Open-Air Strip Malls on the Rise

There was a time when most shopping strips were outdoors, populated with attractions like ancient Egyptian bazaars to medieval Milanese gallerias. It was retailing pioneer Alfred Taubman, founder of the national mall developer Taubman Co. in Bloomfield Hills, who was one of the first to put a roof over our heads.

But as we ease our way into the 21st century, the open-air strip mall is an old format making a comeback. Many developers are revisiting the virtues of the suburban precursor to the modern enclosed mall. These days, it seems more convenient to run into a store on the way home from work than to browse a large shopping mall, where finding a parking spot can sometimes be a challenge in itself.

This emerging trend has been noticed by some retail giants. National retailers like Gap are slowly relocating from enclosed malls to strip centers, where street parking is a more attractive option.

Three Metro Detroit malls are finding “second lives” as outdoor shopping centers. Stripped of their roofs, Livonia Mall, Wonderland Mall in Livonia and Universal City in Warren are being “de-malled” and reinvented. Wonderland Mall, built as an open-air shopping center in 1959 and enclosed 25 years later during the indoor mall craze of the 1970s, was demolished in 2006 after slumping sales and foot traffic rendered it unprofitable. The center reopened as an outdoor complex called Wonderland Village the following year with several box retailers.