Macy’s to close at Lakeside Mall

STERLING HEIGHTS — It takes a long time for stars to burn out, but they all will eventually. With its own trademark red star, Macy’s at Lakeside Mall now marches toward its own final end.

On Jan. 9, the New York City-based retail titan Macy’s Inc. announced its intention to close 66 locations across the county including the anchor store at the now-dead Lakeside. The retailer expects it and the 65 other stores to be shuttered by the end of the first quarter 2025.

“Closing any store is never easy, but as part of our Bold New Chapter strategy, we are closing underproductive Macy’s stores to allow us to focus our resources and prioritize investments in our go-forward stores, where customers are already responding positively to better product offerings and elevated service,” Tony Spring, chairman and chief executive officer of Macy’s, Inc., said in a press release.

Macy’s closure came as no shock to Out of the Box Ventures — the mall’s owner since 2019 — and the city of Sterling Heights.

“It was anticipated,” said Luke Bonner, CEO of the Bonner Advisory Group and a senior economic development adviser for the city of Sterling Heights. “We saw a lot of the national headlines last summer and last fall that Macy’s was closing hundreds of stores across the county. We hadn’t been notified of it yet, but we were assuming it was going to happen.”

Bonner says Out of the Box Ventures acquired the mall’s northern Macy’s property in late 2024 in anticipation of the retailer moving out. Out of the Box already owned the southern Macy’s anchor and leased it to the retailer. News of the north Macy’s closure means Out of the Box is tasked with incorporating the land into its plans for the Lakeside site.

“The Macy’s will likely be demolished with the rest of the mall,” Bonner said.

From the rubble of Lakeside Mall are the plans for the Lakeside City Center, a mixed-use project aiming to turn the concrete oval into 2,359 multifamily residential units, over 700,000 square feet of retail space, 70,000 square feet of offices, a 20,000-square-foot community center and a hotel with 80-100 rooms.

Progress on the site’s future continues with Out of the Box focusing on planning and engineering work, as well as preparing tax incentive documents to be submitted to the state.

Bonner expects demolition to begin in the fall.