North DeKalb Mall

North DeKalb Mall

Location	Decatur, Georgia, U.S.
Coordinates	33°48′31″N 84°16′34″W / 33.80861°N 84.27611°W / 33.80861; -84.27611Coordinates: 33°48′31″N 84°16′34″W / 33.80861°N 84.27611°W / 33.80861; -84.27611
Opening date	July 29, 1965
Developer	Scott Development
Owner	Lennar Commercial Investors LLC & Sterling Organization
No. of stores and services	85+
No. of anchor tenants	3 (2 open, 1 vacant)
Total retail floor area	635,000 square feet (59,000 m2)
No. of floors	1
Website	North DeKalb Mall

Food court of North DeKalb Mall

North Dekalb Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located in Decatur, a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Opened in 1965, the center currently comprises more than eighty-five stores on one level. Anchor stores include Burlington Coat Factory and Marshalls, the mall also features a food court and multiplex movie theater.

History

Originally and formerly called North DeKalb Center, the mall first opened July 29, 1965, with fifty-four stores; original anchor stores included Atlanta-based department store Rich's, and a Woolworth dime store.^[1]

In 1986, North DeKalb Mall was expanded and renovated with two new anchor stores: department store chains Mervyn's and discount chain Lechmere.^[2] The mall was renamed Market Square at North DeKalb at this time.^[3]

Lechmere closed in 1989 and was replaced with the discount pharmacy chain Phar-Mor,^[4] which closed in 1992 and was eventually replaced with a movie theater and Rhodes Furniture.

Mervyns shuttered all of its Georgia locations in 1997; the store at North DeKalb was replaced by an Uptons, which closed in 1999, then it became the current Burlington Coat Factory. Stein Mart was added in the early 1990s, replacing a portion of a mall wing which once housed a Spinnaker's restaurant and smaller mall stores. Old Navy was also added but later closed, becoming Ross Dress for Less. Rhodes Furniture was later Shoder Furniture for a short time before becoming Marshalls in 2010. A furniture store also replaced the old Stein Mart.

Hendon Properties, which bought the mall for $25 million (USD) in 2003, planned on bringing a Costco to the mall.^[5]

On May 15, 2014, it was announced that Lennar Commercial Investors LLC, together with Sterling Organization, purchased the mall for an undisclosed amount, with plans to convert the enclosed portion to an open-air concept.^[6]

In the spring of early 2016, the Macy's anchor closed ^[7] due to a lack of customers with actual money. North Dekalb Mall has since become the 'almost' mall of Dekalb County with Costco 'almost' becoming a store anchor for nearly a decade. ^[8] The mall's primary traffic stems from Emory University employees who use North Dekalb Mall's vast parking lots as a temporary location for ride sharing into the University. This along with limited traffic from the AMC movie theater has helped keep the mall from going completely under.

There are many potential sources for why North Dekalb Mall is in survival mode at the moment. Some residents believe that locating Cynthia McKinney's office ^[9] made it an undesirable destination for those who were not politically aligned with the former representative. Others site the rise of online retail business, which is quickly consolidating the malls and big box stores that had been the traditional model of retail commerce for decades.

References

External links

• Sky City: North DeKalb Mall
• Tomorrow's News Today - Atlanta