SAGINAW TWP, MI — Self-taught baker Cierra Warren started Delicious Sweets Bakeshop in 2011 in her Pontiac home when she was 19. Less than a decade later, she has two locations, one in downtown Saginaw’s SVRC Marketplace and another in Saginaw Township’s Fashion Square Mall, and has hired eight employees.
She joined the vendor mix at the indoor market last year and opened in the mall’s food court last month. She likes the SVRC Marketplace and intends to stay, but needed room to grow. The mall was the perfect fit.
“I was looking for a place I could mass produce and service the community,” said Warren, who makes more than 1,000 custom-order cakes each year, plus countless cookies, cupcakes, cheesecakes and other sweets. Her sweet potato pound cake and house-made caramel cake are customer favorites.
Fashion Square, like many malls, has numerous vacancies in its food court and shopping wings left by chain restaurants and national retailers that have closed stores or gone out of business completely. Delicious Sweets Bakeshop occupies a space previously held by Subway.
Paul Martin, the mall’s general manager, said Fashion Square shoppers are going to see more small businesses like Warren’s moving into those empty spaces in the months to come.
“We’re going through the infamous national bankruptcy transition…Payless shoes, Charlotte Russe, Things Remembered,” Martin said, listing some chain stores that have left the mall. “It has nothing to do with Fashion Square Mall. It has everything to do with the bricks and mortar transition."
This shift poses a challenge for malls, but has created new opportunities for small businesses, Martin said.
“What you’re seeing now is a lot of these malls are being back-filled with what we call ‘regional’ or ‘mom and pops,'” he said.
Martin said mall officials are in talks with other small businesses considering the food court and a company eyeing the space formerly occupied by Willow Tree Restaurant. He expects to fill more vacancies by the third or fourth quarter of this year. To meet that goal, Fashion Square Mall is doing what it can to attract and develop small businesses, such as helping with business plan development, even offering free rent, if needed, he said.
When it came to getting her space in the food court, Warren said, the mall was helpful and flexible. She hopes more small businesses follow her lead.
“It would be great to be a specialty mall,” she said. “(Shoppers) are used to what’s here so when there’s something different, it gives them a reason to go.”
Martin said this is a period of transition for the mall, not an ending.
“Fashion Square is going to be looked upon down the road as the shopping center again, but it’s going to take a little bit of time," he said. "Because we are on the corner of Bay and Tittabawassee Road, that’s going to allow people to have the best opportunity in terms of real estate for bricks and mortar.”
“We welcome anybody that has the entrepreneur spirit to come and see us," he said.
Warren plans to hire bakers and cake decorators. Job seekers can apply in person at the mall or email their resume to info@dsibakeshop.com.
Fashion Square Mall is located on Bay Road, just south of Tittabawassee Road, in Saginaw Township. It’s tenants include JCPenney, Macy’s and Sears.