bankruptcy. After a mid-1990s lull with occupancy dropping to 86%, an unorthodox approach revived the struggling mall increasing occupancy to 96%. Office supply store chain OfficeMax opened one of its first mall-based location at Northwest Plaza in 1997. Also, opening in 1997 was the area's first Dick Clark's American Bandstand Grill. Westfield Northwest Plaza was acquired in late 1997 by the Westfield Group for $111 million, who renamed the mall "Westfield Shoppingtown Northwest" (later shortened to "Westfield Northwest" in June 2005) to match the nomenclature of other malls in their portfolio. Under Westfield's tenure, the mall opened many new stores. Burlington Coat Factory moved into the former Oshman's, Schweig Engel Furniture moved into the old Phar-Mor, and many other stores: American Eagle Outfitters, and Bath & Body Works opened. Gap, which had closed in 1996, returned to the mall. By 1999, the occupancy rate had increased to 98%. Additional plans for renovation were made by Westfield Corporation, but these plans never got beyond the addition of family restroom and a children's play area. Around this time, Westfield instead focused more on driving customer business to other area malls such as West County Center in Des Peres and Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters, in turn neglecting Northwest Plaza, along with its redevelopment and upkeep. The first major vacancy at Northwest Plaza was JCPenney in 2002. Northwest Plaza had the second lowest occupancy rate of a Westfield mall, which was just 79% at year-end 2004. Somera After years of continued decline, Westfield Corporation sold the mall in June 2006 to Somera Capital Management, LLC. After having bought the mall for $45 million, with General Growth Properties acting as third-party leasing and management agent, the mall's name reverted to Northwest Plaza. As per the Federated Stores/May Co. merger, Famous-Barr was re-branded as Macy's. Later in 2007, the Tilt closed for good. Somera unveiled a redevelopment plan in which the mall would become Lindbergh Town Center. In the plan, a small part of the Macy's hallway plus the former Kids "R" Us would be turned into a lifestyle center. The Dillard's and the hallway between it and Sears would become a new anchor, plus the old food court/theater/Tilt would revert to an anchor. The remaining mall was to be renovated to feature a new "picnic inspired" food court (on the upper level of the former Woolworth's), new flooring, new paint, new skylights, a