Northland Mall Redevelopment

Reimagined Design of Blighted Area Encourages Investment, Preserves History

OHM Advisors worked with the City of Southfield, Michigan to create a plan to revitalize the former Northland Mall, a 125-acre site that was once the nation’s largest mall and a booming regional shopping center for more than 50 years. The city had purchased the vacant site—which retains an original, mid-century architecture Hudson’s department store building, a vast network of underground tunnels, and the steam plant that initially powered the whole footprint—for redevelopment and elimination of neighborhood blight. Our team engaged with over 5,000 community members—including residents, business leaders, city officials and other stakeholders, soliciting their input on a vision for the site's future.

With that integral feedback, our team of expert planners, engineers, landscape architects, and real estate and economic development professionals created a holistic plan for the site's redevelopment. Using a market-driven approach which incorporates extensive research and analysis of the economic drivers at work in a community, as well as regional and national trends, we imagined a dynamic mixed-use development that encourages private investment and public/private partnerships, integrates public spaces to serve community programming, creates physical connections to adjoining neighborhoods and businesses, and revives community spirit. The project received the Michigan Association of Planning’s 2018 Planning Excellence Award for this adaptive reuse plan called Imagine Northland.

Project Highlights: retail redevelopment, economic development, planning, revitalization, adaptive reuse, mixed-use, community engagement, design standards, civil engineering