Strategy: These photos show even the oldest mall in America isn't immune to the 'retail apocalypse'

Seattle's Northgate Mall is considered the first modern shopping mall in America.

• Mall traffic across the country has declined by as much as 50% in recent years.
• We visited Seattle's Northgate Mall, which is considered the first modern shopping mall in America.
• Northgate is competing with online retail and adding amenities like couches and virtual reality experiences.

---

The holiday shopping season was a big win for retailers.

But it wasn't because Americans headed out to the mall in droves. Online sales were up 18.1% this year, driving much of the growth in consumer spending.

Visits to the mall, meanwhile, have declined by as much as 50% in recent years, according to an estimate from real estate research firm Cushman & Wakefield.

Like all malls today, America's first modern shopping mall, Northgate Mall, faces tremendous headwinds as American consumers shift their spending patterns. Northgate opened in 1950 in the outer neighborhoods of Seattle, Washington, and has so far survived for nearly 70 years as a hub of commerce.

Simon Property Group, Northgate's owner, has added amenities like couches, phone charging stations, virtual reality experiences, and massage chairs to draw shoppers to the mall — and keep them there.

We visited recently to see how one mall is trying to buck the "retail apocalypse."

Designed by architect John Graham Jr., Northgate Mall pioneered the dumbbell, big-box shape for malls, in which two rows of stores face each other and a department store anchors each end.

Source: Seattle PI

For nearly 70 years, the mall has been a hub of commerce for the area. But as American consumers' desires have changed, and amidst the boom in online retail, Northgate has begun to reinvent itself.

Northgate underwent significant remodeling in 2006, when the space was renovated to add new anchor stores like Bed, Bath & Beyond and Barnes & Noble.

Despite the remodeling, the interior still looks like your typical mall. On a weekday just before Christmas, there was a fair amount of foot traffic and the parking lot was filled.

But major anchor stores like J.C. Penney were fairly empty despite what seemed to be a busy day for the mall.

Retailers like Famous Footwear seemed to be empty as well, even though the parking lot was full.

In recent years, many malls have leaned on small specialty stores to drive foot traffic. That appeared to be the case at Northgate. Fuego, a local chain that sells a mix of funky art, novelty items, and clothes, was the busiest store in the shopping center.

ThinkGeek, a smaller retailer that sells "geek culture" novelties and toys mostly from popular franchises like Star Wars, was another busy store.

This was the only store that appeared to be closed in the mall. Northgate does approximately $400 in sales per square foot for non-anchor tenants. The national average is around $474, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

Source: The Seattle Times

Simon Property Group, the owners of Northgate, has added amenities like couches, phone charging stations, and massage chairs to keep consumers hanging at the mall.

As malls compete with online retail, they've had to offer things that web shopping can't. This virtual reality experience kiosk at Northgate seemed poised to play that role, but it drew little interest from shoppers.

I saw a few kids riding around on these rolling animal vehicles. They seemed like a nightmare for parents.

When Northgate first opened, the center concourse was an open-air sidewalk. The concourse was partially enclosed in 1962 and fully enclosed in the 1970s.

The mall was also opened up so stores could be accessed from the outside. In some areas, it makes the mall look like a city block, but it is far from consistent.

In recent years, urban and suburban development has trended towards mixed-use spaces that combine retail, office space, public parks, and housing. Despite its remodeling, Northgate felt positively stuck in the '90s and early 2000s heyday of malls.

A second mall was built across the street in 2005 anchored by Best Buy and Target, but it's little more than a parking garage with a few stores attached.

A third development, Thorton Place, is located on the other side. It is a mixed-use development that combines more than 500 apartments with a Regal Cinema, a medical clinic, and more than 30,000 square feet of retail space.

To avoid the "retail apocalypse," Northgate and the city of Seattle are trying to reinvent the mall as the center of a new downtown complete with a new light rail opening in 2021. But it's anyone's guess whether it will be successful.