The Museum Moves Out: A 2021 Visit to Flint's Deserted Dort Mall (#3)

There are lots of unique dead malls out there, though few which are best described as "weird." Flint, the seventh-most populous city in Michigan, is home to a pretty strange shopping center. The city, famous for automobiles, labor unions, and, more recently, poisoned water, has been in a bad place economically for decades (which I'd argue is largely the result of the business practices of General Motors), and it shows in the area's three malls. The largest around, the Genesee Valley Center, is declining dramatically, and the Courtland Center in neighboring Burton (which will be discussed in a future post) is even more deserted. Neither, however, is quite as dead as the tiny, nearly empty, and above all, strange, Dort Mall.

Named for Dort Highway, which runs to its east, the Dort Mall was the first enclosed shopping mall in greater Flint. The mall is located about two miles "as the crow flies" southeast of downtown Flint, and 1 1/2 miles south of I-69. The mall, originally known as the Small Mall, was constructed in the mid-1960s on the former site of a drive-in movie theater. Yankee Stores, a local discount chain, opened a store on the property in 1964, followed a year later by the rest of the mall, with an A&P grocery store joining as its second anchor. General Cinemas opened a single-screen movie theater at the mall in 1968, adding a second screen in 1975. The mall saw even more visitors at night, when a discotheque called The Light opened in the mall's basement in the mid-1970s.

Even with so few spaces, Dort dealt with vacancies early in its history. Yankee was acquired by (and rebranded as) Zody's in 1972, and closed in 1974 when Zody's filed for bankruptcy and exited Michigan. Its space was split, with part taken by a Sears Outlet. The Light and the cinema closed in the early 1980s, and A&P followed in the 1990s.

The mall changed hands in 1995, when it was purchased by Robert Perani. Bob was a former professional hockey player (having been goalie for the Flint Generals of the International Hockey League from 1969-1974) and owner of Flint-based Perani's Hockey World, a regional chain of hockey supply stores. Perani's opened a store next to Sears Outlet in part of the former Yankee/Zody's when Perani bought the mall. The dying mall would soon be repopulated with a myriad of artifacts that Perani bought over the years.

Dort Mall became known for the oddities within. Most notable among them was a prop featured in 1967's Doctor Dolittle, a scale model of the Flounder used in a simulated bird's-eye view of the ship. Other objects inside the mall included lots of old signs (including signs from Flint's own Buick, and another from the short-lived nearby amusement park Six Flags AutoWorld), a boat and an airplane. YouTube explorer Dan Bell visited the mall in 2017 to document the Dort Mall and its antiques as part of his Dead Mall Series, as a double feature along with the abandoned Hampton Towne Centre near Bay City. 

Bell's video inspired me to visit Dort Mall during a day trip to Flint in 2018 (which also included my first visit to the Courtland Center). I was amazed at seeing all the artifacts in person, on display for anyone who knew they were there to see. I took a couple of pictures at the time, not knowing it'd be my last time seeing the Dort Mall as it was.

I really took this picture more for the joke than the retail aspect. (July 2018)

I don't know of any other mall with its name in its flooring.
I'm sure that one of my savvy fellow retail enthusiasts will think of one, though. (July 2018)

Recently I took another trip to Flint and decided it was high time to pay the Dort Mall another visit. Unaware of the changes inside, I wanted to show the mall's artifacts to a relative who had recently moved to Michigan. Dan Bell mentioned that since Bob Perani's passing in 2012, his family inherited the collection and was slowly selling its pieces. I had no idea, however, the extent to which the mall's exhibits were downsized.

The mall's sad-looking facade probably hasn't been changed in thirty years or more. (July 2021)

You know you're in for a good time when you see a spread of tenants like this. (July 2021)

The first face you'd usually see when entering the Dort Mall wasn't there to greet me. Charlie the Giant Pacu, longtime tenant of the mall's fishtank, was given to a fish rescue near Cleveland last November, and his tank was left empty. No water remained inside, though a few rocks and plants were left behind.

(July 2021)

Also absent was the metal dinosaur, gone from its spot behind Charlie, and replaced with one of the mall's old message boards. It seems like there was once a fountain there.

I found its shape a bit reminiscent of a Crewmate from the mobile game Among Us, especially given that the center is white. (July 2021)

Continuing to the main corridor I was shocked to find that most of the mall's artifacts were no longer there.

(July 2021)

Anywhere else, you might think I was crazy if I said there used to be an airplane right here. (July 2021)

Among the pieces still here was the rowboat... though it might have been sold, as it was on a wheeled dolly near the exit.

If memory serves, the boat used to be displayed above these stairs, leading down to the basement and abandoned discotheque. (July 2021)

The only other artifacts still here were the Buick sign and clock, plus an old Zamboni and an arena scoreboard next to Perani's. 

The four periods shown on the scoreboard imply it wasn't used for hockey, odd given the business of the store displaying it. (July 2021)

While the well-known pieces in the mall were gone, looking under the surface revealed a handful of undiscovered oddities.

This vacant storefront contains everything from an Uncle Sam poster to an old Perani's Hockey World sign... sitting in a tire. Even without Bob Perani's collection, Dort Mall doesn't cease to be weird. (July 2021)

One of the mall's former tenants advertised their acceptance of Visa Electron, a card that isn't issued in the United States or Canada. (July 2021)

Somewhere around twenty tenants remain in the mall, of which about half are actual retail businesses. Perani's is basically the only thing keeping the mall's interior open, as almost everything else is only accessed from outside. A t-shirt store called Paradise Express also operates inside. Longtime tenant Bargain Hunters recently moved from its location in the former Sears Outlet into the former A&P/Big Lots space at the north end, after its previous tenant, City Market, which replaced Big Lots in 2012, closed.

The weird spiky ball on pole thingies are still there. (July 2021)

The sole restaurant in the mall, Smoking J's BBQ, is a bit of a mystery in terms of its status. It looked like it could have just been closed for the day, but the lack of signage inside points toward a permanent closure. Mask signage was in place on the door, so if it did close, it must have been pretty recent.

(July 2021)

The side corridor was just as barren as ever. The security office was empty. Posted in the window were surveillance pictures of two individuals the Flint Police are seeking to question. 

A visibly locked file cabinet and a weed wacker. Only at the Dort Mall... (July 2021)

A back corridor near the restrooms was the most modern-looking part of the mall. Looking through the windows, it reminded me of an empty early 2000s school hallway. The public restrooms are actually those that used to serve the movie theater.

Something about this old paper towel dispenser just makes the vibe of this restroom. (July 2021)

A few more pictures of the mall's interior:

(July 2021)

It's sad that all the cool displays that made the Dort Mall unique are now gone. It's just a tiny abandoned mall now. Its future looks pretty bleak, but at least Perani's is likely to stick around and keep the mall open.

In closing, here's an odd development in the mall's outlot. Subway was one of the last tenants to move onto the mall's property, constructing a standalone restaurant in 2011. It was in a pretty unusual style, and even had a drive-thru, which at least here in Michigan is unusual for a S(oo)ubway. They didn't last, as by the time Manny Quacioua got to it in late 2018, it was abandoned. The building appeared to be in great condition... except, of course, for the bullet hole in the front window.

Subway's signage was gone and the building was put up for lease by the time Google's Street View crew came to town the following summer. Fast forward to 2021, the tiny building has been retenanted by, of all things, a pharmacy-only Walgreens. They relocated from a full-line Walgreens store about 500 feet south at the intersection with Atherton Road, which is intact and abandoned at the time of writing. 

(July 2021)

Oddly enough, this former Subway at 3600 Dort Highway is still listed on the chain's website as an open location, and on Google Maps as "temporarily closed." Subway's tables still remain, even though you won't find much in the way of food at this Walgreens.

I hope you all enjoyed my account of the state of the Dort Mall today. Many thanks to retail enthusiast and Wikipedian TenPoundHammer for helping me with research. Later today I plan to post about an intersting abandoned car dealership nearby, so stay tuned!