Northtown Mall (Blaine, Minnesota)

Northtown Mall

Former Powers Dry Goods/Donaldson's anchor
Location	Blaine, Minnesota, United States
Coordinates	45°07′38″N 93°15′38″W / 45.12735°N 93.26065°W / 45.12735; -93.26065Coordinates: 45°07′38″N 93°15′38″W / 45.12735°N 93.26065°W / 45.12735; -93.26065
Opening date	1972
Developer	Robert Muir[1]
Management	Washington Prime Group
Owner	Washington Prime Group
No. of stores and services	100
No. of anchor tenants	6
Total retail floor area	621,109 sq ft (57,702.9 m2) (excludes Home Depot)[2]
No. of floors	1
Website	northtown-mall.com

Northtown Mall is a shopping mall located in Blaine, Minnesota, United States. The mall's anchor stores are Hobby Lobby, LA Fitness, Best Buy, 2 Becker Furniture World stores, and Burlington. In addition, Northtown Mall features over 100 stores and restaurants, as well as a food court and Paladin Career and Technical High School public charter school which was open in September 2002. The mall is owned by Washington Prime Group. Over 5.5 million people visit the mall every year.^[3]

History[]

The mall opened in 1972 with 33 stores,^[4] and was originally anchored by Montgomery Ward, Powers Dry Goods and Woolworth.^[5] MainStreet was added as a fifth anchor in 1983 and by 1988, the short-lived MainStreet chain's stores were converted to Kohl's. Powers Dry Goods was converted to Donaldson's when the Powers chain was purchased. In 1992, Target Greatland opened as part of a strip mall across the street from the mall in the nearby city of Coon Rapids. The old Woolworth's was divided between HomePlace and Best Buy in the late 1990s, the same year that a food court was added to the mall. Donaldson's would later be converted to Carson Pirie Scott, then later to Mervyn's, Herberger's, and Becker Furniture Outlet.^[6] In 2006, The Home Depot opened in the Mall's North Outlot.

There used to be 30-foot Titanic model on display from December 1972 till 1985 when model was moved to Marine Museum at Fall River.^[7]

On May 28, 2020, during the protests following George Floyd's murder, the mall was broken into by looters. Police quickly arrived, however, and secured the premises.^[8]

Additional anchor changes[]

In 2001, HomePlace and Montgomery Ward closed the last of their stores; HomePlace was replaced with Steve & Barry's in 2003. Three years later, Kohl's relocated outside the mall; the same year, Mervyn's closed its Twin Cities locations.^[9] (The Mervyn's at Northtown Mall was the highest-performing Mervyn's in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.)^[10] Kohl's has been replaced with Burlington Coat Factory, which opened in 2005.

Redevelopment[]

In 2007, LA Fitness was added to the mall as part of a renovation. This store displaced mall retail space.^[11] Also, the former Montgomery Ward has been demolished and The Home Depot has been built on the site of the former store; however, Home Depot does not open out into the mall itself.^[12]

On January 23, 2008 Bon-Ton announced that they will be opening a Herberger's in the former Mervyn's location. The store opened on September 10, 2008.^[13] The store assumed an anchor position in the mall once occupied by Carson Pirie Scott, which was a corporate sibling of Herberger's; Herberger's closed on August 30, 2018. A Spirit Halloween store opened in September 2009.

There was a renovation that started in August 2014 and was completed in fall 2015. New Hobby Lobby store opened in 2015 with 55,000 square feet floor area.^[14] Like Home Depot, Hobby Lobby does not open out into the mall either.

References[]

External links[]

• WP Glimcher