Can you believe it’s been 20 years since the outlet mall opened in Howell Township?
It’s true. The Kensington Valley Factory Shops (that was the name back then) held its grand opening exactly 20 years ago this weekend – Nov. 15, 1996 – and I actually played a small part in it. Literally.
Twenty years ago when it opened, the shopping center decided to have a gala grand-opening celebration in the food court (which is no longer there, sadly), and they wanted a bunch of entertainment to kick everything off. They brought in Sesame Street’s Bob McGrath as the headliner, and he sang some songs and performed a big musical number from “Oliver” with a few dozen local kids.
They also invited the Community Theatre of Howell to perform some musical numbers from its current production of “Guys and Dolls,” and that’s where I came in. I was playing Nathan Detroit in that production, while my new bride Kathy played my love interest in the show, Miss Adelaide.
There was a huge stage set up inside the food court, and we performed about a dozen musical numbers from the show. My singing, as I recall, was awful, but it was very cool to be a part of such a wonderful and historic event – the opening of Livingston County’s first outlet mall.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 20 years since the mall opened, but the journey to that day actually began years earlier.
The Kensington Valley Factory Shops opened only after several other outlet mall efforts in Livingston County failed. In the late 1980s, there was a huge push to build an outlet mall in Brighton at the corner of Grand River Avenue and Challis Road (where the Target/Home Depot/MJR Cinemas complex now sits).
That effort dragged on for years before finally petering out. Then came an effort to build at outlet mall in Hartland, followed by one or two others, before the Howell Township project finally broke through.
As we look back on the 20th anniversary of the outlet mall, it’s fascinating to ponder the impact it’s had on Livingston County.
When the mall opened, there was a great fear that it was going to be the death of downtown Howell. The thinking went that all the retail businesses downtown would dry up with the behemoth mall just four miles away, and downtown would be nothing but restaurants, insurance agents and empty store fronts.
That never happened, of course. Downtown Howell has survived just fine, and it seems the outlet mall and downtown are co-existing quite well.
If anything, the opposite has probably proven to be true – the outlet mall has helped downtown Howell. The mall is the No. 1 attraction in Livingston County, bringing zillions of people to the Howell area every year. A lot of those people are no doubt including a trip to downtown Howell in their visit.
For those of us who live in Livingston County, the mall changed our shopping patterns in enormous ways.
How many of us do our Christmas shopping at the mall? How many of us buy the majority of our clothes there? How many of us do our back-to-school shopping there?
Before the Kensington Valley Factory Shops came to town, we went to Briarwood Mall in Ann Arbor or Twelve Oaks Mall in Novi or the Meridian Mall in Okemos. We still go to those places now, but not nearly as often.
It’s also interesting to look back on all the changes that have taken place at the mall. It’s changed hands since the early days, and it’s no longer the Kensington Valley Factory Shops. The official name now is Tanger Outlets, but to be honest, most of us just call it “The Outlet Mall.”
I also miss a lot of the stores that have come and gone through the years. There was a Palace outlet store there that I loved. It was affiliated with the Pistons, and they often brought players there to sign autographs. My son Cameron and I got to meet Terry Mills and Theo Ratliff there, and that was very cool.
I miss the book store they had at the mall, and that store that sold golf clubs. And I REALLY miss the food court. Man, do I miss the food court.
I’m guessing the food places always struggled, which is why they made the decision to close it down. Then they followed that up by actually tearing the whole building down. It’s just a little park area now in the middle of the mall.
But I miss it a lot. They had a Sbarro there, and it was great being able to eat Sbarro right in our own county. I would sometimes drive to the mall just to eat Sbarro, even if I didn’t have to shop.
I also have a lot of great memories of my kids, Amelia and Lottie, riding all those dumb little rides they had in the food court. It was a nice little break for all of us when we were in the middle of a long day of shopping.
And I miss the food court because it’s where, on a makeshift stage 20 years ago, I got to help welcome the outlet mall to Livingston County.
The mall is still standing, though, and it’s still going strong. And it’s been a wonderful addition to Livingston County over the past 20 years. It’s brought us jobs and visitors and clothes and shoes, and even Sbarro. I love our outlet mall.
And yes, I can’t believe it’s been around for 20 years now. It seems like just yesterday that it opened its doors.
Two decades later, my singing hasn’t gotten any better, but the mall has certainly changed Livingston County for the better.
Happy birthday, Tanger Outlets.
