Here is a long-overdue visit to Mall St. Vincent in Shreveport Louisiana. It has been over 11 years since I did a full update on this mall. In fact, I don't think we have been through this area for close to a decade. How time flies!
Kohan now owns the mall, so things have inevitably declined. While not quite a deadmall yet, there are a lot of vacant storefronts. The 2013 mall renovation probably bought this property a few more years. More chain stores are holding on here than at Pierre Bossier Mall. The former Sears is set to be redeveloped into an addition for the LSU Health and Sciences Foundation. Hopefully this addition to the mall will open up into the mall corridor and bring more traffic inside of the mall. The mall is a mishmash of 1970's, 1990's, and 2010's design.
A lot of the retailers past and present are similar to what we will see at Pierre Bossier Mall across the river. While the anchor lineup is much stronger at Pierre Bossier, this mall is doing much better than Pierre Bossier. The mall is listed as having 540,000 square feet of retail space. The next post will be Pierre Bossier Mall, and it will be coming up next week.
Former Sears
The design here is just something we don't see in modern buildings.
Looks like someone has been taking care of stray animals.
The inside of the former Sears.
The remains of the discover more at sears.com sticker on the door.
The relatively untouched Sears auto center.
A look at the future of the Sears anchor.
For now, there are still leftover remnants of the former Sears.
Now for the exterior of the mall. The East side of the property is still vintage 1970's/1980's.
The I-49 West side had the fancy renovation roughly 10 years ago.
This old school mall entrance sign remains.
The wide view of the mall from Dillard's to the former Sears.
One of the 90's era road signs.
This Dillard's location is really nice.
A faint Sears labelscar on the Sears mall entrance.
Sears pre-dated the mall and was incorporated well into the mall structure.
The 90's Sears update to the mall entrance just doesn't look good at all here.
Looking into the mall from the former Sears mall entrance.
Looking into the Sears from the mall entrance.
Now we will check out the rest of the mall. The Shoe Department Encore to the left is one of the few businesses left in the Sears corridor.
One of the older closed businesses. Very few vacant mall spaces were covered up, probably since a lot of them are recent closures.
Lids, Journeys, Hibbett Sports, Auntie Annie's, and Shoe Department are the chain stores still left in the Sears corridor. A few local retailers and eateries are also in this area of the mall.
As we head to the center court, there are a lot more vacancies.
Foot Locker is still holding on despite a lot of surrounding vacancies.
The center court turtle pond is still being kept up nicely.
Another view of the center court. We will see more on the return trip across the mall.
One of the ceiling leaks. There were a few small leaks to be found in the mall. Just wait until we visit Pierre Bossier Mall, there are a lot more leaks there.
Former Buckle.
Former Hollister, with nearby kiosks.
The court between Dillard's and the center court.
The vintage Picadilly Cafeteria is still going strong here.
Now we are heading down the Dillard's corridor.
This side of the mall is really quiet. Only Victoria's Secret and a few local stores are still going in this corridor.
The Dillard's court is similar to the Sears court with high ceilings and skylights. A lone bucket is here to collect dripping water.
Now we will backtrack down the Dillard's corridor.
Back to the Picadilly mall entrance between Dillard's and the center court.
A fairly modern Bath and Body Works.
Back to the center court.
The mid 2010's mall renovation brought these designs to the center court and mall entrance ceilings. The mall was fairly bland prior to the most recent update to the mall.
Foot Locker with Zales in the far background.
This court between Sears and the center court is the busiest section of the mall. 4 out of the 5 eateries in the mall are located here as well.
Another lone bucket to catch the water drips.
Hibbett Sports still has the vintage 90's era storefront. Their stores in more popular malls have an updated look.
City Gear and Lids.
Here is the mall map. As you can see, the layout is a simple anchor to anchor corridor with a curve. The mall directory is out of date. A handful of stores listed here are gone.
The Sears court is really nice.
That is all for this visit. Next up we will visit the Pierre Bossier Mall in Bossier City Louisiana. Another Kohan owned mall that is in real trouble.
The remodel here kind of reminds me of the remodel that was done by Fox Properties over at Almeda Mall around a decade ago. While it looks much more modern than how it looked before, the new white tile look is a bit bland. Then again, I suppose these malls need to do something to modernize and a white tile look ought to keep these malls looking modern enough for at least a couple of decades...if the malls last that long at least. At least the tiles at Almeda Mall seem to be wearing a lot more favorably than the post-Ike tiles at the Almeda Macy's.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Sears' attempt at putting their common white tile mall entrance facade at this location looks a bit strange. It doesn't look bad, but it does look like an odd fit.
The Sears here really does have a unique outdoor design. I really like it. It is good that the building is getting about as useful of a non-retail tenant as is possible. I don't like what LSU has planned for the exterior look of the building, relative to how it looks now, but I can understand why the University would want something much more modern looking. The lunch traffic from the LSU campus ought to help the food court and the Piccadilly a lot, though I wonder if people working at a LSU health center would want to eat unhealthy food like what Piccadilly serves on a regular basis! That said, even the small nursing college at Northwest Mall was able to keep the food court there viable until the mall closed.
Given the mix of stores and vacancies here, it seems this mall is somewhere in between successful and failing. Unfortunately, with Kohan in charge, probably the best we can hope for is continuation of the same, though maybe the new LSU center will give the mall a small boost. Even if that happens, I'm not sure if Kohan will be able to take advantage of the momentum, but there is enough going on at this mall to keep it viable for a while it seems.
There are a lot of similarities between this mall and Almeda Mall. The current look of the mall, two major anchors on each end of the mall, the entrances to the mall, and even Picadilly Cafeteria once located at both malls.
DeleteSears was molded in a unique way to fit the terrain. The bottom level of the store was only half-sized and does not connect to the mall. They did a really good job of fitting the tiny mall alongside Sears and keeping the store intact. I have to wonder if the seal between the old Sears and the mall corridor has been reinforced recently. A few malls with old anchors added to the mall have had issues with leaks after the buildings moved away from each other over time. Sears preceded the mall opening in 1961. It is a really nice building, and I am glad that it will not meet the fate of countless old Sears stores. I am hoping that this mall can be saved since Pierre Bossier seems to be a lost cause at this point. Maybe LSU can get buy the mall and bring in more life than Kohan has.
Another thing that will keep the mall viable is that the nearby neighborhood has a higher income than most of the area. The bustling retail district on Youree Drive is pretty close to the mall, but a lot of the retailers that were at the mall now have locations there.