A year after shooting, Northlake Mall bounces back

But as the anniversary approaches, Northlake Mall finds itself in a much better place.

The Northlake area is booming. Apartments are going up by the dozens, and homes in the predominantly middle- and upper-middle-class neighborhoods in the area are selling quickly.

Several new retailers have opened up locations inside the mall, and even more are flocking to developments all around it.

Northlake Mall’s Yelp star review averages have also rebounded. After plunging to a low of 2.2 in the early spring, the ratings have slowly climbed back. They now sit at 3.8 — near an all-time high.

While not scientific, the Yelp review data provides one of the few numerical windows into the public’s perception of Northlake Mall. Image via Yelp.

Northlake Mall even made the national headlines once again this month — this time for its high-tech Santa set-up.

Some of the improvement inevitably came with time. But the area also benefited from a strong contingent of defenders, including political and police leaders who have combated worries with data.

Despite an outpouring of anxiety online, Charlotte-Mecklenburg police leaders have repeatedly said the statistics don’t bear out a problem with violent crime. The true problem was in people’s heads, police said, while acknowledging the unique situation created by Northlake’s location.

“There is not an actual issue with safety there,” said Capt. Ryan Butler. “There are at times issues with perception.”

What’s happened at Northlake?

That perception took a hit over the course of the last year through a string of events that began in December 2015.

• On Christmas Eve, two groups with a history of trouble between them ran into each other at the Journeys store, and shots were fired between them, according to investigators. An off-duty officer in uniform responded, fatally shooting Daquan Westbrook, 19, and one of the gunmen, according to the district attorney’s office.
• A month later, a man was shot in the stomach in the early afternoon outside the Target on Northlake Centre Parkway. It’s not on mall property, but is across the street. Robbery and narcotics charges were ultimately filed in  connection with the shooting.
• And in September, multiple reports came in of shots fired outside the mall. Parts of the mall were evacuated, but police were unable to find any victims. CMPD ultimately charged a 27-year-old man with the shooting, and said he had been in previous altercations with the person he shot at.

After each incident, Facebook was flooded with comments from people who decried the state of the mall and say they won’t return. Put most simply: “It’s just scary,” a woman in the audience of a summertime town hall meeting said. 

At the same time, the mall’s business had a few public setbacks. At least two major tenants — Gap and Anthropologie — announced they were closing. 

How has the mall responded?

In the intervening months, Northlake Mall and CMPD took a few steps to shore up security.

Representatives for Northlake Mall say they have implemented new security measures, “some of which are visible and others that are behind the scenes.”

“The safety of our guests, tenants and employees is our top priority. We work closely with our partners in local, state and federal law enforcement to monitor events in the surrounding neighborhood,” a mall spokeswoman said by email.

In March, the AMC movie theater at Northlake Mall instituted a “parent escort” policy, requiring teenagers to be accompanied by an adult to movies after 7 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays.

The police department has made changes, too.

Late last year, CMPD began dedicating a foot patrol officer to the mall in addition to off-duty officers the mall hires on its own. The police department had done this in the past, but had to move the officer back to a patrol car.

CMPD also now has an officer on a “dual sport” vehicle at the mall, which is basically like a dirt bike. It has the maneuverability of a bike, but can cover long distances like across parking lots.

“We try to be out there and as available to our retailers as we can,” Capt. Butler said. “We’ve got a great relationship with the mall management both on a local and national level. We try to listen to the concerns or needs that they have. We share some insights on what we think we could do to improve the overall environment.”

Big money investments

The bigger changes have been on the business side.

The mall’s owner, Starwood Retail Partners, announced a $50 million expansion earlier this year. The company bought an 11-acre parcel adjoining the mall, pledging to develop 200,000 more square feet.

“This investment allows us to complete the vision that was proposed for Northlake 10 years ago,” Starwood CEO Scott Wolstein said in a statement.

Victoria’s Secret | PINK, White Barn Candle, Champs Sports, Windsor Fashions and Kids Foot Locker all opened new locations in the mall. Foot Locker, Kay Jewelers and Finish Line remodeled their stores as well.

Amazon selected Northlake Mall as a location for one of the company’s new package delivery lockers, one of a dozen scattered across the city. AMC Theaters is adding a MacGuffins Bar & Lounge at the movie theater connected to the mall. The city’s first La Madeleine French cafe opened across the street and a build-your-own pizza spot Firenza is coming nearby.

Photo by La Madeleine via Facebook

The mall also revamped its MallStars kids club, introduced a rewards program and launched a first-of-its-kind daily giveaway for the holiday shopping season.

The people who know the area best say the response is working.

“I think it’s making a lot out of a couple of isolated incidents,” said Rev. Eric Miller, 54, who lives near the mall and is the former president of the Beatties Ford/Trinity Park neighborhood association, referring to critical comments online. He said the police presence at the mall is working well.

Dave Ryan, president of the nearby Wedgewood North neighborhood association, largely agreed. He said most people don’t have issues.

“They’ve done an outstanding job trying to keep it a safe place,” Ryan said. “When something like that starts happening, everybody starts panicking and thinking the sky is falling. But it can happen at the fanciest malls in Charlotte.”

Why Northlake?

Even while defending the mall’s safety, police leaders acknowledge that Northlake has some particularities that set it apart from malls like SouthPark Mall, the gold standard in Charlotte of a “fancy” mall.

Northlake is readily accessible from I-485 and I-77, and it’s a quick hop from both the northern suburbs and Uptown Charlotte.

Contrast that with SouthPark, which requires people to wind through bumper-to-bumper traffic on city streets to get there.

SouthPark Mall

Northlake is also home to high-end retailers like the Apple Store, Brooks Brothers, J. Crew and Michael Kors that are hard to find without a significant drive. That’s in addition to the massive amount of traffic generators all around them — like Target, Old Navy and REI.

The same reasons that draw a large number of people to shop at Northlake are the same reasons why people with bad intentions might choose to go there as well. It’s easy to get there, easy to leave, easy to be anonymous, Capt. Butler said.

“That’s the plus and the minus of it,” Capt. Butler said. “You create a retail cluster because you want to attract people from a wide area. You don’t get to cherrypick, this person can spend their money here and this person can’t spend their money here.”

Violent crime isn’t the big issue, the police captain responsible for the area says. It’s property crime: shoplifting, larceny from auto, etc.

“Just like any other large retail entity, their biggest problem is property crime which usually surfaces as shoplifting,” Capt. Butler said. “Our violent crime is not up. Its actually either down or it’s flat.”

Butler declined to describe the violent crime incidents that have happened at Northlake as gang activity, though the CMPD gang unit has typically had a role in investigating them. Butler told the Agenda the police department has a “more stringent definition” of gang activity than what the public might think. He said several of the “high-profile incidents” have been perpetrated by people not from the area.

And when it comes to property crime, the trends are actually moving in the right direction, Capt. Butler said. There’s been a significant decrease in larceny from auto.

“I look at that really as an area of success,” Capt. Butler said. “It’s unfortunate than when something bad happens, its in a very public place.”

A race issue?

The one-year anniversary also comes in a changed Charlotte. The aftermath of the shooting of an African-American man, Keith Lamont Scott, by a Charlotte police officer has forced more frank discussions about the divisions in the city and exposed the differences in how people view Charlotte neighborhoods.

And that aspect has been on display in how Charlotte has talked about the incidents at Northlake Mall. It’s not as openly discussed, but readily apparent in coded language on social media. Northlake sits in one of the most ethnically and socioeconomically diverse areas of a city that is often segregated by race and class. The mall straddles an upper- and lower-income area. That means the mall is drawing a diverse shopper base.

Some of the people most critical of Northlake Mall on Facebook refer to seeing “gangs” and “thugs” walking the halls — which is typically perceived as thinly-veiled racism. That diverse client base influences the perception issue. 

Charlotte city councilwoman Julie Eiselt said people just don’t know the real facts.

“If you talk to mall management, it’s a little unfair to those businesses,” Eiselt said. “It’s hard for those businesses when people are fearful of being there for the wrong reasons.”

She said the Arboretum — which is in a wealthy area of south Charlotte — has gone through spurts of crime issues in the past as well.

Back in 2012, the state DEA named the Arboretum, as well as SouthPark and Carolina Place Mall, as hotspots for heroin dealers.

“I get emails from parents saying, ‘I’ll never let my kids go there again,'” Eiselt said. “That’s fine, but they’re probably going to go. What’s better is to talk to them about how to be safe.”

Eiselt‘s entry into civic affairs was spurred by her experience as a crime victim. Back in 2007, she was in the parking lot of the Dowd YMCA when a man pointed a gun at her and tried to force her into her car. The whole incident was caught on security cameras, and the Y had its own private security guard.

“It can happen anywhere,” Eiselt said. “I personally don’t believe Northlake is the issue.”