Southgate Mall (Elizabeth City)

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Southgate Mall is the sole enclosed shopping center in the sixteen county Historic Albemarle region of northeastern North Carolina. Located on West Ehringhaus Street (US 17 Business) in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, the mall is currently anchored by Belk and until its closing in early April 2015; JCPenney.

Construction of the mall started in 1967 at a cost of $3 million ($21.2 million in 2014 dollars), opening two years later as Southgate Plaza Shopping Center with senior anchors Belk-Tyler and W.T. Grant. Junior anchors Winn-Dixie and People's Drug filled positions intermediate to anchors and smaller shops.

Video Southgate Mall (Elizabeth City)

Future

In an email from June 10, 2017; the mall's owners Vireo Group (which purchased the mall in February 2017) announced plans to demolish the former JCPenney and Merchant's Tire locations, along with an abandoned Kangaroo Express gas station, as part of a planned conversion from an indoor mall (often called "demalling") into a partially open shopping venue.

On October 22, 2017; Elizabeth City's Daily Advance newspaper reported that remodeling plans as part of the proposed "demalling" would result in three other tenants, Hibbett Sports; GNC and Greensboro-based jeweler Saslow's Jewelers would move from the rear of the mall to the front, with a separate report and a map of the proposed changes in the article showing The Shoe Department also moving from the back to the space vacated when RadioShack closed as part of a recent string of closings in April 2017. The article also notes that owner Vireo Group has plans to rename the property "Elizabeth City Centre", though a member of the ownership group noted that name change would not occur until late in the year.