STERLING – The restaurant at Northland Mall has closed, a new business is on the horizon and another’s future could be short-lived.

Kopper Kitchen closed Monday after 4 years of business, owner Mike Dalipi said Wednesday as equipment was being moved out of the restaurant.

Business at the restaurant, which served meals from breakfast to dinner, had remained strong, Dalipi said, and he declined to provide a reason for the closure.

Dalipi and his wife, Judy, also own Route 40 Cafe in Milledgeville, which opened 3 months ago. He owns The Corner Spot Bar & Grill in Dixon with his brother, Dan. The family has been in the restaurant business in the Sauk Valley for 15 years.

The closure leaves mall’s tenant count at 13, but that will soon change with another business looking to set up shop soon.

Jaime Clevenger, of Dixon, plans to open Warrior Nutrition in a couple of weeks across the walkway from the former restaurant. The store will sell a variety of Herbalife nutrition products, such as protein bars, shakes and snacks, as well as teas and iced coffee.

Clevenger comes to Sterling after working for Rockin Nutrition in Dixon, having decided she wanted a place of her own.

“I’m really looking forward to getting to know the community of Sterling, meet new people and introduce them to our Herbalife products, and keep everyone healthy,” she said.

Warrior Nutrition is on Facebook, and plans to be open from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.

The future is murky for another store focused on nutrition.

GNC Nutrition, one of the mall’s longest tenants, announced the closure of 700 to 900 stores Monday as a result of poor second quarter sales.

GNC has not released a list of stores slated for closure, but Chairman and CEO Ken Martindale said between 700 to 900 low-performing locations could close as a result of ongoing streamlining, he announced Monday. Most of the closures will be focused on mall locations.

“The negative trends and traffic that we’ve seen in mall stores over the past several years has accelerated over the past few quarters,” he said.

The mall, which opened in July 1973, only has one of its three anchor spaces in occupation in addition to 11 vacant storefronts. Dunham’s Sports occupies the lone anchor; original anchors Bergner’s and JC Penney closed in the last 2 years.

Namdar Realty Group, a privately owned commercial real estate investment and management firm based in Great Neck, New York, bought the mall in Dec. 2017 from Denver-based J. Herzog & Sons.