In September 1964, the Burton Township board rezoned the property at the southeastern corner of East Court Street and Center Road from single family residential to commercial. Forest City Enterprises began building on the property after the rezoning on the Court Mall Center with expectations for a second quarter 1965 opening.[3]
Eastland Mall
Courtland Center opened in late October 1968 as Eastland Mall in what was then Burton Township under the ownership of Forest City and Jack Shifron.[3] At the time, it featured it had a 1000-seat theater and 47 stores including three anchor stores: discount chain Woolco[4] on the eastern end, The Fair on the western end and Detroit, Michigan-based Federal's in the center. Federal's later closed and briefly became Robert Hall Village until 1977, when it closed due to bankruptcy.[5] The space was later occupied by JCPenney. In 1983, Woolco shuttered all of their U.S. locations.[6]
Courtland Center
In August 1986, the mall was renamed Courtland Center. In 1987, The Fair closed and became Mervyn's. The former Woolco space was subdivided and occupied by Crowley's department store and additional stores.[3] The mall had 80 stores in 1994.[3] Crowley's closed in 1997, and the theaters added an expansion in November 1998 under the management of National Amusements.[7]
2000s redevelopment
Interior of Courtland Center in 2018
Tucker Development acquired the mall from Forest City Enterprises in the early 2004 and began renovations on it. The far end of the former Crowley's was converted to Old Navy in July 2000. They relocated inside the mall in 2005, displacing a former f.y.e. which had closed, and a Payless ShoeSource which was relocated.[8] 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.[8]
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. 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.[9] Old Navy closed its store at the mall in January 2008,[10] and JCPenney's new store opened on March 1, 2008, resulting in the closure of the three former JCPenney stores.[11] The new location included several departments which were not present in the former locations, such as an inline Sephora store.[11] JCPenney's former main store in the middle of the mall was replaced by Steve & Barry's, which opened on May 15, 2008,[11][12] while the two sub-stores were vacated. Steve & Barry's closed December 2008, and the theaters re-closed in 2009.[13]Planet Fitness replaced the Old Navy space in February 2011.[14]
On May 20, 2011, the cinema was reopened by NCG Cinemas as NCG Courtland Cinemas to replace NCG's Clio location.[15] In 2013, the mall was sold by Tucker Development to a limited liability company from Delaware.[16]
Goodwill Industries of Mid-Michigan opened a 5,000 square feet temporary Christmas store by November 2015, which would operate until mid-December. While its Center Road Burton location moving to a permanent place in the mall by January 2016 to take up a 15,000-square-foot space.[2] In 2018, Sloan Museum opened an exhibit space in the former JCPenney/Steve & Barry's.[17]
Mall theater
The mall theater opened with one screen in 1967 as Eastland Mall Theatre.[3][4] Under Redstone Management, the theater added another screen in December 1983.[3]
In 1991, the cinemas were closed by National Amusements (NA). In 1998, the location was reopened by and as Silver Cinemas with six screens. NA purchased Silver's business soon thereafter and was renamed back to Courtland Center Cinema.[18] The theaters added an expansion in November 1998 under the management of National Amusements.[7] The cinemas closed in January 2009.[3]
On May 20, 2011, NCG Cinemas reopened the theater as NCG Courtland Cinemas[18] using equipment from its just closed Clio location.[15]
On September 27, 2021, NCG Cinemas permanently closed NCG Courtland Cinemas in the Courtland Center Mall.[19]
