Northlake Mall business owners frustrated by sudden eviction notices: "We just got here"

Business owners say they feel blindsided after being told they're being evicted from Northlake Mall.

Around 10 businesses inside the mall will be impacted and have to vacate within 30 days of their eviction notice, according to business owners who spoke with CBS News Atlanta.

"Disappointing, real sad, frustrating, we just got here, so now trying to navigate to a new spot with late notice is going to be hard," said Joice Fwamba, owner of Buy Elegance.

"Where are they going to go? Especially for some of the staples, jewelry stores and stuff like that, it's not something you can easily pick up and relocate," said Julian Ivy, who grew up shopping at Northlake Mall.

City of Tucker officials say businesses outside of the mall, which include Foot Locker, Jim-N-Nick's, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will not be impacted.

Business owners inside the mall tell CBS News they were supposed to meet on Wednesday with mall leadership to get a better understanding of the moving timeline, but no one from the mall showed up.

"We are just looking and hoping for the best and welcoming anybody who has any options for us," said Fwamba.

Erica Rocker, the City of Tucker's Director of Economic Development, says she wants business owners to reach out so they can help them find new retail space.

Rocker says she's excited for redevelopment opportunities at Northlake Mall.

"You would come and meet other kids and hang out, but I guess those days are long behind us now," said Ivy. "I guess online shopping kind of destroyed the malls."  

In 2019, Emory Healthcare took over 300,000 square feet of the space and created 1,600 jobs. The City of Tucker has been told there's a pending contract for the space set to close at the end of June, but the property owners haven't said who is moving in.

Other metro Atlanta malls have adapted by being repurposed. The nearby North DeKalb Mall is becoming a mixed-use development called Lulah Hills.

Matthew Lee, the executive director of the Tucker-Northlake Community Improvement District, gave a statement to provide more context to the situation:

"From the beginning, the intent of the owners of Northlake Mall has been to do something similar to what they did with One Hundred Oaks Mall in Nashville. They took a mall that was underperforming, moved interior businesses to the outside, developed outparcels, and leased the interior to Vanderbilt Health. With Northlake Mall, you can see that same pattern.

"Given the national trend of department store closures over the last decade, the closure of Macy's at Northlake Mall earlier this year was not a surprise. While it marks the end of an era, it also creates new opportunities for redevelopment and reinvestment in a strategically located property that remains important to the community.

The owners of the mall, ATR Corinth Partners, have been good to the community, and we are better off because of their investment in Tucker. Northlake Mall is one of hundreds of malls across the nation being reimagined to meet today's needs, rather than holding on to the past. Like many people in metro Atlanta, I spent countless hours at Northlake with family and friends in the 1980s and 1990s. I look forward to the continued evolution of the property and all the benefits it will bring to the area."

CBS News reached out to mall management and to the property owners, Corinth Properties, and has not heard back.