Northpark Mall (Missouri)

Northpark Mall is a super regional mall located in Joplin, Missouri. The mall opened in 1972 with 600,000 square feet, and featured 60 stores, restaurants, and other services. Today Northpark mall is 1,080,000 square feet, and features more than 100 inline tenants, including a food court and eight anchor stores JCPenney, Sears, two Macy's locations, Dunham's Sports, TJ Maxx, Vintage Stock, and Jo-ann Fabric and Crafts. Northpark Mall is the largest mall in the Joplin region and serves a trade area of nearly 500,000 people. Freeman hospital added a soft play area in the Macy's women's court in the summer of 2014. The mall was also the temporary home of the 11th and 12th grades of Joplin High School until August 2014, when the new high school was completed. Northpark Mall is managed by CBL & Associates Properties.

History

Northpark Mall opened in 1972,^[1] on Range Line Road on the east side of Joplin. At the time, the mall was anchored by Montgomery Ward to the north, JCPenney to the south, and local chain Newman's the middle. Other stores included Walgreens, McCrory's, Ramsay's department store, For All Bible (which is still in business), Wyatts cafeteria, as well as many other stores. Newman's became Heer's in 1987, the same year that a new wing was built, and the mall received its first renovation. The new wing extended easternly from the JCPenney store. This new wing included two new anchors, Famous-Barr and Venture. The renovation also brought a food court as well as a new 5 screen cinema. In 1994, Heer's closed, and Famous-Barr moved its men's wear and home goods to the former Heer's space. That same year Sears built a store adjacent to Montgomery Ward, moving from an older store near downtown Joplin. In 1998 the mall received a minor renovation, changing only the color scheme. After the closure of the Venture chain in 1998, its anchor at the mall was converted to Shopko, but it closed in the early 2000s following the closure of Montgomery Ward in 2001. Both Famous-Barr locations were re-branded as Macy's in 2006. Montgomery Ward remained vacant until mid-2007, when its space was split between TJ Maxx and Steve & Barry's,^[2] the latter of which closed in 2008 and was replaced by Vintage Stock. In 2006 the mall received its first major renovation in nearly 20 years, changing the color scheme, adding all new lighting and floor tiles, and renovating the food court to a route 66 theme.^[3]

In 2012, Old Navy moved into a space formerly occupied by Tilt. As a result, the original Old Navy became Jo-Ann Fabrics, and Tilt opened a larger location near Vintage Stock, and Ulta Beauty opened a store off the food court. In the summer of 2014 a soft play area for children was added in the Macy's women's court.^[4]

In August 2015 mall management announced that the former Venture was being converted back to retail use. That work was completed by late September 2015. The building has been sold, but the name of the company has not been released. Joplin High School used the building as a temporary school until May 2014.

In October 2015 Macy's moved the children's department to the men's store and men's moved over to the women's store. Both Macy's stores are also receiving a much needed makeover, including new fixtures, fresh paint, and new carpet.

For All Bible announced in December 2015 that they would be moving to a new location out of the mall. For All Bible is one of the last original tenants at the mall. For All Bible is moving to a location just north of the mall on Range Line Road.

Mall management announced in May 2016 that Dunham's Sports will be opening in the former Venture anchor. The store is currently working on renovations and plans to be open by fall 2016. With the opening of Dunham's the mall will have all of the anchor spaces full for the first time in 15 years.

Joplin High School

Following the 2011 Joplin tornado which destroyed Joplin High School, officials said juniors and seniors in the 2011-12 class (and possibly later) would attend classes in a section of the mall.^[5][6] Classes began in the renovated former Shopko location on August 17, 2011.^[7] Joplin High School moved into their new building in August 2014.

Anchors & major tenants

• Sears (117,392 sq. ft.)
• JCPenney (original anchor) (147,039 sq. ft.)
• Macy's Home and Children Store (originally Newman's, then Heer's, then Famous-Barr Men's & Home) (50,341 sq. ft.)
• Macy's Women and Mens (originally Famous-Barr) (85,000 sq. ft.)
• TJ Maxx (part of the original Montgomery Ward) (26,820 sq. ft.)
• Vintage Stock (part of the original Montgomery Ward) (46,108 sq. ft.)
• Jo-Ann Stores (23,018 sq. ft.)
• Dunham's Sports (90,000 sq. ft.)

References