Sunday, January 1, 2012

Belle Promenade Mall Happy New Year 2012

R.I.P. Belle Promenade Mall 1983-2000 
1701 Barataria Blvd, Marrero, LA 70072-4249
Aerial photo from the West Bank Guide.
The site plan
This project may be updated in the future with more photos. I would like to give a special thanks to Ryan Smith and David Owens for helping with the research of this article.  

This was the one mall that I watched from the early years all the way to the demise in the late 1990's.
The second Westbank mall project began in 1979 under the name Lapalco Square Mall with a plan for a super regional mall that was to be built in two phases at the corner of Barataria Blvd. and Lapalco Blvd on 145 acres. The land that the mall was planned for is the geographical center of the Westbank of New Orleans in Jefferson Parish. The initial plan was for the mall to have five department stores in a square design that was similar to the Plaza Mall that was in New Orleans East for 1.2 million total square feet of retail space. The mall was built on speculation of future population growth on the West Bank, and many real estate agents did not believe that the West Bank could sustain two major shopping malls. Jim Wilson and the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company spent 50 million to develop Belle Promenade Mall which means "nice walk" in French. Low rise offices and a 20 acre recreational area were also planned for the site but were later developed as retail and restaurants. The first department store on the site; DH Holmes opened up on September 9, 1982 while the mall was still under construction. Big Bird and the Cookie Monster were there for the opening festivities. DH Holmes with 250 employees had mostly clothing on the first floor with electronics, toys, A,T,and T Call Center, Housewares, and Furniture on the second floor. My first visit to the mall was at the Holmes store when the mall entrance was not yet opened, but there was a spot to peak at the mall corridor under construction.
The first and only phase of the Belle Promenade Mall opened up on October 5, 1983 to huge fanfare and rave reviews. JCPenney with 300 employees; had clothing on the first floor with electronics, an A,T,and, T phone center, toys, sporting goods, furniture, linens, photo framing, kitchen goods, dining room supplies, and gift items (87 million in inventory). The JCPenney had several dark mirrors as part of the design inside and outside of the mall. The Les Halles food court was the first true mall food court in the New Orleans area, and had seating for over 500 people. The Sound Shop, Kay Bee Toys, and Camelot Music advertised Atari 2600 games. GNC gave away free soap with each purchase, Diamond Jim's arcade one free game, Hanover Shoes gave away a free stuffed puppy with a purchase of hush puppy shoes, and most of the food court restaurants had coupons for free sodas or fries with a purchase.

The second phase which was to include two more department stores in 1984 did not happen. Another visionary version of the second phase was to add only one department store in 1984 and 100,000 more square feet of retail space in 1985. The recession in the mid 1980's in the New Orleans area was probably the reason the mall was never expanded. (If Belle Promenade Mall had expanded; we would probably be writing an article about the demise of Oakwood Mall). The department stores of Godchaux, Sears, Maison Blanche, and Montgomery Ward were companies that had interest in the mall but never showed up.
The Gulf States theater 6 opened on May 23, 1984 with Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom as the first movie. By the first week of June five of the screens were showing Indiana Jones (on 2 screens), Star Trek 3, Pete's Dragon, Once Upon a Time in America, and the sixth opened with The Karate Kid on June 22.

Exclusive photos of the mall in 1984 provided by David Owens

Diamond Jim's arcade was located in the middle of the mall where the carousel was later added.


A rare token from the Diamond Jim's arcade.
Simply gold
The inside of GNC in 1984
A walk down the mall corridor shows that even when the mall was new; there were empty spaces.
Here is the exclusive official store list from the grand opening advertisement from October 5, 1983.

Department Stores
D.H. Holmes 2 floors
JCPenney 2 floors

Accessories Men’s and Women’s
Parklane Hosiery
You and Yours

Apparel Men’s
D’Marks
Designer Collections
J. Riggings
LaVanti

Apparel Men’s and Women’s
Chess King
Jeans West
Merry Go Round

Apparel Women’s
Catherine’s Stout Shoppe
Fashion Stop
5-7-9 Shop
Hit or Miss
Jean Nicole
Learner Shops
Limited, The
Ormond Shop
Pappillon

Books
B. Dalton Bookseller
Waldenbooks

Cards, Gifts, and Stationary
Florentine Gift Shoppe
Gateway Hallmark
Gifts Imported
Summit Stationers

Drug Stores
Eckerd Drugs

Electronics/Computers
Radio Shack

Engraving/ Keys
Things Remembered

Formal Wear
Mitchell’s

Hair Styling
Great American Hair Salons
John Jay Hair Styling

Health Services
Dental Clinic

Home Furnishings/ Housewares
Cutlery World
Deck The Walls
Rolling Pin, The
Wicks ‘n’ Sticks

Jewelry
J. Todd Jewelers
Piercing Pagoda
Simply Gold

Market Research
Opinion Center

Records and Tapes
Camelot Music
Sound Shop, The

Optical Services
Pearl Vision Center
Texas State Optical

Pet Stores
Doctor Pet Center

Photography
Fotomat
One Hour Photo
Wolf Camera

Restaurants/ Fast Food
All American Hero
Bresler’s 33 Flavors
Chick-Fil-A
China Gate
Corn Dog 7
Daiquiri Shoppe
Famous Ramos Hot Dogs
Famous Ramos Potatoes
Pavone Pizza
Penn’s Golden Nuggets
Shirl’s Snacks
Spats Restaurant
Taco Tico

Specialty Foods
Barnie’s Coffee
Cookies, Inc.
General Nutrition
Glass Oven Bakery
National Health
Peanut Shack
Russell Stover Candies
Tin Can Alley

Shoes
Ansonia
Baker’s
Butler’s
Fanfare
Florsheim
Hanover
Jarman
Kinney
Naturalizer
Stride Rite
Thom McAnn

Smoke Shops
Tobacco House

Sporting Goods
Footlocker, The
Hale and Jones
Marchand’s Athletic Shoes

Toys and Hobbies
Kay Bee Toy and Hobby Store

Game Rooms
Diamond Jim’s

Opened in November 1983
Casual Village- Women’s Apparel
Picadilly Cafeteria- Restaurants/ Fast Food
Today’s Woman- Women’s Apparel

Opened in the spring of 1984
Big Sky- Sporting Goods
Gap, The- Men’s and Women’s Apparel
Gulf States Cineplex- Cinema
Hausman Jewelers- Jewelry
Limited Express- Women’s Apparel
Zales- Jewelry

Leonard Krower (jewelers and distributors) also arrived at the mall sometime in 1984.

As you can see from the store opening list; the mall had almost every category of stores that were popular in the 1980's and even in 2012. The mall hosted many events such as fashion shows, "puttin on the hits" singing contest, carnivals, blood drives, arts and craft shows, and even a Mallopoly game that gave shoppers Mallopoly bucks to use at a special auction which included a new Buick Skylark and several other prizes. Belle Promenade was the mall of the west bank of New Orleans until the mid 1980's the oil bust recession of New Orleans started to take its toll on the area. In 1986 the first signs of decline began to surface at the mall with an article in the Times Picayune showing declining sales at the mall during the Christmas season. Belle Promenade Mall was built for an anticipated population growth that was supposed to add over 200,000 residents near the mall in Jefferson Parish over the next twenty years. The population of the New Orleans Metropolitan area actually decreased in the late 1980's with the West Bank of New Orleans and New Orleans East losing the majority of the residents. Nearby Oakwood Mall also took on a renovation in the late 1980's that expanded the mall to include Mervyn's.

The Les Halles food court in 1987 included these restaurants.
Chik-Fil-A
China Gate
The Cookie Company
Corn Dog 7
Daiquiri Shoppe
Famous Ramos Hot Dog Place
Famous Ramos Potato Place
McDonalds
Olde Tyme Sandwich Shop
Peanut Shack
Pretzel Basket
Sim's
Taco Tico
Tin Can Alley
Vegi-Table

Plus additional restaurants
Moonlighting Cafe and Bar next to Eckerds
Picadilly Cafeteria near JCPenney

By 1989 the second restaurant in the Spats location, the Moonlighting restaurant had closed, and several chain stores had closed. The Spats/ Moonlighting was a bar/restaurant concept probably similar to Ruby Tuesday (We never went that I can remember). D.H. Holmes became Dillards this year as well. The cinema around this time also added four screens to ten total screens, and was taken over by the United Artists chain.

Photos from the late 1980's possibly from 1989 with the Holmes nameplate still intact. Photos Courtesy of Perez and Ryan Smith (Perez helped with the design of the mall).
JCPenney to the far left, Spat's / Moonlighting Restaurant (already closed), and Eckerd's.
Spat's restaurant (already closed), Eckerd's, and Holmes.
The entrance to JCPenney; Spencer's gifts was just to the right of where this photo was taken.
The corridor to Holmes with a mall entrance to the left of where this photo was taken.
The food court of the mall had several eateries when the mall opened, but started to lose tenants in the late 1980's. The Times Picayune had a few advertisements to purchase food court restaurants in the late 1980's that were probably failing inside of the mall.
It was all about the skylights at Belle Promenade Mall; the skylights towered inside of the mall. A look at the aerial photo above shows the tall skylights in several spots throughout the mall.



In 1993 the owners spent millions renovating the mall and added a carousel. The renovation changed the inside color to a light white and pink and also added an updated logo on the mall entrances. This remodel added a few new stores, but the damage was done from the recession of the late 1980's. Many stores that had closed were not replaced and the mall was losing ground to Oakwood Mall.

In the mid 1990's these were the stores operating in the mall; notice that the store list is much smaller from the 1983 list.

Department Stores
Dillards
JC Penney

Beauty Salons
Command Performance
Nail and Facial
Regis Hairstyles

Candy stores
Bourbon Street Candy Co
Chocolate Mania

Children’s Apparel
Kids Mart

Discount Stores
Dollar Tree

Doctors/ Optometrists
Texas State Optical Marrero Office
Vision Plaza Marrero

Food Court
Chick-Fil-A Inc
Mcdonalds Corp
Sbarro

Jewelry
Gold Valley
The Golden Chain Gang
Gordons Jewelers
Jewelry Kingdom
Kay Jewelers
Piercing Pagoda
Zales Jewelers

Men’s Apparel
Fashion Man Inc
J Riggings Co Men’s Clothing
Mitchell’s Formal Wear

Music and Entertainment
Camelot Music
The Carousel Co
Mallscapes
Radio Shack
Sound Shop
Spencer Gifts
United Artists Theatres Belle Promenade Cinema 10

Restaurants
Piccadilly Cafeteria

Security/ Government Offices
Jefferson Parish Sheriffs Office

Shoes
Bakers Shoe Store
Champs Sports
Donnauds Western & Work Boots Inc
Footaction USA
Foot Locker
Jarman Shoe Store
Lady Foot Locker
Payless Shoesource
The Wild Pair

Specialty retail stores
Beepers Plus
Cardamerica
Deck The Walls
General Nutrition Center
Kay-Bee Toy and Hobby Shop
Things Remembered
Waldenbooks
Wicks N Sticks

Women’s Apparel
Catherine’s
Five-Seven-Nine Shop
Hi-Style
Jean Nicole Plus
Jeans West
Lane Bryant
Lerner Shop
The Limited

By 1998 Kay-bee, Waldenbooks, Chick Fil A, McDonalds, and even the mom and pop stores were leaving. JC Penney’s started a closing sale in November 1998 (They moved into the former Maison Blanche location at Oakwood the larger west bank mall after Belle Promenade closed.) Dillards announced that they refused to be the only anchor in the mall and started their closing sale a week later. Dillards already had an Oakwood location that was very successful less than 5 miles away. After the anchors closed up the 1980's style Spencer's that was located in the closed JCPenney corridor, shut down. The Dollar Tree, The Sound Shop, Champs sports, even the optometrist closed up. A carnival fair in the parking lot in 1999 also was shut down abruptly when three people were shot in a fight near the carnival with one 17 year old killed. The last 17 stores on the inside faded to three and the cinema within 6 months.

Belle prominade mall closed in 2000 and the last three remaining stores were Foot Locker, Lady Foot Locker, GNC, and also the United Artists Theaters. The inside of the mall closed in March 2000 and the theater literally boarded up access to the mall past the theater entrance. Then the United Artists theaters closed in June 2000 and the center went dark. Shortly after the mall was shut down, the site became a makeshift truck stop/ party spot until the entrances to the mall parking lots were closed off. The site sat empty until 2001 when partial demolition took place when the old Dillards and half of the mall were taken down over the course of a year. In 2003 the rest of the mall except the old JCPenney anchor was demolished and a road was built through the middle of the old mall floor (Still intact after the demolition) and a Wal-Mart super center opened. Now there is a strip center with the GNC almost directly on top of where the old store was inside the mall. A piece of the mall with the skylight still intact was still attached to the empty JCPenney's anchor until 2008 when it was demolished for a Lowe's. Two strip centers on the site keep the name of the mall alive; Promenade Shoppes and Belle Barataria Center. Currently the Promenade Shoppes, Lowe's, and Wal-Mart are the only stores that have been built on the actual mall site. The rest of the development has been around the mall facing Barataria or Lapalco.

Unfortunately I did not have a very good camera when this mall was being demolished so these are the only pictures that I have. If anyone has any pictures of this mall I would be interested in them. I grew up around this mall and watched it decline and get demolished in less than 20 years. This mall has a nearly identical floor plan to the Pasadena Town Square Mall in Pasadena Texas.
1999

2000




Google birds eye view just before demolition

2001 exclusive new video pre-demolition at the mall.
Belle Promenade Mall
2002 The demolition.

This was the center court of the mall.

This shot is where the Dillard's stood facing the south side of the mall.

Here is a shot of the length of the mall from the south near Lapalco Blvd. JCPenney is the far away two story building. The next three shots are of JCPenney, the mall entrance sign, and the former food court/ cinema.








2004





In 2004 or 2005 Urban Explorers went into the former JCPenney; click on this sentence for the link.
2007
This is all that remained of the Belle Promenade Mall in July of 2007. This is the JCPenney anchor along with a piece of the old mall attached.




2011
The back parking lot going towards the former cinema and food court of the mall.
Take a good look at the ground behind this sign; the floor of the food court is still intact in some spots. For now this part of the site is empty, but the site has been gaining new developments every few years and it may be gone soon. The developers of the site are heavily marketing the site for further development.
The food court and cinema foundation was being used by skateboarders.
The tiles are still in some spots despite being out in the elements.
The view from behind Wal-Mart over the former food court and cinema.
Wal-Mart was built at the edge of the site just outside of where the food court and cinema were.
Looking at the former parking lot in between the strip center and Lowe's.
Looking towards Lowe's which was built at the site of the closed JCPenney.
This road was actually built over most of the mall footprint and circles around to Barataria Blvd.
This was once the entrance to the parking lot of the mall, but now the road goes to Wal-Mart and Lapalco Blvd.
This small strip center keeps the name Promenade going and even has a GNC which was one of the last stores at the mall.
Looking from Lowe's to the strip center. Fifteen years ago this would have been roughly where Spencer's gifts was at inside of the mall.

The next two photos are of the possible future site of Wayne's World, an entertainment complex. More importantly this was the site of the Holmes/ Dillard's, Eckerd's, and Spat's restaurant.


I also made it to the Gambit for my question about the mall
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/gambit/hey-blake-im-looking-for-information-on-the-former-belle-promenade-mall-in-marrero-on-the-west-bank/Content?oid=1905853

If anyone has any photos or even a mall directory from the mall we would like to be able to share these items with our readers. Please comment below or send an email to southernmalls@gmail.com
Also any other mall information that is on my site or requests for new malls are always welcomed and appreciated.


Comments that were deleted from my previous Belle Promenade Mall post.

Anonymous said...
Anyone remember the name of the pub/restaurant in Belle Promenade?
November 8, 2011 11:26 AM

je said...
Picadilly was near JCPenney and Spats was the restaurant near Eckerd and Holmes. The Spats spot was later used for another restaurant but I don't have the name for that one.
November 8, 2011 3:06 PM

je said...
To stir some debate, Spencer's, and the Dollar Tree were near JCPenney. Kay Bee Toys, Sound Shop, Champs sports, and Footlocker were near the food court. GNC, an Airbrush shop, and Bourbon Street Candy were in between the Food Court and Holmes. Sbarro, Chik fil A, Corn Dog 7 were some of the food court tenants.
November 8, 2011 3:18 PM

Anonymous said...
The name of the aracade in the mall was called Diamond Jim's, I believe. It was located sort of in the middle of the mall close to the food court. I remember the McDonald's was near the bathrooms in the food court. The movie theater also had like a smaller arcade adjacent to where you would buy tickets. Later they moved the movie theater to the other side of the mall corridor. When BP was built, it put a big hurt on Oakwood mall. It' s a shame that we have no sort of decent mall on the Westbank now...Oakwood is shell of what it once was.
November 8, 2011 10:57 PM

je said...
I agree with the comment about Oakwood; it looks nice on the inside, but lacks the character of the 1980's malls. Oakwood was put back together as quickly as possible to re-open, but did not address the issue of refilling the Mervyn's anchor spot leaving a huge void in front of the mall.
November 9, 2011 12:15 AM

Anonymous said...
I wonder if another anchor would possibly save Oakwood?
Was there any music stores in Belle Promenade?
November 10, 2011 3:31 PM

je said...
They had a sound shop music store near the food court, and a smaller independant music store near Dillards in the mid 1990's. Oakwood looks much nicer since they re-opened the mall in 2007. I am surprised that Macys or Belk has not taken the empty Mervyns anchor spot. I will be putting together an Oakwood post in the near future for the blog, I think Oakwood has a great future ahead once they fill the empty anchor spot. The original DH Holmes anchor has been partially filled by Forever 21.
November 11, 2011 12:18 AM

je said...
I recently uncovered a new video from 2004 that I will add to the upcoming article for the Belle Promenade Mall. It is an up close view of the JCPenney and the small covered part of the mall that remained when the rest of the mall was torn down. We are still looking for photos of the outside of the mall and interior of the mall to add to this upcoming article. A special thanks goes out to one of my readers that has been working diligently to help gather information for the complete history of the Belle Promenade Mall article coming soon.
November 11, 2011 2:44 AM

Anonymous said...
The "independent music store" you're referring to in Belle Promenade was actually a chain store, called Camelot Music. It was on the end by DH Holmes/Dillards.
November 12, 2011 10:34 AM

je said...
@ anonymous Thanks for the clarification :)
November 12, 2011 8:20 PM

je said...
I now have a 1990's store list, but we need more photos.
November 12, 2011 11:07 PM

je said...
After doing some major research we now have a complete 1983 store and food court list, the original name of the mall before Belle Promenade, the first movie shown in the theatre, and much more information. We also have a complete Lake Forest Plaza 1974 store list and Kenilworth Mall 1970 store list from both of those openings. A bunch of historical info is coming soon to the blog.

40 comments:

  1. That's pretty impressive. Labelscar missed a lot when they didn't post a lot of your submissions.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Labelscar does a great job with their blog, and I am sure they have tons of emails to sift through. My articles are also much better now than a few years ago when I submitted them, and I was able to put the articles they did not use here to make my blog larger. My articles were also not as thorough as they are now, which is probably why they did not use some of my submissions. I went from a 1.3 megapixel phone cam to an 8 megapixel smart phone cam also to bring a much better quality photo than in the past. I appreciate them for publishing a couple of my articles that gave me the motivation to start my own blog. Deadmalls, and two defunct sites also feature some of my articles.

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  3. A real shame that mall didn't make it. It was really nice.
    Reminds me vaguely of Bellevue Center in Nashville. It was built to take advantage of projected population growth in western Davidson County. The growth never happened, and Cool Springs Galleria, built to the south, stole away most of it's business. Now Bellevue is completely abandoned, save a Sears.

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  4. I say that your blog is awesome! Happy New Year!

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  5. I am 38 years old and can remember most of the stores in the mall. I grew up in Terrytown so we always went to Oakwood, but on occasions we would take the ride to Marrero. There is one place that was not mentioned in the article. Towards the end of its days, there was a sportsbar that open close to the show where the walkway to the food court was. I believe it was called Hero's Sports Bar. Like everything else in the mid to late 90's that opened at the mall, it too closed not to long after it opened.

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    Replies
    1. @ sluglife, thank you for the additional info. I have a gap from 1988 to 1995 of the stores that were at the mall. If you have any photos or know anyone that has photos send them my way at southernmalls@gmail.com

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  6. i worked at neptune's table. a restaurant that was located in the front of the mall. also, my sis worked at the airbrush shop.

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  7. Wasn't Neptunes located in the former Spats location in the early 90's? Belle Promenade Mall was the mall that inspired me to start this blog. I wanted to make sure it was documented thoroughly online and so did the readers who took the time to help me with this article. We spent several hours tracking down information and finding videos from my personal collection to create this article.

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  8. I would love to be able to read the words on the directory type drawing. It's so blurry I can't see it. Can you repost it more in focus?

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    Replies
    1. I wish I had a better image, I found that image in an old magazine at the bottom of an advertisement for the mall. The JCPenney is the top anchor with Holmes on the bottom. The two boxes on the right say Future Dept. Store. and were never built. The mall developers planned to have those two anchors open about a year after the mall opened.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for your reply! I wonder what the store was with the simply gold photo.

      This era of mall reminds me of Pecanland Mall. I grew up in Monroe and I have the feeling that Belle Promenade would have been alot like Pecanland if they had finished the project and added all the anchors. I have also been looking for info and photos of the old Twin City Mall in Monroe. The building is still there, even though the mall has been closed since about 1989. Let me know if you ever want to do an article about Twin City. I found some awesome 70's photos of the inside and I hand drew a diagram with alot of the stores that were there and I've found out alot of info on it. I have a friend that is supposed to get me inside the building soon. The south end of Twin City Mall still has the 70's storefronts with the signs still intact. There was also another old mall over here in West Monroe that no one has done any article on. It was opened as McMillan Mall and later went by the name Glenwood Mall. Twin City is awesome though and I have some vague memories. We went there every saturday until about 1985 when Pecanland opened. I was only about 5 years old when we stopped going to Twin City. It was an old Montgomery Wards Mall with other anchors and a strip mall and 2 theaters.

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  9. my grandmother was customer service manager for many years I grew up in that mall we have tons of pictures even of my grandpa dressed as santa and as easter bunny when u would eat breakfast with the bunny my grandmother recently came to live with me so I could care for her I will dig out the photos for u

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    Replies
    1. Sure, any photos of the mall would be greatly appreciated. Email the photos to southernmalls@gmail.com

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  10. Thank you for an interesting read. I "grew up" in this Mall as it was my teen hangout most Friday and Saturday nights. I know that once I sort of outgrew the mall life, Spats became a "sports bar" type place called Moonlighting. I miss that old place.

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  11. The 3 different names I remember for the restaurant/bar/pub at Belle Promenade were, Spats, Moonlighting and Mojo's.. Ted was the best bartender, he made the best Long Island ice tea in the city. :) That was a afternoon hangout for the years they were there. Lots of great memories. Never did get our buffalo head back from the last owner of the place.

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  12. I loved this blog. Thank you for sparking up some wonderful memories. One place I vaguely remember, and I didn't see mentioned, maybe someone else also remembers, is the little daycare place. We've parents could bring their Littles while they shopped. Loved the pictures of Diamond Jims, I spent many hours in a day there. Miss this place!

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  13. I loved this blog. Thank you for sparking up some wonderful memories. One place I vaguely remember, and I didn't see mentioned, maybe someone else also remembers, is the little daycare place. We've parents could bring their Littles while they shopped. Loved the pictures of Diamond Jims, I spent many hours in a day there. Miss this place!

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  14. I remember my kids taking photos at kinderphotos? This was in the early 1990's.

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  15. The last restaurant after Spats/Moonlighting became Mojo's....There was also a greeting card store called Card America

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  16. The last restaurant after Spats/Moonlighting was Mojo's...There was also a greeting card store called Card America

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  17. Wow what a flurry of comments, thanks for the interest. I was very young when the mall opened and then moved out of state about 4 years after the mall opened. After visiting several times over the years, I moved back just in time to see the last 3 years of the mall. I have many great memories of this place even in the final years of the mall.

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  18. My mother was friends with the man who bought the mall building to salvage / demolish it. He granted us access to go in and pretty much take whatever we liked. We drove our trucks inside the mall several times. Had camera phones been the thing back then I would have some photos.

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    Replies
    1. I would have loved to have access to the property like that. I would have gotten tons of souvenirs and photos. If you still have any relics from the mall like seats, flooring, or any fixtures please take photos and send them to me at southernmalls@gmail.com
      Thanks for the comment.

      Delete
  19. I remember the mall vividly in 1986. We mostly went to JC Penney a lot like I go to the one in Oakwood center by my house. Boo Belle Promenade you are sick crap letting people robbed your mall

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  20. We went there a lot when I was young. Usually to JCPenney, since the Plaza didn't have that. Do you remember what the two shops were right outside JCPenney? I'd always get an Icee or a Slush Puppie from one of the two shops after we finished shopping. At least one had candy I'd sometimes get, too.

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    Replies
    1. The Peanut Shack may have been the place near JCPenney. On the entrance to the left was a Spencer's and an empty storefront that looked similar to an old Peanut Shack. The right entrance had a large dress store so it would not have been that side. Strangely, the Peanut Shack was listed as a food court tenant even though I don't remember them being there. There is still a Peanut Shack in Nacogdoches Texas with a retro store front in operation. Check out my University Mall post to see that store.

      The JCPenney store design at Belle Promenade was at the time their design of the future. Many of the stores with that same design were closed in the early 2000's and by the 90's they had a much different store design.

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  21. I have some pictures of the mall right after it closed I will upload them to my Youtube channel.

    https://www.youtube.com/dashboard?o=U

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    Replies
    1. I would love to see those, post your Youtube link to the video when you post them so I can add it to my post.

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    2. You can post the name of the channel with the youtube link. The current link takes you to your own channel (if you have one).

      Delete
  22. I used to frequently go to that mall back in 1990 and he last time I when there was 1998 and the mall was dying out by this time the cinema had 14 screens.

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  23. New article about the mall from nola.com. Some awesome photos not featured here.
    https://www.nola.com/expo/erry-2018/05/83cfaf1eef6770/belle_promenade_the_short_life.html#incart_m-rpt-2

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  24. I’m 26 years old and I have been skateboarding at this torn down site since I was 14, many great memories at this site (after the demolition though)

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    Replies
    1. I figured it was a good site to skate, you could have probably gotten away with skating inside of the mall in the last year it was open. Do you know if the section I photographed is still untouched since the demolition?

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    2. Still such a good skate spot in 2022, I just wish it was a little better or even permitted. I'm unsure how to go about it, but I seriously want to do something about making this spot a DIY again.

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    3. I am glad this piece of the mall still exists to keep skaters going. There were never enough places to skate in the 80's and 90's when I grew up and we were kicked out of places frequently. Some of the cities in the Houston area have made skateparks on vacant land. I don't know the price of that lot, but it has been vacant for so long now. Cleaning up the lot and adding some safe alternatives to skate would be a really good use for the land. Is that friendly stray cat still living down there? We went back in 2019 and there was a stray cat living under a spot in the old mall foundation.

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  25. I worked for Jcp in 1998 and helped close the Bell Promenade store. I drove over there daily from the Lakeside store where I actually worked. The mice were bad and panicking with all of the moving stuff around. When MB closed at Oakwood they moved all of the MD fixtures and cash wraps to the Jcp at Bell Promenade to ditch them there. I also remember as a kid going to this mall.

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    1. Thanks for sharing your experience. I actually went to the site last month and walked across the part of the mall floor that still remains. You can also see where the movie theaters used to be, the tiles are very worn out in the former theaters.

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  26. Managed the Todays woman store located near Pennys in 1983 to 1989 it was a beautiful mall wanted to send picture but couldn’t figure out how

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    1. Hello Mary Cook, I appreciate your comment about your time working at the mall. Our readers would love to see photos from the peak era of Belle Promenade Mall, they are just so hard to find.
      You can send any photos of the mall to my email address at southernmalls@gmail.com

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