Fairlane Town Center to welcome eight new stores this year – Dearborn Press and Guide

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By the end of the year, at least eight new tenants will open inside Fairlane Town Center, according to mall officials.
An effort to renew the mall has been made since new owners, real estate investment firm Centennial, took over a few months ago.
Ballzy Balls, a sports-themed entertainment venue, and Fix & Gifts, a personalized gifts and phone repair retailer, have already opened, while The Coloring Station, a child-focused reading and coloring retailer; Express Yourself, a body piercing and tattoo expert; Prissy Paw Palace, a clothing and accessories retailer for fur-babies; Incredible Burger, a 100% Halal fast food eatery; and The Ukiyo Store, a Detroit-based clothier, are set to open in coming months. Toys R Us also is returning to the mall, but will be located inside of the Macy’s store.
“We are excited to announce the addition of eight new retailers, each carefully selected to meet the diverse needs of our valued shoppers,” says Dan Fayad, general manager for Fairlane Town Center. “The addition of the beloved Toys R Us brand inside Macy’s and the array of offerings from the seven other new tenants will provide welcome additions to the center that we are sure our customers will embrace.”
Centennial is teaming up with Waterfall Asset Management and Cawley Partners to help manage the 1.4-million-square-foot shopping center that first opened in 1976.
“When we purchase a shopping center, we don’t buy simply to operate it as is,” said Whitney Livingston, Centennial’s president and COO. “We buy to own valuable real estate that we can redevelop into dominant mixed-use destinations, and that is the plan we envision for Fairlane Town Center as well.”
Mayor Abdullah Hammoud said residents are supportive of businesses in town.
“The uniqueness of Dearborn is that we’re a community that likes to spend our dollars in the city,” he said.
It would have been easier for Scott Moore to give up.
When COVID-19 shut down all the owner’s locations of Ballzy Balls — in Ann Arbor, Dearborn, Jackson and Okemos — in April 2020, he found himself in a position to quit or start again.
He chose to start over.
The Fairlane location is the first Ballzy Balls to fully reopen since the pandemic.
“Basically, this is a restart of everything because we had all four, then we closed and we had to wait so long,” Moore said. “Now we’re getting our steam back.”
In fact, that was the most stressful part, he said. It was the waiting game. Even having all the appropriate post-pandemic cleaning materials, not knowing when he would receive approval from the mall left the business in a limbo status.
Moore said a cleaning protocol wasn’t difficult. The only changes needed were for patrons to wear masks when entering the facility and pulling them down while playing.
“It was the perfect sport to not transmit COVID to one another because you’re in a bubble by yourself,” Moore said.
For a newcomer wondering what Ballzy Balls is, Moore described it as a sporting activity where participants of any age get inside of a big, rubber ball – knocker balls – and various games are played, including soccer and musical chairs, while also trying to hit each other. There are four sizes: one for children 4 years old and up, preteens, adults and balls for bigger and taller people. Typical group sizes are 10 to 15 people, Moore said, but there isn’t a capacity limit in the facility.
Other activities include electric motorcycles for children 4 and under. Parents can ride with their children on the motorcycles. Drinks are offered after participants play in the knocker balls and a small section containing merchandise, like T-shirts and keychains, is on-site.
The idea came to Moore back in 2019. He came across knocker balls online, but there was no place around that offered the service and renting them was too expensive. That same year, he opened the first Ballzy Balls location in Westwood Mall in Jackson. Prior to Ballzy Balls, Moore’s entrepreneurial journey began in 2014 as a party planner and decorator.
Below is a look at each of the eight new stores, as provided by mall officials:
Macy’s will house an in-store Toys R Us shop in time for the 2022 holiday season. The in-store Toys R Us brand will include playful colored fixtures as well as hands-on demonstration tables that give children and their families a chance to interact with various toy assortments. The Toys R Us shops will also feature a life-size “Geoffrey on a Bench” photo opportunity for families.
The Coloring Station is an interactive concept that allows children to explore their own creativity. With coloring books, children’s books and art supplies for sale, The Coloring Station’s highlight will be a vibrant studiolike coloring area where children can draw and color with every tool imaginable in affordable two-hour coloring sessions. Children 12 years old and under can submit their short story, poetry, art or coloring masterpieces in monthly on-site contests where they will compete for prizes ranging from $100 to $500. While being entertained by the retailer’s mascot, a “Reading Dinosaur,” children can enjoy the venue’s cotton candy bar and fairytale queens dressed in authentic royal attire representing various story genres. The Coloring Station will also host free weekly story times as well as an array of crafts, including clay pottery, jewelry making and rock painting.
Express Yourself is a fully licensed Michigan-based company that has been offering professional body piercings since 2003. With more than 5,000 pieces of body jewelry in stock, Express Yourself offers a huge selection of 14 karat gold, titanium and implant-grade steel body jewelry. The retailer also offers tattoos, artwork and company-branded merchandise.
Incredible Burger is a fast-food-style eatery featuring made-to-order 100% Halal gourmet beef burgers.
Prissy Paw Palace sells a high-quality line of clothing for fur-babies as well as accessories, dog packs, treats, luxury toys and specialized shampoos.
The Ukiyo Store offers a selection of high-end fashions for both men and women. In fashion, The Ukiyo Store believes beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but quality should never be a compromise. The store perfectly blends “fun” and “function,” allowing its customers to focus on looking great, knowing their clothes can handle the wear and tear on even the toughest of days.
Ballzy Balls is a sports-themed entertainment activity in which guests climb into a giant rubber ball, then roll around or knock into one another. They can also take part in fun-filled games, including Bubble Soccer and Musical Bubble Chairs. Rubber balls come in sizes appropriate for children ages 4 years and older, preteens, or adults, and includes balls sized for larger or taller people. Ballzy Balls can accommodate groups up to 15 people. The facility, which recently re-opened at the center, also offers electric motorcycle rides for children 6 years old and under. Prices start at $15 for 15 minutes of play time.
Fix & Gifts repairs used phones and sells phone accessories and personalized phone cases. It also specializes in other personalized gifts, messaging and engraving – perfect for hard-to-buy-for friends and family – including 3D photos or pictures, silver or stainless-steel jewelry, and Forever crystal roses.
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