R. R. Branstrom | Daily Press Hayley Price, first assistant at Maurices in the Delta Plaza Mall, prepares clothing racks for end-of-season sales. Though its shop has moved locations with shifting eras, Maurices first entered Escanaba’s mall in 1971.

EDITOR NOTE: The Daily Press will be featuring a series of articles on local businesses, highlighting their history and what makes them unique. The series will run on a regular basis in the Daily Press.

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By R. R. Branstrom

rbranstrom@dailypress.net

ESCANABA — The Delta Plaza Mall — with its five internally-accessed retailers, seven outward-facing stores and one church — has changed course a few times since opening in 1970. While cruising the mall for a good portion of a day and hitting a number of shops used to be a novel experience, shopping habits have changed. Following the most recent change of ownership in 2016, Omaha-based DP Management has handled some redevelopment projects to help keep Escanaba’s mall relevant.

The Delta Plaza’s grand opening was on Nov. 8, 1970. It was the first shopping center constructed by Gamble Development Co., which was founded as a real estate subsidiary of Gamble-Skogmo Inc., a Minnesota-based conglomerate that operated or franchised such chains as Gambles, Snyder Drug, Woman’s World, Mode O’Day, Red Owl and more.

The architect was Thorsen and Thorshov, Inc. of Minneapolis. Following expansions to plans that had started in 1968, construction began in the summer of 1969. A number of contractors, many local, were involved. Contributors included Olson and Flath of Escanaba for some exterior concrete and masonry; for building materials, Phoenix Lumber and Supply Company of Escanaba; for partial interior construction, Roy Ness Contracting and Sales of Escanaba; for painting and decorating, Pearce Painting of Sault Ste. Marie; M.J. Electric of Iron Mountain; Gegare Tile of Green Bay; Joe Krygoski of Menominee; and A.J. Spanjers Co. of Minnesota for caulking and weatherstripping.

Shortly before the place was finished, in September of 1970, it was announced that another addition was being made — ShopKo. It was the third ShopKo in the Upper Peninsula but the first ever in an enclosed mall. Fed by the main interior corridor, ShopKo could attract visitors of the other 14 shops in the mall.

In addition to the 70,000-square-foot, ten-department Red Owl Family Center and the 49,000-square-foot F. W. Woolworth, the first occupants of Delta Plaza in 1970 included Boy Blue Dairy Treat Store, PhotoArt, Mode O’Day, Northern Michigan National Bank, Walter Gray Jewelry, Children’s World, Andrea’s Boutique, BJ’s Men’s Shop, Coin Laundry, Merle Norman Beauty Salon, One Hour Martinizing and Nobil Shoes.

The first manager of Delta Plaza Shopping Center, appointed by Gamble President James Gottlieb, was Wesley Hansen. Hansen had previously sat on the Escanaba City Council for 12 years, served as mayor twice, been a member of the Escanaba Board of Review and the Rotary Club, chaired the Delta County Road Commission, and managed the Red Owl meat department.

“Consumers today demand the convenience of one-stop shopping,” said Gottleib in 1969. “The full range of retail stores and service shops in the center will enable busy shoppers to park a single time and be in a position to satisfy the shopping needs of the entire family.”

Directions of shopping centers have changed since then, though. There are fewer indoor malls in America than there were 40 years ago, and trends have changed toward strip-mall-type plazas with exterior entrances to the individual retailers.

“People don’t have time anymore,” said Marge Derkos, who manages Shoe Sensation in Delta Plaza and said that business has increased about 30% since they moved locations to one with an exterior entrance. “It’s destination shopping now, because time doesn’t permit you to go into the mall.”

Derkos is now approaching her 10-year anniversary with that Shoe Sensation, but she has worked at a couple other Delta Plaza shops, beginning with Maurices in 1978.

The heyday of malls around the country was about the 1970s and 1980s, and Delta Plaza’s peak was around then, too. In addition to the shopping experience, the mall also hosted a number of events: Fashion shows, Halloween costume contests, Easter egg hunts, cutest pet contests. In 1975, a mobile science and technology show from Michigan Technological University was transported to the Delta Plaza in a 26-foot van. In the early ’90s, a mallwalking program aided by the Red Cross and the YMCA encouraged public health through fitness, even offering incentives for greatest distance logged and providing blood pressure screenings for mallwalkers, some of whom strolled the corridors simply for exercise before shops even opened.

A fascinating element that Red Owl featured as a convenience to both staff and shoppers was a conveyer belt that ran under the floor out towards the parking lot. After purchases were made, parcels were loaded into trays, numbered, and sent along the track to be collected by shoppers with the associated numbers.

“It was ahead of its time,” said Derkos, remembering fondly. “It was a really cool concept.”

Throughout the years, a number of ownership changes have taken place, and tenants have come and gone from the mall. Some larger chains do customer surveys to determine whether Escanaba will be a good fit for them.

Small, local businesses that now exist elsewhere in town but once occupied plaza space include Wickert Floral, Lisa Ann, and Sayklly’s.

In 1984, Red Owl closed its restaurant portion of the Escanaba mall space. Shortly afterward, the Delta Plaza was one of four Midwest malls Gamble Development sold to Dial Enterprises of Omaha, Neb.

When Dial Enterprises bought the plaza, they remained the property manager but assigned ownership to partner Northland Centers in ’85. At that time, the mall then had 26 tenants. Red Owl occupied less than half of its former area, and the new owners were keen to lease out the vacated portion. JC Penney filled the anchor position and held its grand opening in spring of ’86.

By the very end of 1986, Northland Centers sold a portion of the property to another partner, Dial REIT, Inc., a Maryland corporation with the same Omaha address.

Catching the tail end of the popularity of mall culture, a food court was part of a renovation that was finished in 1992.

In 1994, Dial REIT changed its name to Mid-America Realty Investments, while the company’s wholly-owned management and leasing company, Dial Enterprises Corp, was rechristened Mid-America Centers Corp. Then-President and CEO Jerome Heinrichs said that the company had “defined its focus to be in the Upper Midwest with a niche in mid-sized cities.”

In 1998, Bradley Real Estate of Northbrook, Ill. bought Mid-America, with the Delta Plaza as one of the assets in the deal.

In 2000, Bradley conveyed the mall to Rubloff Delta out of Rockford, Ill., who took out a mortgage with Dougherty Funding of Minneapolis. After Rubloff Delta fell into arrears, the property went into foreclosure, and the court appointed Amicus Management of Grand Rapids to manage the property. At the time when the foreclosure process officially began in 2013, the mall had 16 tenants and continued to operate. In 2014, Escanaba Mall LLC — affiliated with Dougherty Funding — bought the property at a foreclosure sale for just shy of three-and-a-quarter million dollars.

In 2016, Dial of Omaha reappeared on the scene. Before purchasing the 227,000-square-foot mall, they approached Escanaba City Council about creating an “obsolete property rehabilitation district” there, which would provide Dial with tax exemptions for improving the property. The council approved.

The Delta Plaza then contained 10 operational businesses and 21 vacant units — not counting Shopko, since converted to L&M, which is connected but not part of the parcel.

The sale closed in August 2016, marking the start of the current era of the Delta Plaza. DP Management, a member of Dial Companies, now manages the mall. The neighboring strip mall is also in their hands, and so was Super One — which closed in 2017 and is preparing to be passed on to Kwik Trip — and land on Lincoln Road that has since been sold and now houses Aspen Dental and WellNow. The lot with Starbucks is also DP’s. The multiple properties sometimes pool resources when it comes to things like clearing snow.

Aside from the tenants and employees of those businesses, only a small handful work at the mall. The current property manager, Katherine Hedges, has been with DP Management since 2018. There’s a full-time maintenance director, Jeff Wendrick, and a housekeeper. Marketing and corporate is based in Omaha.

In October 2018, Escanaba’s Brownfield Redevelopment Authority approved a plan to designate the Delta Plaza as a Brownfield site, part of a program within the State of Michigan to revitalize struggling, previously developed sites.

The new owners got busy and contracted work to restore the 50-year-old mall. They replaced sections of the roof, worked on outlots, remodeled bathrooms and rebuilt interior portions so that Dunham’s Sports, who had outgrown their other space, could occupy a large back section.

One of the most notable things done fairly recently was the complete reconstruction of the parking lot. Instead of just repaving the surface or filling in potholes, they tore it up entirely and started from square one.

“The mall itself in the last three years has made the biggest jumps and changes,” said Derkos. “Our mall is part of our community and I’m glad to be part of it.”

Current occupants of the Delta Plaza are Bath and Body Works, Daily Thread, Dunham’s Sports, Five Below, Harbor Freight, Hobby Lobby, Glik’s, Marshalls, Maurices, Shoe Sensation, Tradehome Shoes and Wellspring Community Church.

In the spirit pf the holidays, several retailers are offering sales, and Santa Claus has been on the premises to greet and take photos with the public. He’ll again be at the mall on Monday the 23rd from 2 to 7 p.m. and Tuesday — Christmas Eve — from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.