North Point Mall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

North Point Mall
Facts and statistics
Location Alpharetta, Georgia, USA
Opening date October 1993
Developer Homart
Management General Growth Properties
Owner General Growth Properties
No. of stores and services 180+
No. of anchor tenants 5
Total retail floor area 1,370,000 sq ft (127,000 m²).
Parking 7,400
No. of floors 2
Website North Point Mall

North Point Mall, a super-regional shopping mall, located in Alpharetta, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta), opened in 1993 as one of the largest shopping malls in the country. The mall, originally a Homart property, is now owned and managed by General Growth Properties. ("North Point Mall" Is also the name of a fictional shopping mall in the Grand Theft Auto: Vice City video game.)

Contents

[edit] Opening

The mall, which played an instrumental role in transforming Alpharetta from a bucolic town of pastures and horse farms into the bustling community of mansions, upscale restaurants, and shops that it is today[citation needed], opened with space for six anchor stores (the most in one mall in Georgia at that time). Only five of these spaces were originally occupied: Rich's, Lord & Taylor, Mervyn's, JCPenney, and Sears. It was originally believed that Macy's would be a sixth anchor, but the R.H. Macy Co. was bankrupt that year and sold out to Federated Department Stores, which owned Rich's, a year later. One of the more distinctive elements of the mall was the Rich's store, which was designed with numerous distinctive historical elements and a more elaborate design to pay tribute to its lost flagship store in downtown Atlanta, which had closed only two years earlier. Though it became a Macy's in 2005, the outside of the store retains the elaborate sculptings of the original store.

[edit] Anchor Changes

There have been several significant changes within the mall since it opened in 1993: Mervyn's vacated in 1995 and Dillard's filled the sixth pad on the east side of the mall the following year. A large parking deck was also constructed next to Dillard's. Though JCPenney converted most of the former Mervyn's locations, they already had a location at the mall. Instead, Parisian took the spot, making the mall more upscale in the process. In 2005, Lord & Taylor closed its 115,000 sq ft (10,700 m²). store at the mall leaving a vacant anchor. The Parisian location was vacated September 2007, as it has been bought out by Belk, which opened in the former Lord & Taylor space.

The mall itself was most recently renovated in 2003, when the interior was modernized to introduce more sitting areas, and in 2004, when an entire escalator was moved from East Court near Starbucks to the Sears wing of the mall.

Another major development occurred in June of 2004, when The Cheesecake Factory opened its third Georgia location (and first location outside of Atlanta) at North Point. The store is located in the mall parking lot just beyond the parking deck. A walking path known as the "yellow brick road" connects the restaurant to the mall's Center Court.

The former outdoor patio area on the food court is currently being renovated (summer 2007) and turned into family restrooms.

[edit] Fierce Competition

North Point Mall continues to serve one of the most affluent parts of metropolitan Atlanta and continues to remain successful despite competition from the newer and bigger Mall of Georgia in Buford. North Point's success can perhaps be the result of contributed to its appealing mix of stores (including Apple Computer, J. Crew, Gap, Pottery Barn, Coach, Teavana, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ann Taylor, Starbucks, and Victoria's Secret, to name just a few of the nearly 200),.

[edit] Unique Foodcourt Feature

While North Point Mall is known as a major upscale retail center throughout Georgia and parts of the Southeast, it is perhaps most famous for the carousel that sits behind an enormous floor-to-ceiling window in the Food Court. Crafted in Brooklyn, New York by the Fabricon Carousel Company, the carousel's hand-painted fiberglass animals were modeled after those of a vintage Victorian carousel on Coney Island.

[edit] Anchors

  • Dillard's (Opened 1996, 248,151 sq ft (23,054 m²))
  • JCPenney (Opened 1993, 120,843 sq ft (11,227 m²))
  • Macy's (Opened as Rich's 1993, renamed Macy's in 2005; 240,000 sq ft (22,000 m²))
  • Belk (Opened as Lord & Taylor in 1993, re-opened Belk in September 2007)
  • Sears (Opened 1993, 134,886 sq ft (12,531 m²))
  • American Girl Boutique and Bistro (Opened 2007)

[edit] Major Stores

[edit] Out-Lot Restaurants

[edit] Former Anchors

  • Lord & Taylor (Opened in 1993 115,000 sq ft (10,700 m²), closed in 2005 when they left market)
  • Mervyn's (Opened in 1993, re-opened as Parisian in 1995)
  • Rich's (Opened in 1993, renamed Macy's in 2005)
  • Parisian (Closed September 2007, space now vacant)

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Atlanta-area shopping malls
Current
Defunct