Northgate Mall (San Rafael, California)
Northgate Mall is a shopping mall located in the Terra Linda neighborhood of San Rafael, California, north of the Golden Gate Bridge. It's the largest of three shopping centers in San Rafael called Northgate. It was managed by The Macerich Company until 2017 and is now managed by Merlone Geier Partners. It is the only enclosed regional shopping center in Marin County. The mall's anchors are Macy's and Kohl's with a vacant anchor last occupied by Sears. It also contains a Century Theatres multiplex, a food court, and more than 90  specialty stores, services, and restaurants. The original anchor in the corner, now occupied by Macy's, was The Emporium, which opened in 1964. When the rest of the mall opened in 1965, it had an open-air design. The mall was enclosed when it was renovated in 1987. MTR Properties, Inc. was the original owner of the mall. Macerich bought the property in 1985 before selling it to Merlone Geier Partners in 2017. On January 4, 2018, Sears announced that its store at the mall will be closing as part of a plan to close 103 stores nationwide. The store  closed in April 2018. Around the same time, plans were announced that would transform the mall into a "town center." As of September 2019, a proposal is under consideration to convert the area previously occupied by Sears into a Costco warehouse. On November 14, 2019, Forever 21 announced that the Northgate Mall location would be closing along with 21 other locations in California and 90 locations nationwide. It closed in January 2020. Renovation. Macerich began renovating the mall in 2008. The proposed renovation has been controversial, as housing advocates have pushed for inclusion of affordable housing in the project (to  replace the aging housing in San Rafael's Canal Area), while Macerich chose to proceed without triggering a full-scale environmental review.