Erie Central Mall

Northgate Commons, formerly Erie Central Mall and Erie Center Outlet Mall was a one-level shopping mall 0.9 miles (1.5 km) south of downtown Erie, Pennsylvania, between West 18th Street, Peach Street and Sassafras Street in the city of Erie. It had four anchors which once housed Golden Dawn, JCPenney, Loblaws, and Scott's.
== Mall History ==
Plans for the mall began in February 1960, when Edward J. DeBartolo had plans to build a $21 million enclosed shopping mall in the center of the City of Erie, the mall that was being planned was the Erie Central Mall. On October 26, 1961, Erie Central Mall had officially opened to the public. Its original anchors included JCPenney, Kroger, Loblaws, and Scott's. Other tenants included Associated Hardware, Ed Long's Fabrics, Goodyear, Herbst Jewelers, Karnes Bake Shop, Kinney Shoes, Marine Bank, Mays Dress Shop, Merle Norman, Perry Men Shop, Sun Drug, Thrift Finance, Thrifty Dry Cleaners, Top Value Stamp Store and Village Dairy.
== Decline ==
Erie Central Mall was doing very well throughout the 1960s. However in November 1975, a new major mall opened in the Erie area which was Millcreek Mall, causing JCPenney to relocate to the new mall as well as a few other tenants. At the time, Erie Central Mall was only 14 years old. The mall during this time also began to have a bad reputation for crime and robberies happening inside the mall or outside in the parking lot, causing more tenants to relocate to safer shopping centers in Erie or other nearby suburbs. During the 1980s, the mall's decline got even worse as more tenants continued to leave. In 1981, Scott's closed down. In 1982, Loblaws closed down due to poor sales. In 1983, DeBartolo Corporation sold the mall to Baldwin Brothers, who renamed the mall from Erie Central Mall to Erie Center Outlet Mall, the new plans were hoping to turn the mall into an outlet mall and attract factory outlet stores. In 1984, Kroger closed as the chain left the state of Pennsylvania, it was later converted into Golden Dawn the same year. However just two years later in 1986, Golden Dawn would close. The mall continued to decline and kept on losing tenants, with the only tenants being local shops and a Revco drug store. In September 1994, the Erie Central Mall was permanently closed and Baldwin Brothers began transforming the mall into a medical complex under the name Northgate Commons.
Category:Baldwin Brothers
Category:Former Golden Dawn-anchored Malls
Category:Defunct malls
Category:Malls in Pennsylvania
Category:Malls that opened in 1961
Category:Erie County, Pennsylvania
Category:Erie Area Malls
Category:Edward J. DeBartolo
Category:Former JCPenney-anchored Malls
Category:Former Kroger-anchored Malls
Category:Former Loblaws-anchored Malls
Category:Former Scott's-anchored Malls