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Some retail analysts worried about Troy's Oakland Mall when its fancy new neighbor, Somerset North, opened last August.
But as of late May, Oakland's having the last laugh.
Oakland Mall, with seven more tenants in May than it had a year ago, had the greatest increase in occupancy of any mall in metro Detroit over the past year, according to Key Marketing Group Inc., a Waterford Township company that tracks mall vacancies. Occupancy at several other malls has slumped from a year ago, though all say they have strategies to cope with the decline.
Joy Powell, general manager of Oakland Mall, said it always has emphasized middle-American, middle-class tastes, and she believes predictions that Oakland would have to struggle against Somerset's pricier shops were never accurate.
Indeed, the stores that have moved into Oakland have a solidly middle-class customer base: Perfumania, My Photographer, '90s Nails, Bath & Body Works, Pacific Sunwear, and a store called Hot Topic, which sells clothing and accessories based on popular music groups.
"I'd be hard-pressed to cite a mall that has a better location in all of Michigan than Oakland Mall," said Bloomfield Township retail real estate consultant Barry Klein. "The only thing that Somerset North did to them, other than probably some indigestion from some lost Hudson's sales, was just redefine what their basic market...