Rich Marr, asset manager of Nanco, said the 42-year-old mall at Elizabeth Lake and Telegraph roads does need some work, but is still a viable retail center.

"Summit Place has the opportunity to be turned around successfully," Marr tells GlobeSt.com. "It's got four good anchors that nobody would turn their nose up to. The traffic count is good. We feel this mall is very good for the submarket area."

The anchors include Sears, Marshall Fields, JCPenney and Kohls.

Nanco is a 22-year-old real estate firm with 70 employees that specializes in commercial and retail properties.

Marr wants to create a development plan in three months, but says he'll definitely have it ready in six months to attract new tenants to the mall.

"We'll bring occupancy to 90%," Marr says. The mall already suffers from low vacancy, especially due to the pull-out of the Montgomery Ward due to bankruptcy.

Marr tells GlobeSt.com he wants to try two new methods to attract customers.

"A service-orientated business such as dental business can bring hundreds of potential customers in each day," Marr says. "Recreational entertainment would also bring in people."

He says it takes more to be a responsible property owner than in previous years.

"You have to create a destination place. It's not just bringing people for one thing, to shop, you also have to give multiple reasons to visit," Marr says.

Local real estate expert Barry Klein says changes are overdue.

"Summit has had some problems. It's all one story, where it should have been two stories. Instead, they kept expanding out. The Sears was formerly a free-standing store, but when it expanded it went all the way until it engulfed the Sears," he explains.

Klein says the property was quite unique in the area, as it was one of the last large, indoor malls in Michigan to be independently owned until it was taken over by lender Northwestern in late 2000.

"There's so much consolidation going on in the last decade for regional malls, with fewer companies owning these size malls across the country," Klein says.

Many of the area's malls have changed hands, or are going through sales, in the last couple years. Northland Mall in Southfield, at 85% leased, was picked up in October 2000 by GP Northland Center LLC of Maple Shade, NJ for an undisclosed amount.

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$50M Rehab Planned by Summit Place's New Owner

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