Urban Outfitters Moves to Briarwood

Will Target fill the space?

by Micheline Maynard

From the January, 2021 issue

In November, Urban Outfitters quietly packed up its trendy clothes, books, and housewares and vacated the ground floor beneath the State Theater it had occupied since 1989. It reemerged as a holiday season pop-up at Briarwood but left a big question behind: what will replace it?

Colliers International is listing the 10,800-square-foot space for $55 a square foot, with a base monthly rent of $49,500. "Tons of foot and auto traffic, surrounded by established national retail, restaurants and local shops," reads the listing.

Listing agent Jim Chaconas will only entertain national tenants, and they'll have to be high-volume ones in order to generate that kind of revenue during the pandemic and with campus mostly empty.

Who could that be? One intriguing possibility: Target. To complement its 1,800-plus superstores, the Minneapolis-based chain is opening "small format" stores around the country. Many are near college campuses, including Michigan State, Ohio State, Minnesota, Northwestern, and Maryland.

"At Target, we continuously explore possible locations for new stores, including in the Ann Arbor area," emails spokeswoman Jill Lewis.

"I can tell you we are pursuing the opportunity to reach new guests in Ann Arbor, but at this time, we're not at a point where we can share any new store plans."    

[Originally published in January, 2021.]