[Southsider2k12]

It almost makes me wonder if Marquette Mall isn't too far behind. The anchors are all still there, but in between them, there isn't much to do.

http://www.michigancityin.com/articles/200.../20/news/n1.txt

LaPorte mall to be razed

By Stan Maddux, For The News-Dispatch

Most of Maple Lane Mall, now called LaPorte Town Square, will be demolished. Elizabeth Hogge/ The News-Dispatch



LaPORTE - The former Maple Lane Mall in LaPorte is nearly empty, and the remaining businesses in the shopping center have been given a 30-day notice to vacate. The mall on LaPorte's west side near Indiana 2 and Indiana 39 is now called LaPorte Town Square.

Anchor stores Big Kmart and Al's Supermarket will not be demolished.



Even outside the mall, La J Mart BP has announced the gas station/convenience store's last day will be Feb. 28.

“We have no control over what the new mall owners are going to do,” said Marlene Mitzner, owner of La J Mart BP and two other family operated convenience stores in Westville and Wanatah.

Operators of the shopping center, First America Property Management of Valparaiso, directed calls to one of the owners, Jim Nagle of Chicago. Attempts to reach Nagle for comment on Monday were unsuccessful.

Mayor Leigh Morris said plans apparently call for the center of the mall to be torn down beginning in May.






About 10 acres of wooded ground next to the mall also has been acquired by the new owners, apparently for some type of expansion of the shopping center, Morris said.

La J Mart, which has been at 1338 W. Indiana 2 for 14 years, has operated under a monthly lease since the new owners acquired the property in December 2005.

Recently, Mitzner said she received a 30-day eviction notice, prompting the Feb. 28 closure of the gas station/convenience store.

“We've got to close a business that we don't really want to close,” she said. Mitzner added that she's recently talked with Nagle about his plans for the site now occupied by her store but still has more questions than answers.

“The answers have not been clear,” she said.

The only two businesses still remaining in the mall are Majerek's Hallmark and Beauty Gallery.

Majerek's and the new owners are trying to strike a deal on a new building that would go up somewhere outside the current mall, and owners plan to stay at the existing mall location until a new structure is ready, said Beverly McCullough, a Majerek's Hallmark employee.

“We're still in negotiations,” McCullough said.

Beauty Gallery is reportedly engaged in talks for a new site as well.

Mitzner said there will be no attempt to open another LaPorte location, preferring instead to focus on the J-Marts in Westville and Wanatah.

Her family also owns Triple J Mart Petroleum, which makes bulk deliveries of fuel to area gas stations, farmers and commercial and industrial customers.

“It's been a very difficult situation because it's not our choice to do this,” Mitzner said.




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Shopping center made cameo in ‘Prancer'

John Hancock remembers well shooting the Santa scene of his 1989 Christmas classic “Prancer” at LaPorte's Maple Lane Mall.

It took only one day.

It is the moment when the movie's heroine, an 8-year-old farm girl played by Rebecca Harrell, heads to the local mall, pleading with a rather harried Santa, played by Michael Constantine (“My Big Fat Greek Wedding”), to help her. It seems there is a reindeer on her property that just might be his beloved Prancer.

Santa doesn't believe her, so she tugs at his fake beard, pulling it below his chin.

The moment earned a big laugh among moviegoers.

Hancock said the scene involved not only Harrell and Constantine, but about 30 to 40 extras.

It also reveals a then-fully occupied mall.

“I remember it so clearly, fondly actually,” Hancock said Monday night. “It all went smoothly.”

- By Andrew Tallackson

[Southsider2k12]

http://thenewsdispatch.com/articles/2011/1...b7762123610.txt

Work begins at Maple Lane Mall

By Stan Maddux
For The News-Dispatch
Published: Friday, December 2, 2011 5:08 PM CST
LA PORTE — Long-awaited plans to revive Maple Lane Mall on La Porte’s West Side are under way.

“We’re very hopeful an eyesore will become beautified,” city building inspector Chuck Collins said.

Building permits have been awarded by the city to remodel the center of the mall for occupation by Dunham’s Sports and Family Dollar.

For about the last two weeks, Collins said work crews have been at the mall getting started on rebuilding the inside of the site, which had previously been gutted.

*
“It’s a complete remodel,” Collins said.

Remodeling of the building’s exterior is planned, with facade improvements among the upgrades on the drawing board.

Dunham’s Sports bills itself as the Midwest’s largest sporting goods chain with 150 Midwest locations that include stores in Mishawaka and Grand Rapids, Mich. According to a Dunham’s Sports website, the superstore specializes in sporting goods, athletic gear and a variety of other sport- related items.

Collins said Dunham Sports and Family Dollar will occupy a majority of the center of the mall, which has been empty for several years.

The existing Al’s Supermarket on the east side of the building also is undergoing an expansion into a portion of the mall.

La Porte Mayor Kathy Chroback said PIMA Properties, owners of the site, have had plans to redevelop the mall before she took office nearly four years ago.

“It’s taken a long time,” she said. “There’s been a lot of hoops to jump through.”

Chroback said she wasn’t sure of the exact time frame, but hopes the new tenants are occupying the mall by the spring.

“I’ve been inside,” she said. “The facility just needs to be built out.”

She said a revitalized Maple Lane Mall ranks high in terms of importance for La Porte and the city’s West Side.

Chroback remembers the once-thriving mall as “the place to go”’ in the 1970s and 1980s, and to see it decline since vacated nearly a decade ago was sad.

She hopes the mall can revitalized retail activity on the West Side.

“It’s a little bit of a blighted area,” she said. “It’s absolutely a plus for the community to have that going on.”