Northern Lights Shopping Center

Northern Lights Shopping Center, formerly Northern Lights Shoppers City is a power center 22.1 miles (35.6 km) northwest of downtown Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between Ohio River Road, West State Street, Beaver Road, and Economy Way in Baden, a suburb of Pittsburgh. The power center had one anchor which is currently vacant. It once housed a Giant Eagle.
== History ==
On June 12, 1957, Northern Lights Shoppers City opened during the construction of the Pennsylvania State Route 65 (Ohio River Road). It opened with one anchor which was a 3-story JCPenney. Other original tenants included S.S. Kresge, Spiegel, Thrift Drug, Star Super Market, Kroger, A&P, Thom McAn, Turk Brothers Music Center, Allen Shoes, Bachelor's Furniture, Best Jewelers, Fanny Farmer Candy, Flash Cleaners, Freedom National Bank, W.T. Grant, Rochester Motor Sales, Murphy's Meat Market, Richman Brothers, Schoemer's Bakery, Sun Drugs and many more. Sometime in the 1960s, Northern Lights Shoppers City name changed to Northern Lights Shopping Center. In October 1963, Sears opened making a total of two anchor spaces at the shopping center. In 1971, Sears closed and relocated to the Beaver Valley Mall. In 1972, Hills opened as a third anchor to the shopping center.
== Decline ==
When the Beaver Valley Mall opened in 1970 in nearby Center Township, Northern Lights' decline began, with many stores relocating out of the shopping center to the new mall as well as other shopping centers in the area. In 1998, JCPenney closed at Northern Lights and relocated to the Beaver Valley Mall. However, Giant Eagle did open in the shopping center the same year and became the fourth anchor. In 1999, Hills closed and was quickly converted into Ames, however Ames would close in 2002 and the space would remain vacant since. Many stores began to close during the early 2000s and the shopping center began to become more and more vacant. In 2006, the abandoned JCPenney space roof collapsed, forcing Zamias Services to demolish the building, leaving a empty grass field in the middle of the shopping center. In May 2014, a road was added that went through the former JCPenney space to the woods behind the shopping center, the road was named Economy Way and a Walmart Supercenter was built and opened on the new road. In 2020, the former Ames side of the plaza as well as portion of the former Sears space were all demolished. On January 2, 2021, Giant Eagle had closed down leaving all the anchor spaces at Northern Lights vacant.
Category:Strip malls
Category:Shopping Malls
Category:Malls in the United States
Category:Malls in Pennsylvania
Category:Former Giant Eagle-anchored Properties
Category:Former JCPenney-anchored Properties
Category:Former Sears-anchored Properties
Category:Former Hills-anchored Properties
Category:Former Ames-anchored Properties
Category:Pittsburgh Area Malls
Category:Beaver County, Pennsylvania
Category:Dead Malls
Category:Malls that opened in 1957