Northridge Mall in Salinas is celebrating 50 years, and filling a vacant building.

The demise of the American mall was well-chronicled even before the Covid-19 pandemic – a growing number of shoppers prefer to buy what they want online without getting off the couch. When pandemic-related regulations forced indoor spaces to shut down, many thought that spelled doom for malls.

But a recent study shows that malls have not only rebounded post-pandemic, but are growing.

According to Coresight Research, traffic at “non-top-tier malls,” or those described as having a less-affluent customer demographic, increased by 10 percent in 2022 compared to 2019 levels, while revenue grew by nearly 9 percent to $6.5 billion. Physical store openings in malls exceeded closures in 2022 for the first time since 2016, according to the study.

Occupancy rates at these malls rebounded from the pandemic, yet still remain below 2019 levels, standing at 89 percent in 2022, the study showed.

Northridge Mall in Salinas, fresh off its 50th anniversary celebration, appears to be on an upward trend.

The southern end of the mall is undergoing a renaissance after the Sears department store, a two-story, nearly 134,000-square-foot building, closed in 2020. Permitting is underway to renovate the building, which will house Burlington, Dave & Buster’s, Gohan Buffet, O’Reilly Auto Parts and Smash n’ Axe, according to building owner Ethan Conrad Properties. A new building for Raising Cane’s is planned to be built in the parking lot, near Big 5 Sporting Goods.

Macy’s, an anchor tenant in the mall since the 1990s, announced that while it is closing 150 stores nationwide, Salinas is not one of them.

In 2022, Steerpoint Capital and Bridge Group Investments purchased the mall. Steerpoint CEO Bo Okoroji said in a press release that Northridge “has the potential to become a dominant asset in the regional retail arena and the broader marketplace.”

In 2023, discussions were underway to rezone the Sears property to allow housing. While the previous owner of the building was receptive to the idea, according to a city staff report, a representative of new owner Ethan Conrad Properties said rezoning the property to mixed use would prevent certain businesses that they were in talks with, namely vehicle service establishments.

The rezoning plan is not being pursued at this time, says city spokesperson Sophia Rome.

The Northridge Mall began as a collection of shops in the early 1970s. When Sears was added in 1974, the center was rebranded and unified under the Northridge Mall name. It experienced a growth in footprint in the 1990s and 2000s. Today, it includes more than 120 stores.