12 April 2016

Northgate Mall, Durham, NC

A dead mall

-UPDATE BELOW-
26 December 2021

We did a lot of road tripping as a family during the late eighties and early nineties. As I mentioned before, one of our most traveled routings, especially during holiday periods, took us from Norfolk, Virginia to Huntsville, Alabama then to Orlando, Florida. While most of the hours were defined by endless stretches of greenery streaming by at 65 miles per hour, it was all worth it to pass through all of those medium and large cities punctuating the maps. And, on the southbound, one of the first we always passed was Durham, North Carolina.


Northgate Shopping Center not long after its opening. (Source)

Unfortunately for me, though I’m sure my dad and his sense of urgency would argue, we never penetrated too far into the urban core as Interstate 85 merely skirted the northern edge of Durham. But there, at the interchange with US 501, was all I needed. It was a low slung, beige cinderblock monolith directly abutting the freeway to our south. And, for the first time I saw this strange new anchor store named Belk, with its B adorned in just the same way as the L in Legget with which I was already familiar. This was Northgate, one of my very first road malls.


Northgate Mall during much of the nineties.

Northgate Mall opened as an open-air center in 1960 with Rose’s as the main anchor. It was expanded intermittently throughout the years until 1974 when, facing new competition in the form of South Square, the shopping plaza was enclosed and fully incorporated with anchors Sears and Thalhimer’s. In the nineties, the old Rose’s building was taken over by Hecht’s while Thalhimer’s became Hudson-Belk. In the 2000s, with a substantial new adversary coming in the form of The Streets at Southpointe, the eastern portion of Northgate was de-malled (how often does a center get enclosed just to be made open-air again?) Today, the old Belk is now a cineplex while the Hecht’s has become Macy’s, but, like the Sears that’s still hanging on, Northgate seems to be holding its own.


-UPDATE- Northgate Mall Mallmanac ca. 2008.  View the full PDF version here.

Opening Date- 1960
Gross Leasable Area- 900,000 square feet
Tiers- One
Anchors- Macy’s, Sears
Spaces- 100


Northgate Mall from the air. (Source)

Owner- Northgate Associates
Location- 1058 West Club Boulevard


01 April 2016

Newmarket Mall, Chicago, IL

A dead mall

The eighties were absolutely the height of the mall boom. They had become a cultural icon, prominently featured and even starring in productions such as Fast Times at Ridgemont High (Ridgemont Mall,) Mama’s Family (The GalleRAYa) and the classic Chopping Mall (Park Plaza Mall.) Chicago is one of those big cities surrounded by countless suburbs and even more malls, many of which are long gone and forgotten to this day. Among them, tucked away in a non-descript bedroom community along the Windy City’s outskirts was the tiny, yet influential, Newmarket Mall.

 
L- Newmarket Mall’s original logo seen from Gary’s Shoes. R- A patron walks past a Newmarket mall map.

Built perhaps sometime between the mid and late seventies, the small neighborhood shopping complex was rather basic in design. Its corridor formed somewhat of a racetrack, with an island of stores in the center of the facility. Through its early years, it never really emerged as a popular choice in shopping, especially amongst heavy nearby competition. But then in the mid-80s, it all of a sudden became the place to be seen.

 
L- A scene from Muldin’s famed Timepiece Department. R- Muldin’s entrance into the mall.

Anchoring the facility was Muldin’s Department Store, with their overwhelming selection of elaborate timepieces amongst their claim to fame. Other popular spots were Rainbow Toys, Gary’s Shoes and Accessories and the Newmarket Cinemas. The mall seemed to find its niche in the community until late in 1987 when the larger and more strategically located Lakeside Mall opened in the next town. Newmarket immediately felt the pinch of competition.


A happy shopper displaying the Lakeside Mall logo.

In a twist of fate, however, Lakeside seemed to be cursed with bad publicity from the onset. One notable incident involved the parachuting Santa accident and a subsequent loss of sponsors, retailers and thousands of dollars in gift certificates. Newmarket immediately regained many of the customers it had lost and actually flourished in the shadow of its larger neighbors.

 
L- A student from nearby Polk High School walks past the mall’s new logo. R- A view outside the Newmarket Cinema, with excited patrons waiting in line to see “Rudy.”

It also seemed to attract both favorable and dubious notoriety. There were reported Elvis sightings within its concourse; the universally panned documentary A Day in the Life of a Shoe Salesman was filmed there, and their Christmas decorations and popular Santa were almost professional in appearance. But, alas, the drumbeats of time continued and, though updated at least once with brighter colors and a new logo, the mall was never expanded. This, and the absence of any nationally known retailers, led to the neighborhood mall’s inevitable decline.

 
 
TL- People gather in the popular mall. TR- An eighties style seating area near the food court. BL- Rainbow Toys shines brightly in the dark corridors. BR- The documentary A Day in the Life of a Shoe Salesman as it was being filmed.

The neighborhood was changing as the children who used to call Newmarket Mall home were growing up and moving on. The neighborhood, and its mall, were dying. Newmarket remained until June 9, 1997, the day it was cancelled, and joined Dixie Square Mall as another of Chicagoland’s early generation malls that slipped into obscurity.

 
L- The mall’s noted Christmas decorations. R- Santa makes an appearance.

29 March 2016

Hilldale, Madison, WI

An extant asset

I have only been lucky enough to pass through Madison on a few occasions; thrice by land and once by air. I always loved the central part of the city, how it was located on an isthmus. In fact, since then I’ve lived in two major cities located on the same geographical feature (Manila and Seattle.) On either side of this narrow strand of land, the city rambles out into common sprawl, with each end having its own massive shopping mall. But closer toward more urban density is a long time player, Hilldale.


Hilldale from the sky. (Source)

Hilldale first opened in 1962 and quickly became a prominent destination. Gimbel’s anchored the open air facility, which later became Marshall-Field’s, while the Macy’s nameplate adorns the façade today. Its first renovation happened in 1969 with the latest coming in 2004. It has remained more than relevant to this medium sized market, although various competitors have come and gone through the years.


Hilldale Mallmanac, ca. 2016. View the full PDF version here.

The latest renovation added two new anchors (Target and Metcalf’s Market), a multi-plex, 2 large car parks and living space. Although some say it is “overbuilt” and a traffic nightmare, its success seems like it’s far from waning.

Hilldale Official Website

Newmarket North Mall, Hampton, VA

A dead mall

-UPDATES BELOW-

17 February 2023


Newmarket North Mall in Hampton was another one of those malls that existed beyond my limited teenage realm.  Even though we lived in the same metropolitan area as the two-level monolith, our actual residence was located quite far away, over the infamous bridge-tunnels, while this destination existed in a mysterious land called the Peninsula.  In contrast, although Coliseum Mall was located in the same general area, it was right off of a major freeway.  Therefore, every time we whizzed by on I-64, I got a good look at the seventies sprawl center.  But for Newmarket North, it was years before I first laid eyes on it.





-UPDATE- The Newmarket North Grand Opening pull-out from The Daily Press, 1975. View the full PDF version here.

By the time that happened, it was in the process of being re-christened Newmarket Fair.  Apparently, by the late eighties the mall was languishing.  And when taking into account its location, it’s not exactly a mystery why.  We were driving west on Mercury Boulevard, Hampton’s main retail corridor, toward the James River Bridge on a family outing.  I noticed that the commercial space on either side of us was aging rather un-gracefully, but I was still excited knowing that I would finally set eyes on the final Hampton Roads mall that I had yet to see.  I gazed out of my window waiting for the brown brick block to appear before me.  And even with eyes like a hawk, I almost missed it.

1- Newmarket North Mall at its opening.  2- NetCenter at its opening.

But there it was.  I was hoping for an elongated, glorious shop-oplis, but all I saw was a bland, low-profiled and very seventies modern, Sears.  Beyond it, I could see a boxy structure stretching away from Mercury Boulevard into innocuous neighborhoods around it.  I could just make out the main entrance and a few skylights, but all too soon it was out of view.  "Why the hall would they build a linear mall  perpendicular to the main highway,” I thought to myself.  It was hidden and rather unremarkable.  I always thought that this was just one of the many factors that led to the demise of what, by design, should have been a very successful retail facility.

Newmarket North’s strange location along Mercury Boulevard, facing mostly subdivisions with little frontage along the main avenue. (Source)

Newmarket North Mall opened in 1975 as Hampton Roads’ first fully bi-level shopping mall.  Regional names Miller & Rhoads and Leggett were joined by Sears as anchors.  Though located just a few miles down the road from Coliseum Mall, the two seemed to co-exist pretty well throughout the seventies and most of the eighties.  But, as time went on and the surrounding neighborhood declined, so did Newmarket North.  To hasten its demise, a new retail destination, Patrick Henry Mall, was opened in 1989 in neighboring Newport News.  These factors, as well as its distance from major freeways and dubious visibility, led to its first renovation and renaming in 1989.


-UPDATE- Shots of Newmarket North Mall's interior from a late 80s advert. (Source)

Despite the renovation and moniker of Newmarket Fair, the commercial complex continued its descent.  Then in 2000, several investors purchased the mall, in which Sears remained as the only anchor, and patterned a project similar to one in Tampa where an old mall was turned into a large office facility.  The place was renamed for the third time, this time to NetCenter.  With Sears and a few retail establishments remaining on the south end, the rest of the mall was converted into connected and cutting edge (for the early 00s) commercial space, with companies such as Northrup Grumman and Verizon moving in.

NetCenter lease plan ca. 2000. View the full PDF version here.

I last visited the mall in 2001, while it was still in the process of being converted.  I drove in from the east side of the monolith, through neighborhood back roads, and entered the parking lot facing the shuttered remains of Leggett.  Its black glass adorned entrances remained, with the dark brown brick placed in geometric patterns around all of the mall entrances.  I took a short walk through the two floors, and there it remained in all of its eighties pastel glory.  It didn’t look worn or tattered, just empty.  Like all I was missing were the crowds, a Benetton shoppe and Tiffany performing in center court.  I will always regret not taking pictures, but at least I have the memories.

A bird’s eye view of the brown, low profiled block of shops. (Source)

-UPDATE-

-17 February 2023

Now known as The Offices at NetCenter, the facility seems to be doing well enough in its new position as a full-on business center, although Newport News Shipbuilding, one of the facility’s largest tenants, departed in 2015.  The retail portion has mostly moved on as Sears, the only location on the Peninsula, closed in 2018.  But at least the rest is still there.  And I hope it sticks around for a while; even though it no longer serves as a retail hub, at least it can still be seen and felt.  Unlike so many other malls that are lost and gone forever.

Sears just after closing in 2018. (Source)