Do You Remember the Downtown Grand Rapids City Centre?
Who remembers the short lived City Centre mall in downtown Grand Rapids? What fun it was to shop there through it's many floors and take the glass elevators up to the top.
Mark Bosek had a great post on the "If You Grew Up in Grand Rapids" Facebook page about the long gone City Centre.
It included the Herpolsheimers building and others. Of course, the great Herp's Monorail for kids was still running in the basement, and it had a wonderful food court as well. Gantos was in the mall as I believe Doug Gantos was a key developer of the mall. Sort of a downsized version of Water Tower Place in Chicago. You could park underneath the building, too.
Herpolsheimers, was turned into Lazarus by its parent company soon after opening. Remember the Michigan/Michigan State store called The Great Divide, and the Side One record store, and of course, Maryann's Chocolates?!?
Sadly, it just didn't generate the kind of business needed to remain alive, and closed after only a few years. Now, for those who don't know what I'm talking about and where is was located downtown, the Grand Rapids Police Department is there now, along with a Secretary of State office.