginaw Mall was a Kmart with adjacent Kmart Foods, which opened in 1966. A year later, the 335,000 square foot mall opened, featuring around 40 stores, including a Federal's department store, Scott's 5 & 10 (later T G & Y), Muir Drugs, and a movie theater; there was also a Giantway supermarket behind Federals. The mall's design was somewhat unusual in that the Kmart corridor featured stores on only one side, but the Federals wing was a typical enclosed mall section. The mall was convenient to I-75 and cross-state highway M-46.

In 1975, Fashion Square Mall opened on the northern side of Saginaw. This mall was much larger, featuring nearly 100 stores, and four anchors - J. C. Penney, Sears, Wiechmann's, and Heavenrich's (Hudson's would open in the mall a year later). Because it was centrally located to the "Tri-Cities" (Bay City, Saginaw, and Midland), and because it was much larger, Fashion Square Mall became the dominant shopping center in the region.

Increased competition from the larger mall, and a rising crime rate around Fort Saginaw Mall, would take their toll over time. In 1976 the mall's theater abruptly closed, reportedly due to the murder of the manager ^[1]. The theater did re-open in 1979, but it only showed one film before closing again and being converted to retail space.

Fort Saginaw Mall lost its Federals store in 1977; by the early 1980s the space was converted to Burlington Coat Factory. Also, Kmart phased out its Kmart Foods stores in the late 1970s, expanding their main store into the former Kmart Foods space. The departure of T G & Y made way for Norman's Sporting Goods. Big Lots also came to the mall, although the store did not open into the concourse itself.

In 1991, Burlington Coat Factory moved to a new store on the other end of Saginaw. Phar-Mor quickly opened in the mall's east anchor slot, although the chain would close all Michigan operations a year later. Big Lots would also close along with Norman's and many other mall tenants throughout the early 1990s. By the middle of the decade, the mall itself was boarded up, with only Kmart and Kessel Foods (the former Giantway) operating.

[edit] The Mall Today

A sign was erected in front of the center around 2000, reading "Fort Saginaw Shopping Center"; this sign heralded plans to tear down the mall and replace it with a strip mall. For some unknown reason, the plans were aborted, leaving the vacant mall abandoned. Kmart closed its store in late 2004, and the grocery store has been converted to Save-A-Lot and other small stores. The mall building itself remains, still boarded up.

In 2005, when Wal-Mart was seeking to open a store in the nearby Frankenmuth area, the site of Fort Saginaw Mall was offered. For some unknown reason, this site was turned down by Wal-Mart, who would later scrap their plans for a Frankenmuth store.

According to WEYI news, plans have been announced to build a new shopping center called "Buena Vista Town Center" on the site of the vacant mall. They, however, are the only source to have reported this information.