Maple Village Outlot exterior work

Something new happening at Maple Village — the outlot building facing Maple Road is being heavily revamped.

Wall of Maple Village outlot building, facing south. (C)A2RS.
Front of Maple Village outlot building, facing East. (C)A2R.S.

This building was once the auto and tire center for Kmart, a longtime Maple Village resident until its closure three years ago. After that, it was the last Radio Shack store in Ann Arbor until that chain’s bankruptcy and contraction.

Are they doing something new and dramatic, or did Radio Shack’s closure just give the management an opportunity to update the facade of the building? When I know, I will write something here, but don’t hold your breath waiting for me to ask someone.

P.S. I went to Sierra Trading Post recently. It was fine. Looked like there were some good deals there, but I was looking for a specific thing and they didn’t have any.

2 Replies to “Maple Village Outlot exterior work”

  1. Radio Shack was pushed out; it lost its lease. Maple Village owner Brixmor had a deal with a replacement business at that time, according to third-party sources including a Radio Shack manager as quoted by MLive.

    That Radio Shack store had survived the 2015 corporate bankruptcy and was on the profitable locations list. The 2017 bankruptcy of new corporate overlord General Wireless had not yet been announced. Radio Shack did not close the Maple Village store willingly. But the chain clearly was not thriving. It was a no-brainer for Brixmor to push them out if it had a replacement store waiting,

    Brixmor previously showed its recent willingness to deny release renewals at Maple Village when it replaced Dollar Tree with Five Below, and with the announced 2018 removal of English Gardens to make room for LA Fitness in a new building. I assume that Five Below and LA Fitness made those happen by waving larger rent money in front of Brixmor. It may be that the same happened to the Radio Shack store, and that it had more to do with the incoming store having a bigger budget than with the corporate stability of Radio Shack.

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