Lakeside on path to demolition, rebirth as mixed-use community

STERLING HEIGHTS — After years of city deliberation about the future of the Lakeside Mall area, the public is finally able to see the ripple effect, thanks to newly revealed concept designs.

At a Nov. 1 meeting, the Sterling Heights City Council voted to approve a memorandum of understanding on a plan to reconstruct the Lakeside Mall area into a mixed-use development. The vote was 5-2, as Councilman Henry Yanez and Councilwoman Deanna Koski voted no.

According to city officials, the memo of understanding defines the project’s scope and a path ahead toward completing it.

During the meeting, City Manager Mark Vanderpool said the proposal would be “the largest single investment in the city’s history,” and he said the city has been preparing this for seven years, which included a Lakeside sustainability master plan.

“Town centers and downtowns take decades, even centuries, to build and evolve,” Vanderpool said. “Rarely does a community have the opportunity to have a town center designed and built over a 12-year period of time.”

According to officials, Lakeside Mall originally opened in 1976, and the mall has lost occupancy, anchor store retailers and vibrancy due to shifts in consumer trends and the rise of online shopping.

The Lakeside redevelopment plan has been an effort between Sterling Heights and Lionheart Capital subsidiary Out of the Box Ventures. The latter bought the mall in 2019.

The presented plan for Lakeside’s future would dramatically transform the property’s estimated 110 acres by Schoenherr and Hall roads into a mixed-use district that could become a kind of town center.

According to architectural firm CallisonRTKL’s James Mellor, the new Lakeside Town Center could become the “soul of Sterling Heights.”

At its center would be The Lakeside Heart, complete with retail, a garden row for street fairs, a central park, a community center, office space and a hotel. The Heart would be surrounded by a northeast residential neighborhood called The Urban Green, a southeast neighborhood called The Senior Social, a southwest residential neighborhood called The Suburban Retreat and a northwest suburban-urban neighborhood called The Crossroads.

Surrounding all this would be a 1 1/2 mile-long parkway called the Lyrical Loop.

“So this is a place where you can cycle, take your dogs for a walk, work out in the mornings … a place that you can just get away, but you’re still within the experience of Lakeside,” Mellor said.

According to the Lakeside plan, an estimated 2,200 multifamily residential units and around 600 senior units will bring new homes to the city. For the commercial component, almost 150,000 square feet will be set aside for new retail. Additionally, although the existing mall will basically be torn down, department anchor stores Macy’s and JCPenney intend on keeping a presence in the new district, according to officials.

Representatives said plans are still conceptual and subject to change.

Sterling Heights Finance and Budget Director Jennifer Varney said the Lakeside property is bringing in $11 million in 2022 for taxable value. She projected that to expand to over $218 million by 2039.

When it was time for council members to speak, Councilwoman Barbara Ziarko supported the proposal and said passing it would not increase taxes. She said the proposal is “a little dense,” and she hoped that it would include condos or purchasable homes, and wished for a convention center.

Councilman Henry Yanez criticized the proposal’s need for the city to issue a $45 million bond, adding that it would “basically help a private corporation maximize their profit.”

“I’m not sure why me, as a taxpayer, even with all this guarantee that the money is going to be paid back and it’s never going to cost me a penny, why are we helping fund a private enterprise?” he said.

Yanez also said he expects that the proposal’s new neighborhoods would increase 911 calls and other city expenses.

“We gotta snowplow the Lyrical Loop. Who pays for that?” Yanez said.

Mayor Michael Taylor said the bond is necessary to get the project off the ground. He also said tax increment financing would be used to pay back the city’s bond, adding that “the people who are going to pay for this are the people that are building in Lakeside, buying in Lakeside and they’re paying back this, and that’s going to pay back the city’s $45 million bond.”

Taylor said a billion dollar mixed-use development in Macomb County is “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.” He said the city’s risk “is as low as we could possibly get it,” and he said the project would not impact the general fund.

“This is an incredible, unique, dynamic project that is going to be something that I think this community is going to be known for for years and years to come,” Taylor said, later adding:

“This is going to, I just think, be an incredible gathering place. It’s going to allow the residents of our city to have something different and unique, a vibrant city center feel, for the next 50-plus years, and I just can’t wait for it to become a reality.”

While the initial memo of understanding is approved, city officials said there will be more meetings and approval steps to the project along the way. According to Sterling Heights Senior Economic Development Adviser Luke Bonner, a planned unit development process is expected to ensue in 2023.

According to project representatives, the residents will get a chance to engage in the process via public input. Colin Carby, from Lionheart Capital, said demolition was estimated to take place in 2024 or in early 2025. By 2027, infrastructure would be installed, along with phase one projects involving some housing and retail.

Carby predicted that the development would likely occur over the next 12 years.

“It is going to be a lengthy process,” he said.

Learn more about Lakeside Mall, 14000 Lakeside Circle in Sterling Heights, by visiting shop-lakesidemall.com. To learn about Sterling Heights, visit www.sterling-heights.net. Learn more about Out of the Box Ventures by visiting www.ootbventures.com.