Developer expected to meet deadline to buy Northland mall
A developer is expected to meet a deadline later this week for buying the empty Northland Center mall in Southfield, a big step toward the site’s planned redevelopment.
City officials told Southfield City Council members Monday night that the would-be developer, Bloomfield Hills-based Contour Companies, is on pace to close this Thursday on the $11.1 million purchase of the 97-acre property.
Contour needed several deadline extensions for the purchase and redevelopment deal, which was originally scheduled to close in mid-January.
“I’m glad we’re continuing to move forward. This is a huge project,” Councilman Michael (Ari) Mandelbaum said.
Once the city hands over property title, Contour is to embark on a $400 million-plus redevelopment plan that would demolish much of the abandoned mall, keep some of it, and redevelop the entire site over several phases.
The initial phase is to have more than 1,500 market-rate housing units spread across 14
new five-story buildings, plus the old mall’s ground-level retail spaces, where about 250 lofts would be constructed, according to a past presentation to council members. Six of the new buildings would face Greenfield Road and have ground-floor commercial space.
The city is to contribute about $20 million toward the project to help with various demolition, redevelopment and road and sewer upgrade costs.
The Michigan Strategic Fund is set to consider a crucial brownfield tax-increment financing proposal for the project at its July 27 meeting, city officials said.
“I also am glad to see this is moving forward and hopefully coming to a closure soon for the city,” Southfield councilwoman Nancy Banks said.
A Contour representative could not be reached for comment Monday night. The firm has experience with housing rehab projects and some all-new construction, and Northland would be its largest project to date.
Contour had been considering naming the proposed redevelopment “Northland City Center.”
As part of the redevelopment, the old fourstory Macy’s building, originally a Hudson’s, would be saved and transformed into “Hudson’s City Market” with a possible food hall, home furnishings shops and offices.
Northland mall closed in 2015 and the city of Southfield began acquiring parcels of the site that year to control its future development.
When it opened in March 1954, Northland was one of the largest shopping malls in the world. Contour’s plan would do adaptive reuse for some of the original buildings, including the Hudson’s department store.