The Sun City's Popular Dry Goods ("Popular") chain added a bona fide anchor to the NORTHGATE mall in the mid-1960s. The store encompassed 1 level and 52,500 square feet.
Drawing from the Popular Dry Goods Company
By 1967, NORTHGATE CENTER featured a shiny new Popular store, Lerner Shops location and single-screen Northgate Theatre. The mall covered around 390,000 leasable square feet and contained thirty-eight tenant spaces. Its parking area could accommodate 3,200 autos. Although the mall was now considered complete, a small area adjacent to Lerner Shops was still vacant. It would not be filled in until 1981.
Here, we see a 1968-vintage aerial of the Sun City shopopolis. Wyatt's Cafeteria occupies space along the north-facing front, with a Safeway supermarket extending from the west end of the open shopping concourse.
Photo from Malls of America Blogspot
In 1972, forty-nine NORTHGATE tenants are in operation. Several stores have changed since 1967, but no new retail space has been added. A vacant Kresge dime store was reoccupied by the T G & Y chain in September 1970. The departure of Wyatt's Cafeteria created a space for Scot's Smorgasbord, which opened in May 1969. It was followed by a Cloth World fabric mart in August 1972.
NORTHGATE CENTER TENANTS 1972:
POPULAR (with Beauty Salon) / J.C. PENNEY / SAFEWAY supermarket / T G & Y FAMILY CENTER (with snack bar) / Allied Finance Corporation / American Furniture Company / American Handicraft / Baker Glass / Burgess Branch Library (outparcel) / C.J.C. Enterprises / Charles Craven, Attorney at Law / Chez Patrice Beauty Salon / Cloth World / Cook Sporting Goods / Cox's Bakery / Discount Photo Express / El Paso County Tax Office / First Savings & Loan / Frank's Lock & Key / Gilbert's Fashion Apparel / Gunning-Casteel Rexall Drug (with luncheonette) / H & R Block / Household Finance Corporation / Humble Oil Company / Jif-E-Mart / Key Realty / Leeds Shoes / Lerner Shops / Merle Norman Cosmetic Studio / Newspaper Printing Corporation / Northgate Chevron service station (outparcel) / Northgate Community Hall / Northgate Florist / Northgate T-Bird service station & car wash (outparcel) / Northgate Theatre (single-screen outparcel) / Paul's Barber Shop / Perry's Laundry & Cleaners / Public Utilities Payment Office / Radio Shack / Rayburn's men's wear / Shain's Quality Jewelers / Sherwin-Williams Paints / Sweetbriar Shop / Texaco, Incorporated / Texas State Optical / The Card Nook / The El Paso Herald-Post / The El Paso Times / Thom McAn Shoes / Toy Kingdom / United States Army Recruiting Station / White Stores (with attached Auto Center) / Wigg's Appliance
