Erskine Village: the mall ground, rebuilt open-air

REDEVELOPED 2004–2006 · OPENED IN STAGES FROM 2005 · 1240 EAST IRELAND ROAD · THE SCOTTSDALE GROUND

A power center in the mall's footprint: The Kite–Kimco partnership that bought Scottsdale in 2002–2003, with Schottenstein Realty joining at the closing, rebuilt the ground as an open-air power center and named it for the names the district already carried — Erskine Boulevard, Erskine Park and its golf course, and the Erskine Plaza strip that had opened beside the mall in 1989. A period retail guide priced the new center at $35 million; its owner lists it at 272,000 square feet, against the enclosed mall's 670,000 — the replacement deliberately smaller than what it replaced, all of it visible from the street and none of it under a roof. The phasing kept the trade on the ground: the Ward box came down first for a relocated Target, rebuilt on the site of the anchor it replaced; Kohl's, PetSmart, and DSW were confirmed by 2005 and the property was complete by the end of that year; Old Navy, Bed Bath & Beyond, T. J. Maxx, and Justice opened by 2006; and a small-format Circuit City, branded "The City," followed in January 2007.

The second generation turns over: Erskine Village's later record is the power-center form's ordinary churn, documented store by store. Circuit City closed in 2009 with its chain's bankruptcy; Ross Dress for Less took the box in 2013, by way of a party-supply tenant between. Bed Bath & Beyond closed its store in 2015. The property went to auction in 2016, and in 2019, after a loan default, it was auctioned again at a sheriff's sale and sold for $23 million to the Cotswold Group, a New York real-estate company, which owns and manages it still. The owner's listing gives the center's major stores as Kohl's, Target, and T. J. Maxx; current directory accounts add Ross Dress for Less to the majors. The cinema that Scottsdale opened in 1973 did not survive into the new center — the corridor's screens had already moved to the Showplace 16 on Chippewa in 1998, whose record stands in the Theaters section.

Sources:

1. Wikipedia, "Erskine Village" (the Scottsdale Mall record) — the Kite–Kimco–Schottenstein purchase and phasing; the tenant confirmations of 2005 and openings of 2006; the Circuit City opening and 2009 closing; Ross in 2013; the Bed Bath & Beyond closing of 2015; the 2016 auction; the 2019 sheriff's sale at $23 million to the Cotswold Group; the center at 272,000 square feet.
2. The South Bend Tribune — May 17, 2005 (the south-side progress); March 16, 2006 (the Old Navy opening); January 17, 2009 (the Circuit City closing); March 10, 2013 (the Ross openings); August 18, 2015 (the Bed Bath & Beyond closing); October 30, 2019 (the sale to the New York group); and WNDU, April 21, 2016 (the auction) — via the citations assembled in the retail-history record.
3. RetailGuide, South Bend shopping guide (period account, c. 2006) — Erskine Village as a "$35-million retail center about a mile east of Erskine Commons," its strip mall, multi-tenant buildings, and freestanding eateries opening in late 2006.
4. Cotswold Group, Erskine Village property page (2022) — the center's major stores as Kohl's, Target, and T. J. Maxx.