The evolution of the former shopping mall may be heading down the path of “everything old is new” developments like 5th & Main.
Located in Commerce Township, an affluent suburb of Detroit, this “lifestyle” community combines the stores and restaurants of a traditional shopping mall with a traditional village setting, with homes wrapped around a main street.
Developer Bruce Aikens of Michigan-based R.B. Aikens & Associates said construction of indoor shopping malls stopped in the 1990s.
“Mall development stopped, so all the small retailers like Gap, Limited and American Eagle were thinking, ‘How do we continue to grow?’ And they decided, ‘Well, if we get 10 to 15 people together and open a store in the center, that’s going to be enough to draw people.'”
That’s the concept of Five & Main.
In the United States, there are dozens of walkable or drivable lifestyle centers established across the country. This is not the case in Canada.
“We’ve never had anything like that in Canada,” Aikens said.
And with no new mall developments and a growing population, “there’s a huge area — a lot of holes — where we could do something like this.”
He added with a laugh that he would “love to do” such a development north of the border.
Aikens’ first venture was more than 20 years ago in Rochester Hills Village, about 20 miles to the east, and he knows shopping malls well: His company demolished Meadowbrook Village Mall to build the Village.
The new 45-acre Five & Main is so named because it is a “main street development” on Michigan Highway 5, an eight-lane north-south commuter route that connects to the junction of I-275 and I-696.
The complex, which will feature multi-family homes and a hotel, will have a larger footprint than The Village.
Aikens said the geography of the area northwest of Detroit is “great,” with numerous small lakes and nearby Ann Arbor, a hub for technology and automotive research and home to the University of Michigan.
Detroit Metro Airport and downtown Detroit are also a 30 minute drive away.
But unlike traditionally built communities, this vast area had no central location or downtown.
“For us (Aikens lives nearby), there’s nowhere to go for a walk, park, go to a restaurant, get your hair done, go shopping or have entertainment.”
Some urban theorists propose “15-minute” communities, where residents can minimize car use and access services on foot.
Not so here, where cars are as welcome as pedestrians.
“You can parallel park,” Aikens says, “and it’s laid out exactly like our downtown streets.”
However, as befits a lifestyle community, there will be parks, ponds and woodland.
The first phase will be 300 residential units, followed by a commercial district and then 20 acres of retail and housing. Aikens declined to disclose the names of retailers that have already signed on, but his Rochester developments include Barnes & Noble, Williams-Sonoma, Eddie Bauer and Lofts.
He also envisions up to eight restaurants, a total of 230,000 square feet of retail space and 30 to 40 tenants.
The multi-story homes will be built by Wisconsin-based Continental Properties, which is collaborating for the first time with Aikens on the “Springs” concept, which mimics a single-family home with a private entrance rather than a shared hallway, a gated home, and a “dog-friendly” environment.
Aikens said he chose rental housing because he wanted to attract young families.
Aesthetically, the retail buildings will feature distinct storefronts in a variety of architectural styles, “not your typical strip center,” and will use natural materials like wood, rock and brick to mimic the setting of Commerce Township, a long-standing neighborhood where Detroiters have had second homes and escaped the city.
