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Northlake Mall


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The mall has lost several other vendors including one of their food court vendors. But more to the point, the mall now has less space rented than it did when it opened and there are significant areas of space that has never been leased.

Poor mall; the Grape wine bar is closing as well. What other stores have closed (besides the food court ones)? I haven't shopped at that mall enough to track its openings and closings.

Poor thing. It is caught in the middle between the "everything for everyone" stores at Concord Mills and the upscale stores at SouthPark. Until the middle-income neighborhoods around the mall expand enough to allow north Charlotte to support its own mall, it'll remain caught in the middle.

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  • 3 weeks later...

d'Mustard has shut down at the mall. This is the second closed vendor in their food court which also serves as the main entrance hall to the mall. Food is one of the things that usually survives even in marginal malls, but here we have a brand new food court with two empty stores. BTW this is the 3rd food place to have closed there as there was a cafe next to Belk that also closed and that store also remains empty.

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The Grape- is that the one that closed?

Another sign that Northlake isn't attracting an upscale enough demographic. The Grape probably would do fine at Birkdale, but it's not mid-tier mall food.

I ate at the Grape at Northlake a couple of times. I thought it was a little overpriced for what they served...but what doomed The Grape to failure from the begining was it's location in Northlake. It was back at the far corner in a part of the mall that few people get to. It is supposed to be a little upscale restarant, but that is nullified when you have a row of Coke machines across from your front door...and then your patio overlooks a huge sea of parking. If they were going to succed at Northlake then they really needed to be at the front door near the Food Court where the other upscale restarants are...or get one of the outparcel sites.

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I went up to Northlake today to replenish my warmer weather clothing supply. I was actually very surprised how busy the mall was at 3pm on a friday. The parking lot was about half full and the mall itself was relatively normal for a mall (compared to SouthPark and CMills.) I was expecting it to be a ghost town by the descriptions of the mall I've been reading on here. I didn't really notice any significant dead spots in the mall either, not that I was really looking for them. Then again, maybe all this warm weather of late has inspired everyone to stock up on summer clothing like I did. It looks as though the Northlake area really is becoming Concord Mills Jr. If that area is going to survive, somebody needs to step in before that area is completely choked with traffic. Oh, and did I mention I sat in traffic for thirty minutes trying to get back down to Mallard Creek. Always a blast.

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There are a lot of people at this mall at times, but I am not sure how that is translating into business. We will have to see I guess.

In terms of the bad traffic, just wait until the other 700,000 sq ft of retail opens up there. I can't believe the city approved so much stuff in an area that was already clogged with traffic.

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If you stop and analyze all the stores that closed at Eastland, including the Limited Brands Stores, and American Eagle, and a few others, not to mention a few stores that NL has that you cant find anywhere else in Charlotte, and a few that they have exclusive to North Meck, and plus the growing population of North Meck, I dont see why everyone is being so negative about this mall's future.....there will be several in and outs, thus far Casual Corner/Petite Sophisicate, Storehouse have gone bankrupt; then there was the Grape place, which we talked about it wasnt in that great of a location in the mall, D'mustard wasnt that appealing to begin with, and Steak Escape has closed several of their stores across the region. There really isn't anything that has closed that was significant that of yet anyways. I'm still waiting for Saks to announce its opening :D

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I was at Northlake this past Saturday and it was pretty crowded. There was a lot of traffic on the roads around the mall and there seemed to be a mix of all kinds of people. There were plenty of nice cars parked out in the parking lot - I think the mall will do fine (unless something like the project in Cornelius is built).

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I work on Harris right near North Lake. I think as the other developments in the area progress (there are a lot of single family subdivisions currently in the works or under construction) the mall will begin to see better traffic/sales.

My concern for the mall isn't its success over the next 10 years, but the 10 years beyond that. With the zoning and lack of infrastructure in the area, along with I-77/I-485 acting as a "great divide" from the surrounding areas, I think it's very possible that North Lake will be Eastland 2020. I could be wrong, but I think the lack of urban planning in the area dooms it.

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That being said, Concord Mills is an example of a "first ten years" mall with unbelievably bad urban planning around it. Yet, despite this fact, and despite the lack of infrastructure improvements, it continues to be busier every year. I mean, I know there is a big difference between the type of mall that Cmills is and NorthLake, but the model of the area being cut off by interstates is the same. Granted Concord Mills is about half a mile away from 485 while NorthLake will pretty much be flush up against it, I don't see these as barriers to development. In fact, it seems that more growth is happening on the opposite side of 85 from Cmills anyway. I can't stand how either mall is situated, but i believe that is the very nature of malls. They aren't meant to make it easier to walk along the street, they are meant to get large numbers of people in and out in a short amount of time.

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  • 1 month later...

Two more places have closed in Northlake, Di Vi Nail, and The Reality Place which seemed to be some kind of mall based real estate agency. I am not sure, but Di Vi Nail might be the second closing for that particular store. It's interesting. The mall seems to have lots of cars in the parking lot but stores continue to close and nothing is taking their place.

Meanwhile the outparcels seem to do well. A new Chili's just opened, and they are clearing another spot for a Drury Hotels.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I was in this mall today when the entire mall was evacuated. A bunch of sirens went off, strobe lights started flashing, and an automated voice came on and said for everyone to get out. All of the stores started to close down the gates in front of their places. First time I have seen anything like this.

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I was in this mall today when the entire mall was evacuated. A bunch of sirens went off, strobe lights started flashing, and an automated voice came on and said for everyone to get out. All of the stores started to close down the gates in front of their places. First time I have seen anything like this.

erm. why?

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I was at REI over the weekend and asked one of the sales associates when the NorthLake store would open. She said it would be Spring '08. This might have been the announced timeframe all along, but somehow I thought it would be sooner. Where exactly is this going?

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I was at REI over the weekend and asked one of the sales associates when the NorthLake store would open. She said it would be Spring '08. This might have been the announced timeframe all along, but somehow I thought it would be sooner. Where exactly is this going?

Since there is already a Dick's at the mall, I think it might be going to the development across the street with the Super Target (Northcrest?)

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REI at Northlake? Where'd you hear that?

I read it in the Observer, but it's been a while so I can't provide a link. I think it was also discussed in this thread, but that would also be going back a bit. I checked REI's website to see if they had a "coming soon" section, but I couldn't find one.

The lady I asked about it in Pineville didn't hesitate when I asked though (as though it was a sure thing). She just said it will open Spring '08.

edit: Here is where it was mentioned previously in this thread. http://www.urbanplanet.org/forums/index.ph...st&p=676189

Since there is already a Dick's at the mall, I think it might be going to the development across the street with the Super Target (Northcrest?)

Aren't they also building a shopping center or at least retail space across Harris in Perimeter Woods? I wondered if it would be over there, or at Northcrest, or an actual outparcel at the mall. I bet you are right about it not being at the mall though, with Dicks there.

Edited by NCN8ive
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I see that Authentiks, which I believe also has a branch at Eastland, has replaced Storehouse Furniture. Another urban-type store on the lower level of the mall.

I saw this store a couple of weeks back. It really makes me scratch my head and wonder who is in charge of leasing at this mall? Are they just trying to recreate Eastland?

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