Northpark Mall is a super regional mall located in

Joplin, Missouri Joplin is a city in Jasper County, Missouri, Jasper and Newton County, Missouri, Newton counties in the southwestern corner of the U.S. state of Missouri. The bulk of the city is in Jasper County, while the southern portion is in Newton County. J ...

. The mall opened in 1972 with 600,000 square feet, and featured 60 stores, restaurants, and other services. Today, the Northpark mall is 1,080,000 square feet, and features more than 100 inline tenants including a

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

. Northpark Mall is the largest mall in the Joplin region and serves a trade area of nearly 500,000 people. Freeman hospital added a soft play area in the Macy's women's court in the summer of 2014. The mall was also the temporary home of the 11th and 12th grades of

Joplin High School Joplin High School is a public high school located in Joplin, Missouri, United States, founded in 1885. The school serves students in grades 9 through 12 and is the only traditional high school in the Joplin School District. History In 1885, Jop ...

until August 2014, when the new high school was completed. Northpark Mall is managed by

CBL & Associates Properties CBL Properties (previously CBL & Associates, Inc., then CBL & Associates Properties, Inc.) is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers, primarily in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States. The company is or ...

. The anchor stores are Vintage Stock,

TJ Maxx TJ Maxx (stylized as T•J•maxx) is an American department store chain, selling at prices generally lower than other major similar stores. It has more than 1,000 stores in the United States, making it one of the largest clothing retailers in ...

, H&M,

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, and

Dunham's Sports Dunham's Sports is an American sporting goods retail chain owned by Dunham's Athleisure Corporation, with stores located in the Midwestern to Southeastern United States. The chain specializes in athletic equipment, clothing, firearms, and other ...

. There are three vacant anchor stores that were once two

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

stores and

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

History

Northpark Mall opened in 1972, on Range Line Road on the east side of Joplin. At the time, the mall was anchored by

Montgomery Ward Montgomery Ward is the name of two successive U.S. retail corporations. The original Montgomery Ward & Co. was a world-pioneering mail-order business and later also a leading department store chain that operated between 1872 and 2001. The curren ...

to the north,

to the south, and local chain Newman's at the middle. Other stores included Walgreens, McCrory's, Ramsay's Department Store, For All Bible (which moved out in 2016, and permanently closed the next year), Wyatt's cafeteria, as well as many other stores. Newman's became

Heer's Heer's Department Store, with its original location at 138 Park Central West (formerly College Street) in Springfield, Missouri, was one of southwest Missouri's largest and most prominent department stores for 80 years. Heer's Department Store w ...

in 1987, the same year that a new wing was built, and the mall received its first renovation. The new wing extended easterly from the JCPenney store. This new wing included two new anchors,

Famous-Barr The Famous-Barr Co. (originally Famous and Barr Co.) was a division of Macy's, Inc. (formerly Federated Department Stores). Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, in the Railway Exchange Building, it was the flagship store of The May Department Sto ...

and

Venture Venture may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music *The Ventures, an American instrumental rock band formed in 1958 *"A Venture", 1971 song by the band Yes *''Venture'', a 2010 EP by AJR Games * ''Venture'' (video game), a 1981 arcade gam ...

. The renovation also brought a food court as well as a new five screen cinema. In 1994, Heer's closed, and Famous-Barr moved its men's wear and home goods to the former Heer's space. That same year,

built a store adjacent to Montgomery Ward, moving from an older store near downtown Joplin. In 1998, the mall received a minor renovation, changing only the color scheme. After the closure of the Venture chain in 1998, its anchor at the mall was converted to Shopko, but it closed in the early 2000s following the closure of

in 2001. Both Famous-Barr locations were rebranded as

in 2006. Montgomery Ward remained vacant until mid-2007, when its space was split between

and

Steve & Barry's Steve & Barry's was an American retail clothing chain, featuring casual clothing, footwear and accessories. By mid-2008, the chain operated 276 stores in 39 states. The company was headquartered in Port Washington, New York. The company liquidate ...

, the latter of which closed in 2008 and was replaced by Vintage Stock. In 2006, the mall received its first major renovation in nearly 20 years, changing the color scheme, adding all new lighting and floor tiles, and renovating the food court to a route 66 theme. In 2012, Old Navy moved into a space formerly occupied by Tilt Studios. As a result, the original Old Navy became

Jo-Ann Fabrics Jo-Ann Stores, LLC, more commonly known as Jo-Ann (stylized as JOANN), is an American specialty retailer of crafts and fabrics based in Hudson, Ohio. It operates the retail chains ''JOANN Fabrics and Crafts'' and ''Jo-Ann Etc''. The headquarter ...

, and Tilt opened a larger location near Vintage Stock, and Ulta Beauty opened a store off the food court. In the summer of 2014, a soft play area for children was added in the Macy's women's court. In August 2015, mall management announced that the former Venture was being converted back to retail use. That work was completed by late September 2015. Joplin High School used the building as a temporary school until May 2014. In October 2015, Macy's moved the children's department to the men's store and men's moved over to the women's store. Both Macy's stores received a much needed makeover, including new fixtures, fresh paint, and new carpet. For-All Bible announced in December 2015 that they would be moving to a new location out of the mall. For-All Bible was one of the last original tenants, until they permanently closed in 2017, leaving JCPenney as the only remaining original tenant in the mall. Mall management announced in May 2016 that

would be opening in the former Venture anchor. The store was working on renovations and plans to be open by fall 2016. With the opening of Dunham's, the mall would have all of the anchor spaces full for the first time in 15 years. In November 2017, Swedish retailer H&M opened their first store in southwest Missouri. On November 7, 2019, it was announced that Sears would be closing this location a part of a plan to close 96 stores nationwide. The store permanently closed in February 2020. On January 6, 2021, it was announced that

would also be closing both locations in April 2021 as part of a plan to close 46 stores nationwide. After the stores closed,

, and

would be the only traditional anchor stores left.

Joplin High School

Following the

2011 Joplin tornado A devastating EF5-rated multiple-vortex tornado struck Joplin, Missouri on the evening of Sunday, May 22, 2011. Part of a larger late-May tornado outbreak, the tornado touched down just west of Joplin and intensified very quickly, reaching a ...

which destroyed

, officials said juniors and seniors in the 2011-12 class would attend classes in a section of the mall. Classes began in the renovated former Shopko location on August 17, 2011. Joplin High School moved into their new building in August 2014.

References

{{CBL Properties Buildings and structures in Joplin, Missouri Shopping malls in Missouri CBL Properties Shopping malls established in 1972 Tourist attractions in Jasper County, Missouri