Northshore Square Mall in Slidell Louisiana is a rapidly dying mall. The mall has lost several anchor stores recently and inline stores are quickly leaving. The mall is slated for redevelopment into yet another outdoor lifestyle center. Slidell retail is a mixed bag. The mall area recently lost Target and will lose the only Toys R Us on the Northshore soon. The I-10 corridor near Hwy 190 and to the South is booming with the large development Fremaux Town Center. Fremaux Town Center has taken away several former mall tenants and lured many chains new to the area.
We start the tour in the Dillard's clearance center wing.
Dillard's at the end of this corridor was most recently a Men's store. The store was downgraded once the new Fremaux Dillard's opened across town. A retro GNC can be seen in the far right of this photo.
Empty spots are now a common problem across the mall.
One of the better corridors between the entrance to JCPenney and the former Burlington and Dillard's Women's store entrances.
This was the second Dillard's store with mainly Women's clothing. The store closed when the new Dillard's opened across town.
A closed Forever 21 store, that also relocated to the new development Fremaux across town.
Abandoned food court outlet.
One of the few bright spots in the mall. Sears was replaced by At Home and will stay open throughout the redevelopment.
Chik Fil A is one of the last 3 food outlets still open.
More views of the food court. These are the other two food outlets still open as of August 2017.
A different view of the corridor near At Home and the food court.
The former Burlington/ Mervyn's mall entrance.
A view through the gates of a closed arcade. The arcade had lots of neon from what I can remember.
A closer view of the same mall entrance from above.
Inside of the former Burlington/Mervyn's. As you can tell, Burlington did not spend very much money upgrading this store.
Open stores are outnumbered by closed stores in this part of the mall.
Of course you know that Bath and Body Works will be here until the end.
Foot Locker and Victoria's Secret surrounded by empty store fronts.
One of the loneliest Spencer's in the company. Even the mall golf was closed in the mall.
Former Aeropostle and Suncoast.
Inside of the former Suncoast.
Shoe Department Encore takes up a lot of space in this nearly empty corridor.
More empty storefronts with few still occupied.
Now we pass the best part (IMO) of the mall. One of the last remaining FYE stores in Texas and Louisiana.
The inside of the store had signage just like the Suncoast Motion Picture Company store in Beaumont.
The neon trim at the front of the store takes me back.
This sign was interesting. I guess they want to make sure that people don't leave the mall before stopping by. It is a long walk past a lot of vacant store fronts from this sign to the food court.
A nice small fountain in the JCPenney court.
As you can see, JCPenney was closing on my visit. This store was one of the over 100 closed in 2017. This store lasted until early September 2017.
A few outdoor shots of the At Home and food court entrance.
As you can see Dillard's still has a sign near the food court entrance. If you entered here looking for Dillard's you would have to walk all the way across the mall to find it. The one that was near the food court is closed.
Coming next, JCPenney store closing photos.
You know a mall is in trouble if even Burlington is bailing on it! Anyway, thanks for the pictures. This seems like an interesting mall. It does remind me in a small way of the Pasadena Town Square/Plaza Paseo mall that was built around the same time. I would say that this mall looks nicer though and probably isn't quite in as desperate shape, but it sounds like it's going to be turned into one of those terrible outdoor malls anyway unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteThe Burlington still does look like a Mervyn's. It's been a long time since I've been to a Mervyn's obviously, but their interior designs are still easy to spot. The mural with all the video game characters is very interesting and I'm sure is one of your favorite aspects of this mall.
It's nice to see that this mall has a relatively large fye in it still. Those are very rare in this region. It's nice seeing the Suncoast even if it has long since been closed. The mall still has the handful of usual dying mall holdouts like Bath & Body Works and GNC.
The FYE alone makes this mall worth a visit if you are in the region. I think this mall had a renovation in the 1990's that gave it the current look. All of the anchors are smaller than you normally find in a large city and it seems like the retail growth to the East and West of the mall have hurt this area.
DeleteThe Suncoast was a video game store when I visited two years ago when Sears was closing. I should have snapped a photo back then, the store had not changed much even with a different use.
FYE actually closed right after this post at the end of March.
DeleteThanks for the update.
DeleteI had visit had visit the mall on numerous occasions between 1990 and 2003 and I have notice the changes since that time .
ReplyDeleteThey are letting it die off now. I don't think they are renewing leases anymore.
DeleteFYE, VS, Spencer’s, Bath and Body are all gone and the Dillard’s is blocked off by a make shift wall they put up so you can’t get into the clearance Dillard’s unless it’s threw one of there 2 outside entrances for theft purposes. I live in Slidell.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update, it will probably not last much longer at all. I wonder if they are even bothering to turn on the A/C anymore.
DeleteI was just here earlier today. The last time I'd gone was before JCPenney had closed. I thought it was dead back then. It's gotten so much worse since then.
ReplyDeleteI counted only 12 places still open today: At Home, Dillard's Clearance, Journeys, Milano, Foot Locker, Shoe Department Encore, Gold Center, Fashion Center, All Vision, Top Line Nails, Philly's Burger, and Karats. Philly's Burger had a sign that they were closed for vacation, and will be back on October 11, so at least I'm assuming they're not leaving. Yet. Still, that meant absolutely zero food was available at the mall today. Karats was having a going out of business sale, so we'll soon be down to 11 stores. Raising the Bar Fitness still had the sign up, but the place was clearly vacant.
Really, I mostly just went today because I was in the area, and was curious how the mall was doing. Maybe have a snack while I was there. The snack didn't happen XD Still, I honestly wasn't expecting to do much, if any, actual shopping.
Wow thanks for the update, they are letting the mall fail. It is a shame that the employees of these stores are watching the place fall apart, while wondering when their jobs will be taken away. The mall will probably soon be down to Dillard's and At Home. Hopefully the redevelopment will start shortly thereafter.
DeleteWith the latest news about Sears Holdings, I have one big question for anyone here that would know: once the 142 stores slated to close since the bankruptcy announcement are gone, should we expect the remaining Sears and Kmart stores to go out of business all at the same time? Or rather should we expect the pattern (which has gone on for years) to continue with many different rounds of store closings happening over the next year or two? I believe Chicagoland is the metropolis that has (or at least had until relatively recently) the largest concentration of both Sears and Kmart stores of any metro area in the country. So in places such as the Chicago area, I have to wonder whether locals should expect the remaining stores (not counting the 142 just announced) to all close at the same time, or expect stores in the region to keep closing one by one.
ReplyDeleteThere are three tiers of stores, unrestricted stores which are the 142 stores initially scheduled to close. Restricted stores which are around 200 locations, 40 of those are now closing. Restricted stores are due by November 15 to either restructure the lease or close the store. Designated stores which are around 300 locations are ones that will stay open unless a Chapter 7 filing happens and can't be designated to close until at least February of next year in the event of the business continuing. They are due to complete their restructuring plan on or around December 15, 2018 so we will see what happens.
DeleteThis info is coming from the bankruptcy documents which are available from the official bankruptcy primeclerk site.
Acadiana Mall in Lafayette still has FYE. It (and the rest of the mall) may be in trouble, as it was announced today that all three of the Gap-branded stores (Gap, Gap Kids and Banana Republic) are leaving the mall. Sears bailed in 2016, and CBL defaulted on the loan in 2017. Unless they find a replacement for the Sears anchor, this mall may be gone soon.
ReplyDeleteWow Scott, that is a lot of store space that will now be vacant. I think the mall will still survive, but it is not the destination that it used to be. Lafayette is large enough to support at least one enclosed mall. Ownership is messing this property up, it should have never been remodeled the mall looked just fine before.
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