Would a mall
by any other name be as sweet?
Northland Center in Southfield
and Eastland Center in Harper Woods are about to find out. The shopping centers are selling their naming
rights.
Owner Ashkenazy Acquisitions Corp., based in
Brooklyn, N.Y., hired Profit Increase Funding Inc., a Detroit naming rights company, three weeks ago
to find a buyer.
The sale will reap "millions of dollars"
for the malls, said Brian Strugs, president and CEO of Profit Increase Funding.
Whoever buys the naming rights can affix their name to the malls' exteriors, increasing their exposure in the market.
They also can set up displays and have a representative on site to talk to customers about their products.
The buyer can purchase the rights to one or both malls and can renew the
rights for as long as they want. Details of the sale offering are still in the works, but a buyer
likely would have to sign a three-year contract.
Money
from the sale would be used to make capital improvements to the centers, said Pam Lightbody, marketing manager
for the malls. Since Ashkenazy Acquisitions purchased Eastland in 2008, it has invested more than $2 million in the property, including renovating more than 10,000 square feet for a Family Dollar store and a 72,000-square-foot
addition for the Burlington Coat Factory that opened last year.
"It's an alternative income (for the malls)," Lightbody said of selling the rights.
"As far as cash flow, all is well. It is something that assists with development of the center
to help make them more attractive."
It's also a
good way for companies to get their name out in the community. Advertisers feel like they are getting lost in the clutter of newspapers, television ads, the Internet and other venues, Lightbody said.
Selling the naming rights to a business is a "very positive development" -- especially
for malls, many of which are losing tenants -- said Ken Dalto, a Farmington Hills-based retail analyst.
"It's a creative way to create income (for the sellers)," he said.
It won't hurt Eastland or Northland if they change their names because shoppers
don't go there for the name: They go for the stores and the atmosphere, Dalto said.
Eastland gets 10 million shoppers annually while Northland has 6 million visitors
each year.
Eastland was developed in 1957 as an open air mall
by J.L. Hudson Corp., a Detroit-based department store chain that's been closed for years. The 1.4 million-square-foot
mall on Eight Mile and Vernier Road was enclosed in 1975.
The
1.7 million-square-foot Northland Center, once the world's largest shopping center and Metro Detroit's oldest, opened in 1954 and was hailed as the future of shopping in post-war America.
This is the first time the centers have tried to sell their naming rights.
For buyers, having their company's name on a mall won't directly generate more income, Dalto
said. But it will be seen by many passers-by and subliminally provide valuable name recognition, keeping
the sponsor's name at the forefront of the consumer's mind.
"The name is on everyone's lips," Dalto said
