Abandoned KMart Headquarters and Why It Was Left to Rot: Troy, Mi

WARNING: Under no circumstances should you enter this property. By doing so you risk bodily harm and/or prosecution for trespassing on private property.

This place is like a fort…heck, it’s even bigger than most forts! The old Kmart headquarters was even called “Fort Kresge” by employees and residents….it sits abandoned, sittin’ and sprawled across over 40 acres on Big Beaver Road in Troy.

The very first Kmart opened in Garden City, Michigan on March 1, 1962. As more store locations popped up, it was plain to see that this was the one that customers couldn’t get enough of. Sure enough, the Kresge company took that lead and in 1977 changed the company name from S.S. Kresge Corporation to Kmart Corporation.

The complex was designed in the 1960s and once it began operations, it held several thousand employees.

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So what happened? Why was it left to rot?

In 2006, Kmart bought out the Sears company and moved the whole corporation, company, kit & caboodle to Chicago. Everybody out…and it’s been deserted ever since.

In 2007 there was a glorious plan to make the old Kmart “fortification” into a humongous, splendiferous, shopping extravaganza-palooza called the “Pavilions of Troy”. This baby was concocted to be an indoor walking mall with live entertainment, grocery store, ice skating rink, offices, plenty of parking, residences, restaurants, shops, stores, and a three-thousand seat theater. The cost? A paltry three hundred million dollars.

City officials loved the idea…it would give Troy a boost and more credibility. Even the state approved the tax credits…but it was not to be. Thanks to the country’s real estate bust and recession, it never came to pass.

So still it sits. The old Kmart Headquarters, corner of Big Beaver Road and Coolidge Highway. It was used a few years later, to film scenes in the 2012 movie, “Red Dawn.” But nothing else since. Take a look at some photos below and see how it looks…..