Northtown Mall is a shopping mall located in Blaine, Minnesota, United States. Currently, the mall features Herberger's, Best Buy, The Home Depot and Burlington Coat Factory as anchors. In addition, Northtown Mall features over 100 stores and restaurants, as well as a food court. The mall is owned by Glimcher Realty Trust.
The mall opened in 1972, and was originally anchored by Montgomery Ward, Powers Dry Goods and Woolworth. 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. 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, and after Mervyns left Minnesota, to Herberger's.
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. (The Mervyn's at Northtown Mall was the highest-performing Mervyn's in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area.) Kohl's has been replaced with Burlington Coat Factory, which opened in 2006.
Redevelopment
Northtown Mall received a $2.72 million tax break from the city of Blaine to help the mall acquire another anchor store.
In 2007, LA Fitness was added to the mall as part of a renovation. This store displaced mall retail space. 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.
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. The store assumes an anchor position in the mall once occupied by Carson Pirie Scott, which today is a corporate sibling of Herberger's.
