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Crosswinds Mall
is undergoing a major
renovation as it adapts to the
vagaries of the market.

FRANK PROVENZANO

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

-

- - - - - - - -
ORCHARD LAKE ROAD
120' R.O.W. 5 LANES

11..7 L.( 0, .0.0

Plans call for a, total remake of
he reconstruction of Crosswinds Mall
Crosswinds.
Although 40,000 square feet
into a strip center, expected to be
completed in spring of 1997, is worth of the current site will be integrated into
the wait for some tenants at the Lone the new mall, the similarities end there.
The new Crosswinds will resemble Har-
Pine and Orchard Lake location.
Yet for others, the idea of running a busi- vard Row in Southfield and Loehmann's
ness at an ongoing construction site for the Plaza at 14 Mile and Orchard Lake roads,
next year hardly conjures images of the easy two other recently reconstructed shopping
accessibility demanded by many shoppers. centers.
"The main issues are exposure for the
Some of those tenants, who've grown tired
tenants and convenience for
of wooden facades in front of
shoppers," said Barry Klein,
stores and the pounding
Abo ye:
sounds that reverberate A blueprint for t he reconfigured a Bloomfield Township-based
retail consultant. Mr. Klein
Crosswi nds Mall.
through the interior mall, have
noted that most indoor malls
packed up and moved to other
are anchored by one or more
left:
Far
nearby shopping strip centers.
Spencer Park ich of Lautrec.
large retailers, and thus
But regardless of the debate
serve as a magnet to attract
about whether construction
eft:
shoppers to visit other near-
will disrupt business at Cross-
Mickey Shap iro of Lautrec:
by
stores.
winds, there's unanimous
But for years, Crosswinds'
opinion that something had to
be done to change the mall that's been suf- largest stores have been a supermarket
and drug store, which are considered sin-
fering from an identity complex for two
gle-destination points for most shoppers.
decades.
Since it was first developed in 1972 as
Last month, Crosswinds' owners Mick-
an open-air mall, then enclosed in 1988,
ey Shapiro and Spencer Partrich of Farm-
ington Hills announced a $6 million plan Crosswinds has been in search of the prop-
to transform the 140,000-square-foot mall er mix of tenants and an appealing at-
into a 135,000-square-foot strip center. mosphere for shoppers. Its current
configuration can best be described as eclec-
Their firm, AZOI L.C.C. (Lautrec), hired
Superior Diversified Services Corp. of tic — part indoor mall, part strip mall, part
Northville to be on-site contractor for the under construction. The result is a shop-
renovation. Wah Yee Associates Architects ping center left to the imagination of visi-
of Farmington Hills designed the new tors.
WIND page 62
Crosswinds site.