# Genesee Valley Center

Genesee Valley Center is an enclosed shopping mall located in Flint Township, Michigan, outside the city of Flint, Michigan, United States. Opened in 1970, it is located at the corner of Miller and Linden roads. The mall was built by Shopping Centers, Inc., a division of Detroit-based department store Hudson's. That firm served as one of the mall's original anchor stores along with Sears. Later expansions added JCPenney, Mervyn's, and Montgomery Ward. Montgomery Ward closed in 2001 and was demolished in favor of an outdoor courtyard section, while Mervyn's was later converted to Burlington and then Play Big. Hudson's was sold to Marshall Field's in 2001, which itself sold to Macy's in 2006. Following the closures of Play Big, Sears, and Macy's, JCPenney is the only remaining anchor store. The mall consists of 1,272,397 square feet (118,209.5 m$^2$) of leasable area. It is owned and managed by Namdar Realty Group.

## History

Genesee Valley Center was developed in 1970 by Shopping Centers, Inc. of Southfield, Michigan, a retail division of Detroit, Michigan-based Hudson's department stores. It was built as a one-level, enclosed shopping mall, consisting of a straight-line concourse with an anchor store at either end. Sears, the northern anchor, was the first store to open, doing so in May 1970. Hudson's followed two months later, with this location being the chain's largest store outside of Detroit. These two stores served as the northern and southern anchor stores to the mall, respectively. On August 8, 1970, Genesee Valley Center opened to the public. At the time, it comprised fifty-six tenants, including a Hamady Brothers supermarket and Cunningham Drug. By September, a Woolworth dime store had opened next to Sears.
In 1979, an eastern wing anchored by JCPenney was added to the mall. A mezzanine level with a food court was added in 1987. The Cunningham Drug Store was demolished for a wing featuring a Mervyns in 1993, Montgomery Ward was also added. These additions brought the mall to 1,300,000 square feet (120,000 m$^2$) of gross leasable area, making it the largest mall in Michigan north of Detroit. Woolworth was briefly downsized to a cosmetics-oriented prototype called Woolworth Express before closing entirely. In 2001, Montgomery Ward closed along with the last of its stores nationwide. The same year, Hudson's was renamed Marshall Field's, which itself became Macy's when the parent company of Marshall Field's was acquired.

### Mid-2000s onward

The former Montgomery Ward location was demolished in 2005 for a new section called the Outdoor Village. Opened in early 2006, this addition features additional mall tenants in an outdoor setting. Anchoring the Outdoor Village is a Barnes & Noble bookstore, the opening of which resulted in the closure of a B. Dalton bookstore within the mall itself.
Mervyns also closed its Michigan operations in early 2006. A year later, their space at the mall was replaced with Burlington Coat Factory (now known as Burlington), which relocated from an existing store nearby. Steve & Barry's was added in the former Woolworth space. It closed in early 2009 when the chain declared bankruptcy, and became a clothing store called Wear District in October. Wear District later closed and became Shoe Dept. Encore. In 2012, the mall was sold to by Jones Lang LaSalle to Spinoso Group.
Since 2002, the mall has had a branch of Genesee District Library in it. The branch was first opened as an experiment. It was first slated for closure in October 2013, but the library board instead decided to keep it open until at least 2014. Also in 2013, several storefronts were remodeled throughout the mall, including Bath & Body Works, Kay Jewelers, Justice, and Victoria's Secret. Lane Bryant, an original tenant, moved to a new space in the mall in 2014 which had been vacated by a Ruby Tuesday. A Planet Fitness opened in the Burlington Coat Factory wing in early 2015. An H&M opened in the JCPenney wing in November 2017.
Burlington relocated to a nearby strip mall on May 11, 2018. Sears closed on September 2, 2018, leaving JCPenney and Macy's as the only anchors in the center. On December 15, 2018, Play Big, an indoor playground consisting of mostly inflatable bounce houses and arcade games, opened in the former Burlington store.
In 2019, Forever 21 moved from its existing location near JCPenney to a larger location near Macy's, but it closed later that year.
On July 14, 2023, Play Big closed.
In January 2025, Macy's announced that its store at Genesee Valley would close in the first quarter of 2025; following its closure, JCPenney will be the last remaining anchor tenant.