Jackson Brewery Millhouse opened September 27, 1986 as the second part of the redevelopment of the former brewery. This section of the development only took 7 1/2 months to build despite a small electrical fire in May of 1986 which pushed the opening back a month. This project was completed ahead of the grand opening of the nearby Riverwalk Marketplace which opened less than a month later. This addition is listed as 85,000 square feet. In the July of 1986 article, no mention of the food court is made, but nearly half of the second floor today facing the river is the food court.
Stores at the grand opening (opened 80% occupied)
Accessory Lady's Add On's (accessories)
All Wrapped Up (gift wrap service)
Benetton (fashion)
Inkadinkadoo (rubber stamp shop)
It's the Dickens (needlework shop)
Managerie (paper mache animals)
Mega Magnets (this one should be obvious)
Naturelle (fashion)
Shooting Stars (pose for photos with celebrities)
The Limited (fashion)
The Procrastination Headquarters (gifts revolving around the theme of procrastination)
Jubilee Market third floor (kiosks, counters, and stalls with merchandise and food)
The fourth floor had a Birraporetti's restaurant (Houston chain)
The fifth floor was going to have a powerful New Orleans restaurant overlooking the river views and French Quarter.
First floor
Second floor
Elevator to the third floor, with the food court sign in the background.
The Food Court stretches across the river side of the second floor.
Back to the first floor
The 2013 store list
Many stores are geared towards tourists, but there are a couple national chains here.
Several views of the Millhouse from the river and parking lot side of the building.
The first phase of the Jackson Brewery will be covered at a later time. A third phase of the project which was scheduled to be completed in December 1987 which would have fixed up a nearby warehouse to have a grocery and drugstore, was never started. The bad economy of New Orleans in the mid 1980's saw many projects stalled or cancelled due to the "Oil bust".
The nicheness of some of those grand opening stores is quite hilarious. Of course, stores like Benetton and The Limited are quite well known, but The Procrastination Headquarters? I wonder if they forgot to pay the bills. Mega Magnets? Maybe those are large chains that I just don't remember, but those sound more like the fake stores at the Mall of the Mainland than real stores!
ReplyDeleteI'm not bashing niche stores. In fact, I miss the niche stores. The variety of goods at malls was once a point of great appeal to me, but unfortunately many malls have become nothing more than fashion malls. Still, some of the niche stores were quite odd. This mall seemed to have many odd niche stores.
The stores were geared towards the tourists in the area. There were not many stores to go around since the Riverwalk, Jackson Brewery Millhouse, and a year later the New Orleans Centre were all competing for stores around the same time. One of the niche stores that I really enjoyed back in the late 1980's were the hologram stores. Some of the large holograms and even the motion holograms were really cool, but the prices were very high for something that you would probably not look at very much after buying it.
DeleteI remember in the early 90s they had a "Virtual Reality" store and I went in and they strapped some kind of helmet to my head and I played 5 minutes of a "Virtual Reality" video game for a ridiclious price.
ReplyDeleteI don't think they were in business long. Nobody else that I talk to seems to remember it being there.
Those early 90's Virtual reality games and motion theaters can be found from time to time in flea markets or malls like PlazAmericas here in the Houston area. I don't think I ever saw that store, but I remember a Hologram store at the New Orleans Centre.
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