Irene Jiang / Business Insider Northgate Mall was the first shopping center in America to be called a mall. Northgate's developers plan to transform the mall into a mixed-use commercial and residential complex that will also have an NHL training center. Major retailers are fleeing the mall in droves, with Nordstrom as the latest addition to the bandwagon. We visited the mall to see what it was like, and we found that it was eerily abandoned. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. Opened in 1950, Northgate Mall in Seattle was the first shopping center in America to be called a mall.