TUCKER, Ga. — Tenants at Northlake Mall in Tucker received notice Friday evening, May 29, that they had 30 days to vacate the property.
Tony Cade, owner of Challenges Games and Comics, said the general manager informed him the building had been sold. Messages sent to the mall’s owner, Corinth Properties, were not immediately returned.
The property owner is meeting with affected tenants on Wednesday, June 3. Cade said roughly 10 businesses are affected, including one that recently moved in. Cade doubts he can move his entire business out of the mall by the deadline.
“The most they can do is lock the mall in 30 days, but there’s no way I’m going to get all my stuff out of there and get me somewhere in 30 days,” he said.
The mall managers canceled a Juneteenth Jubilee celebration planned for June 13 at the mall before quickly backtracking, event organizer Camille Mahdi said.
Mahdi said she received an email stating that the owner had directed management to stop lease negotiations and events until further notice. She said that she was alarmed because she had paid deposits and lined up vendors for the event.
“They contacted me back about an hour or so later, and said that they just… they’re going to waive that and let us go ahead and have Juneteenth, and the general manager called himself as well. He was very kind about it,” she said.
Challenges was recently recognized as the city of Tucker’s Business of the Month.
The city noted the role Cade and Challenges have played in keeping the mall relevant, including hosting free expos that bring in visitors.
“In the three years since the move, CGC has become a vital community resource,” the city of Tucker wrote. “The store hosts free expos featuring industry luminaries such as Emmy Award-winning animator Lauren Brown, known for her work on ‘Archer.’ Other guests have included contributors to ‘Dragon Ball Z,’ ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid,’ Marvel, and DC Comics, alongside notable figures like Milton Davis, Dawud Anyabwile, and Don Hilsman II.”
This will be the second time Challenges has been displaced from a mall property. The games and comic book shop operated at North DeKalb Mall for a decade before moving to Northlake Mall three years ago, when North DeKalb Mall was sold for redevelopment.
“At least that was a situation where we knew it was coming,” he said of the North DeKalb Mall sale. “We knew they were shopping the mall, and they at least gave us 90 days.”
Northlake Mall has been in free fall in recent years. Macy’s, which owned its building, recently shuttered its Northlake Mall location. There has been talk over the years of transforming Northlake into a mixed-use development. Last year, local developer Trammell Crow and Corinth pitched building nearly 500 apartment units at Northlake Mall to a mildly interested Tucker City Council. The project was presented as an economic development update and was not part of a formal rezoning request.
In 2020, Emory Healthcare took over the former Sears building, leasing 224,000 square feet of office space with plans to expand. An Emory spokesperson said Emory will not be affected by the sale.
Cade said he is actively looking for a new space.
“This is one of the things about being in malls, and malls aren’t what they used to be,” he said.
This story was provided by WABE media partner Decaturish.
