About this mall
Courtland Center is an enclosed shopping mall in Burton, Michigan, a suburb of Flint, Michigan, USA. It opened in 1968, two years before the larger Genesee Valley Center on the other side of the Flint metropolitan area. Courtland Center comprises more than sixty inline tenants, including four anchor stores (JCPenney, Dunham’s Sports, Staples, and Jo-Ann Etc.), as well as a movie theater. The mall is owned by Tucker Development.
Tucker Development acquired the mall from Forest City Enterprises in the late 1990s and began renovations on it. The far end of the former Crowley’s was converted to Old Navy in July 2000, while the rest remained vacant. Also the early 2000s, the theater was renovated to become a second-run complex with six screens, after the addition of stadium seating. Old Navy relocated inside the mall in 2005, displacing a former f.y.e. which had closed, and a Payless ShoeSource which was relocated. Later that same year, Staples moved from a nearby strip mall into Old Navy’s former location, while the remainder of the former Crowley’s was split between a new Jo-Ann Etc. store (resulting in the closure of the existing Jo-Ann Fabrics store) and Dunham’s Sports, which had also moved from a nearby strip mall. Dunham’s was the only one of these three new stores to feature a mall entrance.
Mervyns closed in early 2006 when the chain exited Michigan. In late 2007, JCPenney announced that it would relocate its existing stores in the mall to a newer, larger location in the former Mervyns space. The former Mervyns building was also expanded in the process, displacing two mall spaces last occupied by Miracle Ear and Big Boy. The two western entrances were also moved in the process. While the former Mervyns space was being redeveloped and expanded, the roof of the store caught on fire, causing the mall to close for a day in September 2007. Old Navy closed its store at the mall in January 2008, and JCPenney’s new store opened on March 1, 2008, resulting in the closure of the three former JCPenney stores. The new location included several departments which were not present in the former locations, such as an inline Sephora store. JCPenney’s former main store in the middle of the mall was replaced by Steve & Barry’s, which opened on May 15, 2008, while the two sub-stores were vacated. Steve & Barry’s closed December 2008, and the theaters re-closed in 2009 along with a B. Dalton bookstore.
