Everett Mall’s Hub Vision Just Got Smaller: Brixton Capital Files for Self-Storage and Office Where Topgolf Was Going

What just changed at Everett Mall? Brixton Capital — the mall’s owner — has scheduled a May 19, 2026 pre-application meeting with the City of Everett to convert a portion of the existing enclosed mall into a self-storage facility, with a 60,000-square-foot proposed office sitting where Topgolf’s hitting bays were going to go. Topgolf was supposed to be the Hub @ Everett’s anchor tenant. Now it may not happen at all.

For two years the story we got told about Everett Mall was the Hub. Brixton Capital — the San Diego-based real estate group that bought the property — and the City of Everett came out together in 2024 with renderings of an outdoor walkable destination, retail recolored from the inside out, and a 68,000-square-foot, three-level Topgolf as the anchor pulling everyone in. The permits were filed. The 11-acre site was mapped. The narrative held.

That narrative is now bending.

On the City of Everett’s permitting portal this week, Brixton Capital has scheduled a May 19, 2026 pre-application meeting for a project described as “the interior demolition of the existing enclosed mall structure and the conversion of a portion of the building into a self-storage facility. The scope also includes subdivision actions to place the proposed storage use on a separate legal parcel.”

That alone would just be news that the demolition we’ve all been waiting for is finally getting paperwork moving. But the latest site plan that came in with the application tells a different story.

What the new site plan shows

Two things sit on the new Brixton site plan that were not on the Hub renderings.

The first is a single-story building labeled “Everett Mall Self Storage.” It sits where a parking lot was going to be in the Hub vision — so it is not directly displacing Topgolf. But it is also not what anyone signed up for when this redevelopment started. There are already a dozen self-storage facilities within five miles of the mall. None of them are destinations. None of them generate the foot traffic that a mall reinvention needs to work.

The second is more telling: a 60,000-square-foot building labeled “Proposed Office” that sits squarely on the footprint where the Topgolf hitting bays and outfield were going to go. The old LA Fitness building, which was supposed to come down to make room for Topgolf, now appears in the plan as something that will either be salvaged or replaced to provide that office space.

Topgolf needs the area marked for the office. The office is in the area Topgolf needed.

The two plans cannot both be true.

Why this might be happening

Topgolf’s parent company has been in restructuring mode since the same window the Everett permits were getting approved. Topgolf Callaway Brands announced a corporate split, then Topgolf CEO Artie Starrs left for Harley-Davidson in 2025. On January 1, 2026, private equity firm Leonard Green & Partners completed an acquisition of a 60 percent stake in Topgolf from Topgolf Callaway Brands for approximately $1.1 billion. Industry coverage has framed the entertainment chain’s recent decline as a problem of over-expansion — too many venues opened too fast, with the new ones cannibalizing the older ones.

In other words: Topgolf is in pullback mode, not expansion mode. New venues that were promised but never officially confirmed by Topgolf corporate — like Everett — are exactly the kind of project that quietly disappears in a private-equity restructuring.

Neither Brixton Capital nor Topgolf has officially said the Everett venue is dead. The City of Everett has not announced a change. But the new site plan does the talking.

What we covered before — and what’s different now

We wrote about The Hub @ Everett a week ago, on April 25, when the story was that Topgolf was stuck — permitted in January 2025, but on hold pending corporate restructuring. The construction never started. The 11-acre footprint sat untouched. At that point the question was whether Topgolf would eventually break ground or whether Brixton would have to find a new anchor.

The May 19 pre-application meeting is the answer to that question. Brixton is not waiting on Topgolf anymore. Brixton is moving forward with a different building program for that footprint. Even if Brixton hopes Topgolf eventually shows up, the site plan being submitted to the City does not assume Topgolf shows up. That is the meaningful change.

It is also a quiet downgrade of what The Hub was supposed to be. A self-storage building and a 60,000-square-foot office building are not the kind of tenants that bring people to a mall on a Saturday. Alderwood Mall down in Lynnwood is full on Saturdays. People circle the parking lot waiting for spots. That is what a working mall in 2026 looks like. A storage facility and a cubicle building is not in that category.

What this means for the larger Everett Mall picture

The Hub @ Everett sits on 11 acres in the Twin Creeks neighborhood and is the largest single retail-redevelopment project in South Everett. The mall as a whole is roughly 800,000 square feet of building on a much larger campus. Brixton’s original sales pitch for The Hub assumed Topgolf would draw the foot traffic, which would justify upgrades to the rest of the campus — Ulta Beauty and At Home are already moving into the former Sears box, and the relocated Mall Station opened in December 2025. The walkable outdoor reorientation only works if the anchor pulls.

If the anchor turns out to be a storage building and an office, the rest of the upgrade math gets harder. Tenants pay rent based on the foot traffic they expect. Foot traffic projections that assumed a Topgolf are not the projections you get with self-storage.

There is still room for another pivot. Brixton could find another entertainment anchor — a movie theater, a family entertainment center, a fitness destination — and the storage and office plans become the backup. The May 19 meeting is a pre-application discussion, not a building permit. Things can still change between now and the actual permit filing.

But for right now, what the City of Everett’s permitting portal shows is a mall that planned to be a destination and is being re-planned around uses that nobody drives across town to visit.

The May 19 pre-application meeting: what it is and what it isn’t

A pre-application meeting in Everett is the very first formal step a developer takes with the city before submitting actual building permits. It’s a planning-staff conversation — the developer brings their concept, the city tells them what regulations will apply, what studies they’ll need, what review process the project will go through. It is not a public hearing. There is no vote. There is no decision.

But it does signal seriousness. Pre-application meetings cost money to schedule and prepare for. Developers don’t book them for ideas they’re not pursuing. When a project shows up on the pre-app calendar, it means the developer has internal alignment to keep moving forward with that specific concept.

So the May 19 meeting is the equivalent of Brixton telling the city: this is what we’re actually planning to build now. The Hub @ Everett brochure is no longer the operative document. The new site plan is.

What we’ll be watching

A few things to track in the coming weeks:

• The actual building permit application. A pre-application meeting usually produces a building permit application within three to nine months. Whatever Brixton submits formally will tell us whether the storage-and-office concept holds or whether they pivot again.
• Any official Topgolf statement. Leonard Green & Partners has been making public moves since taking control on January 1. A formal cancellation of Pacific Northwest expansion would clarify a lot.
• Brixton’s leasing posture for the rest of The Hub. If self-storage and office are now in the program, the retail pitch to other tenants changes. Watch for tenant announcements that downshift from the original Hub vision.
• City of Everett response. The original Hub deal involved zoning and permitting cooperation from the city. A meaningful program change at the site may trigger new city review — especially if the storage building requires the subdivision Brixton is also proposing.

Frequently Asked Questions

As of May 2026, no construction has started, no Topgolf representative has confirmed the Everett location publicly, and Brixton Capital — the mall owner — has filed a pre-application with the City of Everett showing a 60,000-square-foot office building in the exact footprint Topgolf was going to occupy. The official permits from January 2025 are still on the books, but the new site plan does not assume Topgolf is happening.

Brixton Capital, a San Diego-based real estate firm, owns Everett Mall. Brixton acquired the property and announced The Hub @ Everett redevelopment plan in 2024.

The Hub @ Everett is the marketing name Brixton Capital and the City of Everett gave to the planned redevelopment of the existing enclosed Everett Mall into a more walkable, outdoor-oriented retail and entertainment destination. The original anchor was supposed to be a 68,000-square-foot Topgolf venue.

May 19, 2026, with the City of Everett’s planning staff. This is a pre-application discussion, not a public hearing — there is no public comment period and no vote.

According to the City of Everett’s permitting portal, the May 19 application covers the interior demolition of the existing enclosed mall, conversion of a portion of the building into a self-storage facility, and subdivision of the storage use onto its own legal parcel. The accompanying site plan shows a 60,000-square-foot proposed office building in the area where Topgolf was going to be built.

Yes — Ulta Beauty and At Home are still moving into the former Sears box, the relocated Mall Station opened in December 2025, and other tenant work continues. The pre-application change appears specific to the Topgolf footprint and the previously-planned parking lot area where the storage facility would now sit.

A pre-application meeting is the first step. A formal building permit application typically follows three to nine months later, and construction starts after the permit is issued. So even if the storage-and-office concept holds, ground-breaking is at minimum late 2026 and more likely 2027.