Belk store at North Point Mall to close

By Rachel Tobin Ramos
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Wednesday, June 03, 2009

The Belk store at North Point Mall will close, the company confirmed Wednesday.
Belk got space in the mall after acquiring a Parisians store in 2006. The store later took over a larger space that had been occupied by Lord & Taylor.

Even with the closure, Atlanta will remain Belk’s largest market, with 21 stores.
Charlotte, N.C.-based Belk opened new stores in Newnan and Winder in March, and has spent more than $32 million on its stores in the area over the last two years.
In company earnings released last week, Belk said sales declined in the first quarter to $760.9 million, from $817.3 million in the first quarter 2008. The company blamed “continued weakness in consumer retail.”

Same-store sales — a metric that measures stores open more than a year — fell 7.7 percent.
The company eked out a profit of $500,000 for the quarter, compared to $5.1 million in the first quarter of 2008.

North Point Mall is managed by General Growth Properties. Other anchor tenants include Dillard’s, Macy’s, JCPenney and Sears.