Northgate Mall has been vacant since 2020, when its last anchor tenants departed after years of declining foot traffic. Multiple redevelopment proposals have stalled since then. Regency Centers is the latest developer to take on the 60-acre West Club Boulevard site, now branded Ellerbe Square, with Target named as the anchor tenant. No opening date has been announced.
Regency plans to demolish most of the existing mall and replace it with a 150,000-square-foot Target, nine retail suites, and five additional buildings. Site plans entered administrative review last November. Regency received its rezoning approval with conditions that included a transit stop and an affordable housing commitment. The developer has not filed plans for either.
- Target already operates two Durham locations, on Durham-Chapel Hill Boulevard and at Renaissance Village. It does not function as a full-service grocery store.
- Regency controls only the western portion of the site. Northwood Investors, the New York firm that bought the mall in 2018 for $34.5 million, holds the larger parcel and has said nothing publicly about its plans.
- The rezoning conditions included affordable housing at 20% of units for households earning 30 to 80% of area median income and a pedestrian connection to the planned greenway along I-85. Neither appears in anything Regency has filed publicly.
Durham city leaders adopted a resident-driven plan in August 2025 calling for a full-service grocery store, affordable housing, and a walkable 15-minute community. The nearest full-service grocery to the site is a Food Lion more than two miles away on Guess Road.
The Durham City-County Planning Commission is the next public venue for residents to weigh in before construction permits are issued.