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Initial announcement of Shopping Center from July 1963 in Flint Journal:
By KENNETH PETERSON - Four tenants have signed leases in the planned $2.8 million Flint Mall Shopping Center on N. Dort Highway just north of Davison Road. Joseph F. LaVelle, owner of LaVelle Realty, developer of the center, said the four are: Federal Department Stores, F. W. Woolworth Co., A & P Food Stores and Muir Super Drug Stores.
Federal Department Stores will dominate the center by building its third and largest Flint store. It will occupy 80,000 square feet. Woolworth. which has a downtown store, will take 18,000 square feet, A&P will take 17,952 square feet and Muir will have 7,200 square feet for its first Flint store.
The tenants will occupy about 72 per cent or the center, which will have 191,290 square feet under roof, This includes 18,718 square feet of enclosed mall area. LaVelle said several other leases are being negotiated with Flint stores. There will be parking for 1,500 automobiles on the 18-acre site, LaVelle said. The site has 660 feet of frontage on N. Dort and 366 feet on Davison.
LaVelle said he gathered six parcels of land for the center. There are 11 buildings scattered on the site. They will be razed and railroad tracks there will be removed. The general contractor is Cunningham-Limp Co., Detroit. Construction will begin in September, with completion scheduled for March, 1964.
Cancellation announcement of Flint Mall and building Arlans instead from an article in the Flint Journal from December 1965:
New Arlan's Store Planned on Dort Hwy. Arlan's Department Stores. New York City. will open its second Flint outlet in a shopping center planned for the southeast corner of Bennett Avenue and N. Dort Highway, Joseph F. LaVelle. the developer, reported. LaVeIIe, owner of LaVelle Realty, Flint, said Arlan's will own 50 per cent of the center With George Cramer and Roger Hubbard of Hubbard’s Associates, Detroit, an investment firm, owning the other half.
The department store will occupy 80.000 square feet in the $1.8 million center which will be on an 18 acre site. The first phase of the center, which includes a 22,000 square foot Allied Supermarket, will take up 10 acres, l.aVelle said. The center will have six or seven smaller stores using 16,500 square feet, the developer said. A 357,540-square-foot parking lot will accommodate more than 700 cars.
The Arlan store, LaVelle said, will have one story and will be of modern design and more elaborate than the present store at the northeast corner of Clio and W. Pierson roads. The center will have a front on N. Dort, LaVelle said. He added that a service station, garage and several vacant buildings will be razed.
The center replaces the Flint Mall Shopping Center originally planned by LaVelle at the same location. He said the first project proved too large for the available land. This was announced in July 1963. Construction is scheduled to start on the project in February with completion expected by early next fall. The architects on the job are T. Rogvoy Associates. Inc., Detroit. A general contractor has not been chosen.