The City of Southfield is buying the now-vacant Northland Center mall and plans to demolish the structure in hopes of attracting development.
Oakland County Circuit Judge Wendy Potts on Wednesday authorized the $2.4-million sale of the 114-acre property expected to close in mid-December. The mall property has been under the control of a court-appointed receiver for more than a year.
Southfield Mayor Donald Fracassi said the city intends to raze the 1.4-million-square-foot enclosed mall, then sell the acreage for a potential future mixed-use development.
The demolition and remediation is projected to cost $8 million to $10 million and take about a year.
“We plan to demolish it and clean it up so it can be sold to a qualified property developer who will build a new, revitalized mixed-use development containing office, retail and residential space,” Fracassi said in a statement. “We bought it because we did not want Northland Center to become a vacant shopping center significantly blighting the community.”
“The ‘Northland’ name is synonymous with ‘Southfield,’ and it’s important that we find the finest development possible for this site,” Fracassi added.
