North Point Mall

North Point Mall

Location	Alpharetta, Georgia, USA
Opening date	October 1993
Developer	Homart Development Company
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, is a super-regional shopping mall, located in Alpharetta, Georgia (a suburb of Atlanta).The mall opened on October 3, 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.)

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.

Anchor Changes

There have been several significant changes within the mall since it opened on October 3, 1993: Mervyn's vacated in December 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. In June 2009, Belk announced that its North Point Mall store will close in September 2009.

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 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 was turned into public restrooms in 2007.

Midwestern luxury retailer Von Maur has just announced to take over the vacant Belk (originally Lord and Taylor) building and open its first Atlanta-market store by the Fall of 2011 or 2012. According to Jim Von Maur, company president, the company is planning to gut the two-story former Belk and expand it to 140,000 square feet (13,000 m²) from 115,000 square feet (10,700 m²). The design includes reddish brick, a cupola and columns to echo Georgia and the South.^[1]

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. It was shipped to Atlanta in December 1992 (originally to be displayed in the Perimeter Mall) and sat in a Warehouse Near Duluth for eight months. Then on August 1, 1993 it was brought to the then un-completed North Point Mall, and was assembled in a huge un-finished, high ceiling room that is now known as the Food Court. Shoppers saw it operate for the very first time a few weeks after the grand opening. The carousel was supposed to of been the centerpiece of the mall, however due to a broken part it did not operate until a few weeks after opening day of the mall. Many children enjoyed seeing the realistic looking animals on the carousel.

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))
• Sears (Opened 1993, 134,886 sq ft (12,531 m²))
• Von Maur (Opening Fall 2011, opened as Lord & Taylor 1993, changed to Belk 2007, 140,000 sq ft (13,006 m²))

Out-Lot Restaurants

• California Pizza Kitchen
• The Cheesecake Factory (opened 2004)
• American Girl Boutique and Bistro (Grand Opening: August 18, 2007) (this store/restaurant is actually inside the mall, not in an out-lot)

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 Rich's-Macy's in 2002, then renamed Macy's in 2005)
• Parisian (Opened in former Mervyn's; closed September 2007, vacant)
• Belk (Opened in former Lord & Taylor in September 2007; closed in September 2009)

References

1. ^ http://www.ajc.com/business/von-maur-department-store-737750.html

External links

• Sky City: North Point Mall
• Official Site

Coordinates: 34°02′53″N 84°17′41″W / 34.048012°N 84.294738°W / 34.048012; -84.294738 Von Maur to Enter Atlanta Market