Nancy Sarnoff writes in today’s Chronicle, that the Northline Mall might be demolished to make way for a new open-air mall:
A new ownership group has plans to demolish the struggling mall to make way for an open-air shopping center filled with big-box retailers like Target, Wal-Mart and Best Buy.
By early 2006, the new owners expect to be building nearly 900,000 square feet of new retail space along the perimeter of the 77-acre property. When that’s done, they will tear down the mall for parking space.
Before going forward, the new owners need to bring in the new tenants. And some real estate observers say they could have a hard time persuading national retailers to open stores at Northline because many of them already have locations nearby.
[snip]
Home Depot, Wal-Mart Supercenter, Fry’s and furniture store the Dump all have stores near the intersection of Interstate 45 and West Road, about seven miles north of the mall.
“There’s definitely much more retail competition within the trade area of Northline,” Wulfe said.
Still, Wulfe said Northline has “more going for it” than Gulfgate ever did.
And what are some of those things Northline has “going for it”? According to the story the mall is already 70 percent occupied, a Metro transit center is nearby, and:
The redeveloped mall could benefit from a plan to extend the Main Street light rail system to the property.
The question is when light rail service is extended to the Northline Mall, how many bus routes will be cut in order to boost the train’s ridership numbers? Also, property owners around the proposed light rail extension should be wary of Metro’s new interest in real estate development along rail corridors — and Metro has the power to use eminent domain:
Metro’s eminent domain reach covers a span of five football fields in any direction. The surroundings of a single urban rail station can encompass several square blocks occupied by scores of buildings.
That’s one way of reducing Metro’s debt.
