Summit Place Mall

Summit Place Mall, formerly Pontiac Mall was a one-level shopping mall 29.7 miles (47.8 km) northwest of downtown Detroit, Michigan, between North Telegraph Road, Elizabeth Lake Road, Pontiac Lake Road, and Summit Drive in Waterford Township, a suburb of Pontiac. The mall had six anchors which once housed JCPenney, Kohl's, Macy's, Montgomery Ward, Sears and Service Merchandise.
== History ==
On May 10, 1962, Pontiac Mall officially opened to the public with two anchor tenants which were Hudson's and Montgomery Ward. Other tenants included Baker's Shoes, Bond Clothes, Cunningham Drug, Grinnell's Music, Kroger, Savon Foods, Singer Sewing Center, S.S. Kresge and Zuieback's Suburban Ladies' Wear. In 1967, Savon Foods was converted into Farmer Jack. During the mid 1960s, the anchors at Pontiac Mall were enlarged, Montgomery Ward built an eastern addition and Hudson's expanded a reopened as a 3-level store in July 1967. Pontiac Mall began to have competition with two new malls, Both the Tel-Twelve Mall in Southfield and Oakland Mall in Troy had opened in 1968. In August 1972, Sears opened as a third anchor at the mall. Also in 1972, an elephant named Little Jenny, who starred in the movie Elephant Walk, was buried on the mall site. In March 1973. General Cinemas opened a twin-screen theater outside of the mall, the theater was named Pontiac Mall Cinema I & II, it would later on get converted into a three-screen theater. In April 1983, a million dollar face lift got underway at the mall, new store fronts, flooring and ceilings were installed. The new renovation brought several new stores to the mall such as B. Dalton Bookseller, Casual Corner, Circus World, Gap, Musicland, Sibley's Shoes and The Limited. On October 31, 1983, Pontiac Mall was renamed to Summit Place Mall. In 1987, an expansion to the mall was being constructed in which a fully enclosed shopping concourse was built and 470,000 square feet of retail space was added, which ran westward from the existing Montgomery Ward court. The expansion was completed by August 1988, which brought three new mall anchors, a fourth anchor which was JCPenney, a fifth anchor which was Service Merchandise, and a sixth anchor which was MainStreet were all added. MainStreet however didn't last long, as the chain was purchased and converted into Kohl's soon after opening. Also included in the new construction was a 12-bay food court which was called Picnic Place. Three new strip centers were also built in the mall's periphery, Oakland Pointe in 1988, Summit West in 1991 and Summit North in 1993 which brought a total of 2.5 million square feet of leasable space.
== Decline ==
Summit Place Mall began to decline in the late 1990s. The first major cause of decline was the opening of the Great Lakes Crossing Outlets in Auburn Hills which opened in 1998, which brought many stores from Summit Place to relocate to the new outlet mall. In 1999, Service Merchandise closed. Two years later in 2001, Montgomery Ward closed. Also in 2001, Hudson's was converted into Marshall Field's. In 2002, Summit Place Mall was sold to Namco Capital Group, Namco embarked on a renovation of the struggling retail center and a name change which was Festivals of Waterford was proposed, along with a new family fun center. This was to include a children's play area and indoor waterpark to be installed in the vacant Montgomery Ward. The Center Court play area was dedicated in December, 2002. However, the waterpark concept was abandoned. In September 2006, Marshall Field's was converted into Macy's. In March 2009, Kohl's closed. On September 10, 2009, Summit Place Mall had permanently closed down, leaving only JCPenney, Macy's and Sears operating, while the interior of the mall was sitting abandoned. In March 2010, Macy's closed down. In April 2010, JCPenney closed down, leaving Sears as the only remaining open tenant. In December 2014, Sears had officially closed down, leaving Summit Place Mall completely vacant and abandoned. 
== Demolition ==
In May 2019, the Summit Place Mall was finally demolished after sitting abandoned for 10 years. There is plans to redevelop the site into the Oakland County Business Center. To this day, the land still remains vacant.
Category:Malls in the United States
Category:Malls in Michigan
Category:Detroit Area Malls
Category:Oakland County, Michigan
Category:Malls that opened in 1962
Category:Former Wards-anchored Malls
Category:Former JCPenney-anchored Malls
Category:Former Sears-anchored Malls
Category:Former Macy's-anchored Malls
Category:Former Hudson's-anchored Malls
Category:Former Service Merchandise-anchored Malls
Category:Former Kohl's-anchored Malls
Category:Dead Malls
Category:Defunct malls
Category:Abandoned malls
Category:Former MainStreet-anchored Malls
Category:Former Marshall Field's-anchored Malls
Category:Demolished Malls
Category:A & W Management