Fairlane Town Center’s Christmas tree nightmare is finally over.
A giant artificial Christmas tree that went on display for the 2024 holiday shopping season inside the Dearborn shopping mall — and then stayed up for another year, lingering through the 2025 holiday — has now been taken down.
The tree removal is said to have happened last month, which was also when a Wayne County judge appointed a receiver for the mall at the request of the property’s lender.
The decorated tree started attracting unflattering attention on social media for the mall last spring, when several shoppers made can-you-believe-it posts about how Christmas was long gone and yet Fairlane’s tree was still up. Some mall tenants worried that the year-round holiday tree could give a false impression that the mall was failing, even though most storefronts remained filled.
One reason the judge appointed the receiver is that Fairlane’s owner, New York-based Kohan Retail Investment Group, is said to be delinquent on a $28 million loan that was used to buy the mall property in 2023.
The loan had an outstanding balance of $27.6 million as of late December, court documents show. The mall also has nearly $4 million in unpaid property taxes — including a $1.4 million delinquency from 2023 that has made the mall subject to potential tax foreclosure.
The mall’s newly appointed receiver, attorney John Polderman of Southfield-based Stevenson and Bullock, is tasked with not only operating the mall, but also conducting a financial audit to try and determine where $3.4 million in “missing rents” last year from mall tenants went.
A local attorney representing Kohan Retail Investment Group quickly hung up on a reporter this week and didn’t respond to a subsequent message for comment.
Polderman, whom the court appointed on Jan. 16, said in an email that he thinks the mall’s Christmas tree came down prior to his involvement.
Crain’s Detroit has reported that the Hull Property Group of Augusta, Georgia, is now managing the mall. Messages left by the Free Press on Thursday, Feb. 5, for the Fairlane management office, as well as Hull Property Group, weren’t returned.
The city of Dearborn has been critical of the mall’s owner and past failures to snowplow the parking lot or cut the property’s grass. DTE Energy once posted a shutoff warning in 2024 at a mall entrance, although the past due utility bill was ultimately paid.
“The stewardship of Fairlane Mall, a signature property in Dearborn, is not up to the standard that we believe the site or Dearborn as a whole deserves,” Jordan Twardy, economic development director for Dearborn, said in a statement. “We stand ready to partner with any owner or party that is serious about the stewardship of Fairlane and unleashing its full potential. We invite and encourage all parties to connect with us in the spirit of advancing a shared vision that benefits all and reflects the best outcome for Dearborn.”
Led by Mike Kohan, the Kohan Retail Investment Group is known for buying struggling and sometimes distressed shopping malls and was the final owner of the since-demolished Eastland Center in Harper Woods.
Kohan’s group bought Fairlane in April 2023 for $52.8 million from Dallas-based real estate firm Centennial, which had owned the mall for less than a year after paying $68 million for it in May 2022.
Kohan’s purchase was accomplished through the $28 million loan and $24.8 million in equity, according to court documents. Mike Kohan could not be reached for comment.
Contact JC Reindl: 313-378-5460 or jcreindl@freepress.com. Follow him on X @jcreindl
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Fairlane mall finally takes down 2024 Christmas tree
Reporting by JC Reindl, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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