Cherryland Center — Attraction in Garfield Township

Nothing much is left here... pretty much a ghost town. I guess the owners signed the death warrant on this place back when the dumped all that money to renovate turning it from the Cherryland mall to the Cherryland center. In case you haven't noticed....this is Northern Michigan People. It's cold, snowy and icy 6 months of the year another 3 months it's humid and sticky so that leaves you with 2-3 months that it's comfortable to walk outside from store to store. Now subtract all the days during that time when it rains. The beauty of the mall... It's always comfortable ( maybe a little cold for me but I'm always cold) when walking from one store to the next you can give the little ones a little bit of freedom not having to worry the might run out in traffic. It's better for the shops that lease space as they get much more casual shoppers brausing their spaces, that might never have found them otherwise. Not to mention that all these shops stay much cleaner, not having each patron bring in snow and rock salt, or that gust of cold air that chills you to the bone every time someone opens the door. Long story short when a shopping center is set up where you have to leave the building to walk out in the elements to visit any other establishments 9 times of 10 they will only be visiting the one specific vendor they came for....so everyone...

TLDR: like 80% empty, but a couple nice shops.

So this was a traditional mall that converted to a strip mall. Unfortunately due to poor road visibility, bad location in town, 0 branding or advertising presence, and loss of all it's staple stores; this place is essentially a ghost mall, despite being at one of the heaviest road traffic locations in all of TC.

It's good they've converted some of their parking lot to new fast food locations, since the vast field of asphalt is unnecessary without stores; however this has only made visibility of the mall worse.

In recent years there's been some nice new tenants; Leather's By David, B2, Plato's closet, the date-night paint studio that closed. None bring in the crowds, but most are more realistic for this side of town; which we all know gets more local traffic than tourists.

It's really reached a point where if they can't get new tenants they might want to consider removing it. This is a booming area, and that property would explode with new life if it weren't for the old mall being there. It's sad, because I remember when this was an indoor mall with a fountain, coin spin, and toy train that ran around the ceiling; but some things just can't survive the...

Cherryland center is kind of a microcosm of what's going on with American malls. Once the original and only Mall in Traverse City it now plays second fiddle to the larger Mall down the road. There are some truly great shops still at cherryland center such as Asian buffet, leathers by David and the all to essential big lots and for the gamers among us GameStop. Other than that the stores that you will find are pretty underwhelming. Younkers is gone and so are most of the restaurants that used to be found there. Do not eat at the sub place at the very end...