The slow, steady decline of Northland shopping mall in Southfield is an ironic turnabout, Detroit News columnist Laura Berman observes:.
Detroit is a city of post-industrial ironies. Just as downtown Detroit's Woodward shopping district shows signs of life, Macy's and Target are bidding their adieus to Northland — the mall whose 1954 suburban opening heralded the death of downtown Detroit shopping.
Now the tables are turning: Menswear designer John Varvatos and a Restoration Hardware outlet are promising to fill historic storefronts downtown while Northland's remaining anchor stores prepare to close shop. . . .
Remaining store owners, alarmed by last week's announcement that Macy's will soon exit, are wary of the future. The mall is in court receivership, and John Polderman, who represents the receiver, Bloomfield Hills lawyer Frank Simon, says that the Macy's news ushers in "a new reality."
