It's been a huge rumor for the last few months, but today it became official. Northtown Mall IS planning a large construction project that would mean a partial demolition of the northern side of the mall building. Not all the details have gotten to Inland Northwest Business Watch as of yet but here is what we know....
Construction on the remodel / expansion at Northtown Mall will start early next year . The plan calls for demolition of all 120,000 square feet of the store space in the corridor that runs from Macy's to Kohl's . The mall will then replace the space with 63,000 square feet of new space for new stores / restaurant's . No new tenants for the space have been announced as the expansion will take about a year to complete with an opening planned for early 2015.
One detail of the plan that is a bit fuzzy for the staff of Inland Northwest Business Watch ( a.k.a myself ) . Is wither or not the mall will replace all the space demolished and add 63,000 sq. feet or if only 63,000 sq. feet are being built back. I will work on this to verify this and update this post as soon as I know.
The corridor that is set to be the site of the massive project currently is largely vacant. Some stores , such as Lens Crafters , that had been on this side of the mall have recently relocated. And some , like Chrome Personal Training Center have recently left the mall all together. A paintball business called Action Zone Paintball takes up a large space in this area with a store and paintball arena, there is also no news yet as to if they will move out or close.
Once complete the new space will include new entrances to the mall as well some refreshers such as new signs / paint and lighting though out the entire mall property. Also, already starting many stores are getting new looks such as Christopher and Banks who recently moved and remodeled. Claire's will open in a new store soon, Icing just re-opened in a brand new much improved storefront. Also Spenser's Gifts is remodeling along with a few others.
Another point of the work at Northtown Mall that is still unclear is, another obvious construction project is actually already happening at the mall but still nothing about exact plans for that project. That project is the work happening in the mall's "basement" where Bumper Family Fun Center had been until they moved to Spokane Valley a few months ago.
We do know that the space above the old Bumpers space will become a new 1st floor center court. Also Northtown responded to my request about this project that this space will be home to new tenant space and a space for events. Whatever is going into the old arcade space is , according to Northtown , to be completed in November of this year. We hope to have more on this soon...
Northtown Mall has over 1 million square feet of leasable space including a selection of resturants , anchor big box stores and mid-size box stores which includes Marshall's that opened in 2012. While the mall remains the largest mall in Spokane the mall has been plagued with vacancies . The mall has one empty anchor store space where Wholesales Sports was until they closed their Spokane area stores earlier in the year. The former Bumpers space has also been a huge vacancy for the last few months. But, at least that vacancy seems to be ending soon.
Stay with Inland Northwest Business Watch for all the latest updates on the remodel of Northtown Mall. And for more info on Northtown Mall visit their web site at-
www.northtownmall.com
