Thursday, April 9, 2015

North Shore Square Slidell La 2014

The North Shore Square is the only indoor mall serving the North shore suburbs of New Orleans. The mall has 5 anchor stores but as of this posting only 4 are still in business. JCPenney, Dillard's Men's store, Dillard's Women's store, and Burlington Coat Factory are the currently operating. The mall is listed as having over 600,000 square feet of retail space, click to find out more about the mall. 

The mall has many retro storefronts from the past and possibly even from 1985 when the mall opened. Sears recently closed, and the two Dillard's stores may be leaving as well. To make matters worse, the JCPenney lease is rumored to be up soon, and Forever 21 (junior anchor) may be joining Dillard's at the new Fremaux Town Center. If all this happens the only anchor left would be Burlington Coat Factory. Across the street from the mall there are several big box stores including Walmart. The Fremaux Town Center in Slidell, The River Chase shopping center in Covington, and Pinnacle Nord Du Lac also in Covington are all expanding. North Shore Square is in the middle of the above areas and will have a hard time competing with these new developments. 


All store spaces in the mall on my visit were nearly full, but things can change quickly if the anchor stores continue to leave for other developments. 
The pictures were taken around closing time so the mall did not have too many shoppers on my visit.

A very retro GNC storefront.
Dillard's Men's Store
The mall directory.
There are fountains in the front of the JCPenney, not many malls these days have water fountains.
A mirrored glass JCPenney mall entrance.
Mirrored glass Radio Shack entrance. If only the sign had not been changed to the newer Radio Shack logo. This store closed in 2015 as part of the bankruptcy. 
A large FYE store with neon lighting.
Yet another retro sign, the limited.
A look down the mall corridor near the middle of the mall.
Dillard's Woman's store
Burlington Coat Factory was originally a Mervyn's. The inside of the store looks almost exactly the same as when the store was a Mervyn's. 
A look at the Sears and Food Court corridor.
A view of the food court. 
Some closer views of the Sears mall entrance.
And now for the outside of the mall. I could not get a good photo of the Sears, all of the parking lot lights were off even while the store was open.

The JCPenney store.
Dillard's Men's Store originally DH Holmes. The arch above the entrance easily gives away the former identity of the store. 
Dillard's Women's Store. This was originally a Maison Blanche department store.

10 comments:

  1. Wow, this mall has some pretty retro storefronts. Thanks for the pictures. Obviously the JCPenney, The Limited, and GNC storefronts are all pretty vintage. Many of those mirrored JCPenney mall entrances still exist nationally, but vintage GNC and The Limited storefronts are more rare as far as I can tell. The mirrored entry former RadioShack looks interesting even if it had more recent signage. Hopefully the mall will be able to hang in there, but it looks like it is going to be a struggle.

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    1. This year is going to be a challenge for sure. If Dillard's does stay it will be in the form of a clearance store so one anchor will be lost. There is a rumor that the JCPenney lease is up this year as well. It is possible they will join Dillard's at the Fremeaux Center or just close the store. They still have a store in that region in Covington and across the Causeway at Lakeside Mall. This is one mall that I will keep my eye on.

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  2. The Burlington here in alexandria took over Mervyn's and did not remodel one bit. Must be their "thing" lol

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    1. You are exactly right. There are similar Mervyn's stores in Alexandria, Longview, and Waco that were reopened by Burlington with little to no changes to the inside of the building.

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    2. They took over the grocery side of the Lafayette Super Kmart, and gutted it. It depends on what they take over; if it's already a clothing store, they leave it alone. If it's something else, they remodel. Shreveport's Burlington is a former Penney's that Burlington actually abandoned for a similar remodel of an old Woolco/Sams/Buds store (similar to the SuperK, that is). But when they moved back, they did little to the old Penney's.

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    3. Thanks for the insight Scott, that appears to be exactly what happens at these stores. There is a Burlington in Humble Tx. that is in a former Super Kmart grocery section as well. Burlington took over that side of the store and Academy took over the rest of the building. The entire store was gutted out for the two new stores. Two Burlington stores in Houston that are in former department stores both look mostly the same on the inside as the old department store did.

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  3. I was just here earlier today. It was a couple of years since I had last been there, and it was just depressing. It looked like around half of the shops were boarded up. Even The Creamery, so I couldn't get the little snack I was looking forward to. FYE is still open, by some miracle. That was the last place I thought would still be open XD The Limited is still there with its old sign, but it was one of the very few clothing stores still there, along with Justice, taking away a lot of the fun in going from shop to shop. It's a shame. I always liked the place, but it's seen better days. I'm not sure it'll survive if JCPenney leaves.

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    1. They are probably not renewing leases anymore. They have a detailed plan to tear down most of the mall except for the JCPenney, At Home, and Dillards. Then they will build an outdoor shopping center featuring many of the current stores like Burlington. The plan is available on the mall website. I still don't understand why they want to get rid of the only indoor mall on the Northshore. They could invest in a major remodel instead.

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  4. So now with JCPenney closing (and Burlington already closed, apparently), I just really can't see this mall lasting much longer, and question that remodel actually happening.

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    1. With those two retailers gone it will make redevelopment of the property easier if they can get the funds. The JCPenney was in the plans to keep their store as is once the mall was demolished. The mall will more than likely close with or without the redevelopment.

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