Well everybody, here is a sad update to the once largest mall in the State of Louisiana. As I clear out my backlog of articles, here is another one from the past. Cortana Mall or Mall at Cortana, is now just a memory. The entire mall was demolished in the first half of 2021. A massive Amazon warehouse now sits on the site of the mall. Here are some photos of the final days of the mall as the final store Dillard's was holding their closing sale. While this was my final visit to the mall, I do have a video in my backlog that was taken in 2018. That footage is really awesome and was taken in the evening at the dead mall. One of these days I will get to editing the footage and putting it up on my Youtube channel.
As many of you know, Moonbeam bought this mall in 2013 when the mall was beginning to struggle. In 2016 the dominos began falling when Macy's closed. Then in 2017 Sears and JCPenney closed, followed by Virginia College closing in 2018, leaving Dillard's as the sole anchor at the huge mall. In September 2019, the mall interior closed. Finally in late 2019, Amazon purchased the majority of the site from Moonbeam for their new warehouse which opened in late 2022. Dillard's held out as long as possible until finally selling off in early 2021. The only piece of the mall that remains today is the Firestone outparcel in front of the former JCPenney. The outcome of this property was a best-case scenario for a Moonbeam mall. Despite the mall failing, the property did not sit vacant for long and was quickly demolished before things deteriorated.
Most of the property was fenced off so I could not get close in many areas. I did my best to park next to the fence and get zoomed in photos as the demolition was happening in real time.
Sears auto center.
The final anchor store Dillard's.
The auto center at the former Godchaux's which had been closed for many years.
Dillard's left side, mall entrance, and JCPenney right side.
JCPenney
Between JCPenney and Sears, the mall corridor was nearly gone.
Sears
The mall corridor up close.
JCPenney and Sears again.
I can't recall what section of the mall is in the background here.
Former Mervyn's and food court remains.
Now we will check out the Dillard's that was in the final weeks of their closing sale.
You really have to appreciate the detail of this anchor store. Designs like this are just not made anymore.
By this time, most of us had stopped worrying about Covid. A year into the pandemic, a lot of businesses had still had signs.
This store which was originally a Godchaux had some really nice features. A lot of Dillard's stores in Southeast Louisiana still have their original features from long-gone anchors such as Godchaux, Maison Blanche, and D.H. Holmes.
About half of the remaining store was barricaded off at this point in the sale. The second floor had been closed off many years ago once this store was converted into a clearance center.
More views of the store. It is difficult to figure out which sections of the store were which after the clearance center took over.
The store closed May 2, 2021.
The centerpiece of the store. This huge chandelier could be seen from throughout the store and well into the mall corridor.
The mall entrance. Get ready for some awesome shots through the glass windows.
One of the last parts of the mall still intact.
Kay Bee Toys and B Dalton still standing at this point. If only the lighting was a bit better!
Some of the fixtures near the mall entrance.
This is about as grand of an entrance as you can get when entering a store through the mall. The chandelier was partially covered up by the store closing signs.
More views of the mall from the other side of the glass.
After moving to the other window, I got the lighting I needed to really see the former Kay Bee Toys. Even though I never visited this store while it was open, I felt a bit more of my childhood fade away knowing this would soon be gone.
More views of the remaining mall corridor.
The wreckage of the mall corridor!
More views of the mall entrance area of the store.
One more shot of the mall corridor as we take one last look before leaving.
This was as close as we could get to the second floor. I wonder what kind of cool stuff they still had up there.
More views of the store as we head out.
I really hope someone saved some of these Godchaux's door handles.
One last look into the store as we leave.
Let's take a walk around the building.
Another look at the Godchaux's auto center.
Once we get to the fence, you can see a good view of the demolition. There is the Sears in the distance.
Another entryway at the Dillard's.
The former Dillard's side mall entrance.
Empty Ruby Tuesday to the left.
A lone Sears basket made it down to this side of the mall.
More to come, stay tuned!
It is sad to hear that this mall has now been torn down...for an Amazon warehouse of all things! Oh well, I suppose it is better than having this mall sit and rot. As you say, however, this was probably the best possible outcome for a Moonbeam property!
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting that this mall opened exactly one month after Greenspoint Mall in the bicentennial summer of 1976. In many ways, Cortana Mall was fancier than Greenspoint Mall and that's really saying something because Greenspoint Mall was a really big deal when it was new! The opening of this mall must have been a big deal for the people of Baton Rouge, but sadly the good times didn't last forever.
Just about everything about the exterior of that Godchaux says retro including the clearance sign on the outside! This Dillard's has a lot more character than some of the boring, cookie-cutter exterior design Dillard's we have, but at least places like the Willowbrook Mall Dillard's have some vintage Macy's retro flair inside of them if you know where to look. The interior of the Godchaux/Dillard's looks quite nice as well even though the store spent time as a clearance store. It certainly looks better than the last time I saw the Greenspoint Dillard's clearance store, which was some years ago now obviously as I think it has been gone for a while now, where the store looked and smelled quite bad. The Godchaux/Dillard's also looked like it was in better shape at the end than the Greenspoint Macy's which was in truly sad shape even though it was not a clearance store. Are those Dillard's carts only a clearance store thing? I can't say I've seen them, but it has been a while since I've been to a Dillard's.
The Godchaux store must have been really something back in the day with that chandelier and all, I'm sad to say that I missed seeing a department store like that. That is neat that they had an auto center though. Foley's did have auto centers, but I can't remember Joske's having them here.
Kay-Bee! It is unfortunate that has been torn down because otherwise that is a great relic. I'm glad you were able to see it one last time.
As you well know, we have to look to other countries to see what the latest and greatest is in glitzy indoor malls. Perhaps the modern glitz are malls that are either indoor or outdoor malls depending on the weather. Check out the Santafé Mall in MedellÃn, Colombia. It has a retractable glass roof over the center of the mall! This looks like a modern NFL stadium, but with a mall instead of seats. This must be a real center of attention for the locals: https://goo.gl/maps/npmAmvonQcnh6zUt8
As someone who appreciates nice international malls, I figured you'd like to see that one!
I need to get the video together for Cortana Mall soon. My Youtube Channel finally made it to 100 subscribers. It takes me a while to put together a video, which is time I don't have very often these days. I have an article started for that mall as well, even though I couldn't get access inside.
DeleteCortana did have a very bright future until the Mall of Louisiana opened and pulled the retail traffic away from Cortana. Cortana was slightly bigger than Greenspoint once Mervyn's was added on in the mid 80's. The nearby Bon Marche Mall was a lot smaller and Cortana was a huge deal for Baton Rouge.
I am not sure if those carts are at other Dillard's clearance stores. With as many times as we have been to West Oaks recently, we haven't gone into the Dillard's.
There are not many vintage Kay Bee storefronts like that one anymore. The Six Flags Mall in Arlington also had one and that mall is demolished as well.
That mall in Columbia is pretty awesome. I haven't heard of a mall with a retractable roof. I wonder if any US malls will ever get that kind of roof. The closest we have here I guess would be the American Dream Mall which still seems to be struggling.