Retail Watchers

Major changes are afoot for Northgate Mall!

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/r ... ransforms/

Here’s more about Northgate:

https://seattle.curbed.com/2018/3/9/171 ... light-rail

Here’s the site plan filed with the city:

https://web6.seattle.gov/dpd/eplan/GetD ... ite%20Plan

No mention of JC Penney or Macy’s staying on the site. Not surprised about Penney’s but a little more about Macy’s since it’s predecessor, The Bon Marche and Allied Stores, helped develop Northgate originally!

Interestingly, Northgate may end up being the home of the practice facility for the NHL expansion team that Seattle is expected to be awarded soon:

https://komonews.com/news/local/nhl-pra ... -northgate

The facility would act as an epicenter for hockey in the Seattle area, with three full-size hockey rinks with spectator seating.

Brian Lutz wrote: ↑October 8th, 2018, 1:07 pm Interestingly, Northgate may end up being the home of the practice facility for the NHL expansion team that Seattle is expected to be awarded soon:

https://komonews.com/news/local/nhl-pra ... -northgate

The facility would act as an epicenter for hockey in the Seattle area, with three full-size hockey rinks with spectator seating.

Soft of a back to the future when malls has ice rinks as attractions!

More coverage from KING TV. https://www.king5.com/article/news/loca ... -600777709

Looks like Nordstrom will be the only department store at the re-imagined Northgate Mall!

Macy's will close its Northgate store next year, Redmond store in next few months

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/r ... ew-months/

I guess neither of these is much of a surprise. When the Northgate light rail station opens in a couple of years the Downtown Seattle Macy's (original Bon Marche flagship store) will be a 15 minute train ride away from Northgate. The last time I visited the Northgate Macy's store I noted that it was also in pretty rough shape.

I think the Redmond store was the last store to open as Bon Marche (this was during the "Bon-Macy's" transition, but the store opened with Bon Marche signage) and might actually be the last Macy's store opened in the area. I've heard that stores in Redmond Town Center have generally underperformed other locations, and there's been a fair bit of turnover. With the Macy's closing the center will be left with no "traditional" anchors, and I suspect the space will end up subdivided. The center also had a rather large 2 story REI store that was replaced about two years ago with a smaller location near Downtown Bellevue, and opened with a Borders books that sat vacant for quire a long time after Borders closed, with new tenants occupying the space only recently.

Also notably, Redmond Town Center has a fair bit of office space currently occupied by AT&T and Microsoft (the Turn 10 and 343 Industries teams responsible for the Forza Motorsport and Halo franchises have their offices there.)

Brian Lutz wrote: ↑January 16th, 2019, 7:44 am I think the Redmond store was the last store to open as Bon Marche (this was during the "Bon-Macy's" transition, but the store opened with Bon Marche signage) and might actually be the last Macy's store opened in the area. I've heard that stores in Redmond Town Center have generally underperformed other locations, and there's been a fair bit of turnover. With the Macy's closing the center will be left with no "traditional" anchors, and I suspect the space will end up subdivided. The center also had a rather large 2 story REI store that was replaced about two years ago with a smaller location near Downtown Bellevue, and opened with a Borders books that sat vacant for quire a long time after Borders closed, with new tenants occupying the space only recently.

Also notably, Redmond Town Center has a fair bit of office space currently occupied by AT&T and Microsoft (the Turn 10 and 343 Industries teams responsible for the Forza Motorsport and Halo franchises have their offices there.)

Is the overpriced/fancy cinema still there as an anchor as well? Never got out to Redmond much when I lived in the Puget Sound area.

The iPic theater is still there. Originally when the center opened it was a standard Cineplex Odeon theater that shut down and sat vacant for a couple of years before the space was taken over by Gold Class Cinemas (another high-end operation), which only lasted a couple of years before being taken over by iPic. I haven't seen a movie there, but at $28 per ticket (and that's before food/drink purchases that'll likely run you another $30-40) I can't see it happening anytime soon. A number of other local theaters have added recliner seating in the theaters for a relatively small premium over regular ticket prices, and Cinemark opened a high-end theater with recliner seats, food served in-theater and an over-21 restriction at Lincoln Square with more reasonable ticket prices. Haven't been to that one, but Regal Crossroads seems to be where we go to see movies most of the time now.

Looks like Nordstrom's building is going to be going away. However, Nordstrom has not announced that it is leaving Northgate. So maybe a new store will be built or it could be an opportunity for them to build a new Nordstrom Local store here. The article was in the Puget Sound Business Journal behind a pay wall!

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/new ... -look.html