Northgate Mall

[NCMike1981]

Toys"R"Us Express Comes to Northgate

The main highlight of the article is the fact that the Triangle's only Toys"R"Us Express Store has recently opened at Northgate Mall near Sears for the holiday season

[NCMike1981]

Some updates on Northgate from the past few months:

Durham's Art Council Clay Studio Moving to outdoor plaza at Northgate

Villa Pizza Opens in Food Court

Several Phone Stores and a Wig Store (woohoo) come to Northgate

Northgate Getting Used and Rare Bookstore in old Waldonbooks space

nothing too earth shattering but at least there appear to be some movement in the mall, albeit mostly local, although the mall has been shifting more to a community mall from a regional mall for years (aka The Southpoint Effect)

[StevenRocks]

It sounds like a cool bookstore. The evolution away from national chains doesn't bode well for regional appeal, but at least Northgate is getting interesting stores instead of the same generic urbanwear and home decor places.

[DanRNC]

Word on the street is that Northgate is going to be RIP soon.

[NCMike1981]

I recently scanned some old pics (circa 2005) that I had taken, these may have been posted a while back in "picture of a picture" form but here's the actual scans:

Northgate Sears:

Northgate Hechts (prior to Macys conversion):

[StevenRocks]

Nice.

[DigitalSky]

Design-wise, I think Northgate's Macy's/Hecht's is my favorite in the state. And that Sears is still cool. Thanks for sharing them!

[NCMike1981]

Here are a few pictures of the back of the Thalhimers/Hechts/Belk/Movie Theater (yep still open) and also a few pics from atop the parking deck overlooking the mall!

[NCMike1981]

Any longtime Triangle residents out there happen to have a little insight on the history of Thalhimers in Durham? I've gathered that the store relocated from downtown to the mall in 1974 when Northgate enclosed, however I was wondering if the store pictured above is from 1974 featuring 1987 exterior renovations or if it is a new from the ground up 1987 store. I'm trying to determine if there was a smaller Thalhimers within Northgate from 1974-1987 that relocated within the mall and enlarged or this building remained Thalhimers from 1974-1991.

[NCMike1981]

I think I finally got to the bottom of the Thalhimers mystery. A poster from EndangeredDurham.org, who seems to be quite knowledgable about the mall history adv me that from 1974-1986 Thalhimers was located in a smaller 1 floor location on the opposite end of the corridor from Sears. Back then the mall was a simple dumbell shape with Sears on one end and Thalhimers on the other. I'm assuming it was originally located on the end where that wing makes an abrupt turn to the right if u r heading towards the current theater. Apparantely they demolished the original store and extended the wing through the former store to the location of this new 2 floor Thalhimers in 1986. A year after this took place is when they built the side wing (and the "triangle" area that's meant to connect the Macy's corridor to the Sears/former Belk corridors) to the food court, then in '94 that corridor was extended to the current Hechts/Macys... I'll post any additional details I may receive

[NCMike1981]

Just wanted to share the following:

http://heraldsun.com...location-closes

After 37 years of operating in the mall Chick-fil-A closed last month. What is notable is that Chick-fil-A opened in the mall at the time Northgate enclosed in 1974 and stayed in the same location within the mall up intil it's closing last month. I do recall they expanded and renovated in the late '90s when Northgate appeared to be on the up and up (Southpoint pretty much stopped that trend when it opened). This closing saddens me a bit as I remember going there as a young kid in the '80s..my grandpa would always call it "Chick-A Fil". I think for many years this location and the drive through only location at South Square were the only locations in Durham...at least until Chick-fil-A started building their free standing with interior seatings locations in the area in the mid '90s.....

[mallguy]

How many malls in the South lose both a Belk AND a Chick-fil-A unless the mall is going under?

Doesn't bode well for the mall's future.

[NCMike1981]

http://heraldsun.com/view/full_story/18778984/article-Northgate-Mall-management-upbeat-?instance=search_results

^Great writeup on the mall including info related to it's past, recent store departures as well as new stores. To be honest though it appears as if mall owners are pretty much just trying to keep the mall as full of stores as possible, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. A new store opening of note is tween girl clothing chain Justice. I imagine as the economy improves more healthy mid level chains will probably test Northgate although it's really anyone's guess as to which chains would work at this mall in a city whose retail scene is dominated by Southpointe.

I have heard rumors that the Sears at Northgate is actually one of the better performers in the area so it should be safe from closure unless the chain went under completely....I don't know about the Macy*s store but I imagine they must do enough business to turn a profit unless they are locked into a long term lease or something. My uncle who lives down the road from Northgate says he has heard that Comp USA is going to be closing in a few months and moving to a location near....you guessed it...Southpointe, although I haven't heard anything about that in the news so we shall see. The wings between the food court and Macy*s as well as center court to Sears continue to be the healthiest parts of the mall which vacancies continue to plague the former Belk wing leading to the outdoor area and movie theater.

[RaleighRob]

If the Sears is doing decent, that reinforces what they say in the article about average price points doing better than higher end.

Logical step forward? Renovate the old Belk into a Target. Currently all Targets in Durham are on the south end of town. Having one serve northern Durham (right on I-85 no less) and it'll do well.

[NCMike1981]

^Target would have definately made a great replacement anchor for the old Belk, although instead they put a movie theater on the 2nd floor and I believe the 1st foor has remained vacant. I'm pretty sure that is the only movie theater along and north of the I-85 corridor as the Willowdale theater closed shortly after the Northgate theater opened. Target definately would have made a great anchor although they probably would have had to have made the store 2 floors b/c of space restraints, which would have been a 1st for the Triangle. You can't miss the former Belk from I-85 so if you can get an anchor in that spot that wouldn't depend on mall traffic I imagine it would do very well. I have no idea how the movie theater is doing....I imagine it's doing reasonably well as all of the other theaters are on the south side of town. Too bad the theater isn't having a positive effect on the former Belk wing.

[NCMike1981]

Just had to post a link to this article I found while browsing the Triangle Business Journal archives. The article is from 1998, in the middle of the mall's renaissance which occured from about 1995 -2002. Highlights from the article are that the mall was 95% leased...I found an article from Nov of '98 that said 100% leased in time for the holidays (currently mall is 78% leased), The Gap moved to a larger store, Talbots moved to a larger store and gaining an interior entrance, Waldenbooks was coming soon as was the state's 1st Aerosoles shoe store + a few more.

http://www.bizjourna...ewscolumn2.html

the 1st page is the only one related to Northgate Mall... love the archive feature :-)

Hopefully the improving economy combined with the new and improved I-85 corridor will help the mall hold it's own over the coming years....

[NCMike1981]

Last month my uncle mentioned to me that Office Depot at Northgate was going out of business. I was unable to locate any news stories that mentioned the store closing even in passing however Office Depot is no longer listed in the store directory on the mall website, and the Northgate store is no longer among the list of store locations on Office Depots website. As a side note the store was previously an Office Max however it switched to Office Depot about the time that Harris Teeter closed.

[DanRNC]

The mall is currently underwater in debt and the future looks pretty grim.