Westland Was Named After Its Dead Mall

Westland — Once the tentpole of the community, the Westland Mall now stands as a mostly hollow relic of western Wayne County’s once-vibrant consumer culture.

The mall predates the City of Westland, believe it or not. When ground broke on what would become known as one of the first malls in Michigan—constructed on the heels of Northland Mall in Southfield—Westland was a mostly rural township called Nankin.

Completed in 1965 by JL Hudson Corp., nearby Livonia saw the possibility of remarkable tax revenue from the newly minted Westland Mall and moved to annex the northern half of Nankin Township. Had this come to fruition, Livonia could have become the second-largest city in Michigan at the time, but the annexation failed and Nankin decided to finally incorporate.

As a f— you to Livonia, Nankin leaders decided to name the city after the object of Livonia’s desire: Westland Mall.

An economic boom followed as Westland Mall became the center for not just Westland but Livonia, Canton, Plymouth, and Garden City. With the Quo Vadis movie theater opening across the street a year later, the Wayne and Warren intersection was solidified as the hub of western Wayne County.

The world has changed mightily in the six decades since, and for Westland Mall and the immediate area, there are serious questions about the area’s future.

The obituary for Westland Mall was written years ago. The signs of decline were present as the name-brand businesses slowly were replaced by less stable businesses selling more low-grade urban wares.

It had became harder to find designer clothing and easier to find nine-button suits in pastel colors, but that shift was slow and virtually unnoticeable to most.

By the 2010s, the decline in foot traffic had become too striking to ignore, and desperation set in as several businesses began to renovate to chase a new generation of shoppers.

It was all for naught. Macy’s, the main front-facing anchor of the mall, closed in 2017, followed by Sears in 2021.

Since then, Westland Mall has faded from memory, but to the shock of most people I spoke with, it’s still open and riding out the last remnant of in-person shoppers.

Namdar Realty Group entered the picture in 2014. A real estate and property management conglomerate with a clear mission statement: Take advantage of the decline, manage it as cheaply as possible, and wait.

Namdar bought Westland Mall and added the property to a massive collection of declining malls it already owned throughout the nation. They allegedly purchased the mall for cash and instituted their tried-and-true plan of reducing maintenance expenditures and rents.

Some might call this smart investing by Namdar, but others have called it absentee land lording. Namdar has a national reputation, fairly or unfairly, as a slumlord.

A source within Westland City Hall with deep familiarity on the issue spoke bluntly: “Namdar’s making a profit on the property with Kohl’s and JCPenney’s still anchoring the east and west sides of the mall, but the foot traffic is gone.”

The lack of foot traffic gives an unsettling “Backrooms” vibe as you walk through Westland Mall. While walking the corridor of empty storefronts, two mall employees loitered by a counter, and the conversation was striking:

“The owners are trying to get a $10 million grant from the state to redevelop the mall while sitting on $4 billion in worth.”

“That’s crazy.”

That tidbit of information was hard to confirm, but sources within Westland City Hall confirmed the price of the sale price for Westland Mall was recently dropped to around $18 million from the previous asking price of $30 million.

Westland officials assured me the mall is top of mind, but local government is ill-suited to win wrestling matches with the free-market forces, and no level of municipal interference can suddenly fill residents with a burning desire to hang at the mall.

Westland isn’t alone in this struggle. Northland Mall is long gone, even if the dirty dirt still lingers in Metro Detroit. Eastland Mall is an industrial zone today. Fairlane Town Center is a ghost town. Laurel Park is being kept alive by the Phoenix Theater and a sports memorabilia merchant. All that remains of Livonia Mall is a homeless shelter once called Sears.

The community is mostly apathetic, but Namdar, in a brilliant ploy to placate and massage concerns, hired Toman & Co to come up with new ideas to save Westland Mall by “listening to the people.”

The average residents of Westland have more innovative ideas than experts working in property and business management, right?

The responses, according to Toman & Co, were mind-blowing, fresh, and exciting. Responders wanted more food and beverage, retail, and destination options housed in the mall.

Translation: Residents want back everything they originally stopped wanting, and still don’t want, because if they did, then the mall wouldn’t be dying.

More interestingly, Toman & Co noted that their social media polling on Westland Mall took place on Facebook. Not exactly the platform for determining the economic vibe of people under 30, which is the “tell” that Namdar doesn’t care about saving the mall, but rather managing its death as the last generation that cares ages.

Given that they named the town after the place where people bought there stuff, Westland should consider renaming itself Amazon.