Utilities shut-off looms over mall
Bills are accumulating at Fairlane Town Center
The new owner of the Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn has fallen behind on the mall’s taxes and utility bills and is facing a potential utilities shut-off.
DTE Energy posted a shut-off notice last week at a mall entrance to alert tenants that electric/gas services to the building could be turned off as early as June 3 — unless the past-due bill is paid.
Additionally, the mall had amassed $2.1 million in delinquent property taxes as of Monday, according to a Wayne County Treasurer’s Office database.
Fairlane’s facilities manager on Monday referred all comment on the situation to the mall’s owner, New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group, which didn’t respond to a Free Press inquiry.
A DTE Energy spokesperson on Monday declined to specify the mall’s current overdue balance and also wouldn’t say whether the June 3 deadline remains in effect. The spokesperson said residential and business DTE customers will receive a first shut-off notice a few days after a missed payment and eventually get a second notice before services are disconnected. News of the mall’s shut-off notice was first reported by TCD News.
Kohan Retail Investment Group bought Fairlane in spring 2023 and is known for buying struggling and sometimes distressed shopping malls. The firm had been the final owner of Eastland Center in Harper Woods before that mall closed for good in late 2021.
Fairlane’s previous owner, Dallasbased real estate firm Centennial, had owned the mall for less than a year before selling it to Kohan.
Fairlane opened in 1976 and spread out over three floors.
Unlike Eastland in its final days, Fairlane is far from a ghost town and still has a lot of stores, including a Macy’s, JC Penney, Forever 21, Hollister and even a Powerhouse Gym. Nevertheless, there are multiple vacant storefronts scattered throughout the mall.
The mall’s former anchor stores
include Sears, Lord & Taylor and an AMC movie theater that closed in November 2022. Ford Motor Co. at one point leased space in the former Lord & Taylor, but left several years ago.
There also was once a monorail system that ran between the mall and the nearby Hyatt Regency hotel. The monorail stopped in 1988 and the track was removed. (The hotel building is still there, but no longer open.)
Jordan Twardy, director of Economic Development for Dearborn, said in a statement that the city recently approved a $400,000-plus contract to create a master plan vision for redeveloping the Fairlane mall area.
“Fairlane Mall and the surrounding area are a crucial commercial and cultural hub for Dearborn,” Twardy said. “We are eager to work with anyone who is serious about and committed to investing in our community, including at Fairlane. Unfortunately, the current property owner has passed on opportunities to communicate and partner with the city of Dearborn on the future of Fairlane when invited to do so.”
Another metro Detroit mall from the 1970s, Lakeside Mall in Sterling Heights, is set to close for good on July 1 and then be torn down and redeveloped as a $1 billion-plus, town square-type project with housing, a hotel, new retail, restaurants, offices and public recreation space.