If you walked through Northgate Mall in spring 2020, you would have seen a building that was mostly shut down in practice. Most of the department store anchor spaces were already empty.
In long parts of the inside hallways, the main sound was air moving through the ventilation system. At the far end, one movie theater still had showtimes and was one of the few things still operating.
On May 1, 2020, tenants inside the mall got an email telling them the mall would close permanently. Some had operated businesses there for years…