Friday marked the day the butterfly started to wriggle out of the cocoon that is Northgate Mall, with the opening of the "Phoenix 10 on the Plaza" stadium-seating movie theater. (A bird rising from the ashes? Right on.)
I've been watching the reconstruction of Northgate's east side for about a year. Amidst the successes of downtown Durham's revitalization in the past few years--the opening of American Tobacco, the kick-off of Phase 2 of the West Village project, renovation at Brightleaf Square, and so on -- Northgate's own renewal has at times seemed to be the red-headed stepchild of the bunch.
How so? For starters, there's been a bit of a slide in national-stature retailers, with the closures of Old Navy and OfficeMax following Harris Teeter's departure within the past year. The Old Navy closure came just a few months after mall management thoughtfully added illuminated "Old Navy" signage to the renovated east parking deck... whoops! Rumor has it that Ann Taylor is not long for the West Club Boulevard shopping center, either. (The "AT Last" sale's went on a bit too long, though a source's claim that the sale would last until the merchandise's gone and the store shuts down proved to be off-base.)
Adding to the misery has been the start-and-stop redevelopment of the former Thalamier's/Belk's wing. It strikes me as a bit bizarre that Northgate management spent the first few months of the renovation adding more parking spaces to the deck and a fancy granite fountain in the midst of an old surface parking lot, even while the old Belk's mall area was half-gutted with exposed steel girders everywhere. Even now, the Phoenix Theater is flanked only by a Marble Slab Creamery, which stands surrounded on both sides by -- you guessed it -- exposed steel beams from the old interior mall section. (Heck, the new Indigo Corners shopping sprawl on 15/501 went from steeply-graded woods to store up-fit between the time the Belk's was gutted and the theater was finished!)
(For another perspective, including some great perspectives and locals' rememberances, check out this thread at UrbanPlanet.)
That said, the past month has brought some glimmers of hope to the Northgate renovation. First, of course, is the grand opening of the movie theater, along with the aforementioned ice cream parlor. Additionally, steel's now in the ground for the build-out of other new shops and restaurants on the south side of the Waldenbooks/Chick-Fil-A/Ashley Stewart wing, which will round out the new outdoor shopping plaza. Sure, it's a bit bizarre for new steel to be going into the ground when there's still old abandoned mall waiting to be built out anew, but my hope is that this is a sign that, somewhere, Northgate Associates is getting better vibes on leasing up this new part of the center. At the same time, with Guitar Center and soon a new cafeteria open in the strip-mall section, there's new life on the property's west side, too. And, the Hecht's new Macy's signs are installed and awaiting their formal unveiling (which means they're probably not disappearing anytime soon.)
From the pictures in the paper, the new movie theater looks just fantastic, and it's great that the mall's management was able to partner with a smaller exhibitor that seems to take pride in operating a quality theater, rather than just another private-equity-owned mega-chain to emerge out of the industry's 90's disastrous overbuilding. A drive-by during Thursday night's VIP opening saw the garage packed with cars and plenty of concession-gobbling patrons in the lobby. A Friday night visit at 10 p.m. saw somewhat less traffic and a marked increase in the number of teens hanging out on the theater's exterior, but with the addition of a significant presence by mall security and Durham police/sheriff's staff alike to keep an eye out for any problems. (No first-hand experience inside the cinema yet -- a review to follow once the wife and I actually get to visit.)
So, will Northgate survive? The source for the Ann Taylor news groused that Northgate's lease rates on a per-square foot basis are identical to Southpoint's, despite the latter's much greater foot traffic and sales volumes. At the same time, though, Northgate has been attracting some new national retailers, including a number -- like d.e.m.o and Ashley Stewart -- that cater to an urban/African-American market. Plus, the Coca-Cola logos on the Northgate Mall parking lot golf-carts and I-85 billboards are there for a reason; the Rand family of Durham, which has owned the mall throughout its history, also happens to control the city's Coca-Cola bottling operation... so cash flow isn't a problem.
This spring, residents in the surrounding neighborhoods received a survey from a UC-Irvine grad student in urban planning who's researching whether Northgate Mall could be a good target for the same sort of mixed-use development that's revitalized the North Hills district in Raleigh. Interestingly, though Northgate's management strenuously denies any interest any a mixed-use development, the renewal plan currently in place is tantalizingly compatible with just that possibility--but that's a topic for another post.
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