Yes, I am back in the game in 2026.This will be a photo collage at the Pecanland Mall taken in March 2026.
Pecanland Mall was the last major mall in Louisiana that we had not visited. Pecanland Mall is larger than I anticipated. Opened on July 24, 1985, and expanded with the opening of a 122,000 square foot Sears on April 4, 1990, this mall serves the Monroe Louisiana metro area of roughly 220,000 people. The mall was further expanded when Dicks Sporting Goods opened on October 31, 2012. The mall is currently listed as having just under 1 million square feet (964,123) of retail space with 7 anchors.
Current anchors are Dillard's, Dick's Sporting Goods, Tilt Studio, JCPenney, Belk, and a 10-screen Cinemark. Sears closed in September 2018 and has yet to be replaced. Belk was originally a McRae's; Mervyn's closed in January of 2006 and was replaced by a short-lived Burlington store. Tilt Studios later renovated the space and opened up shop. A former Stein Mart is currently in use by a Consignment store called Rhea Lana that appears to open on a very limited schedule.
Pecanland Mall appears to be doing fairly well, but the Belk wing of the mall has a few significant vacancies. Forever 21 and H & M are both gone and the former Stein Mart that is only used for the consignment sales are all located on this end of the mall.
We will start with the outside tour of the mall. The anchor stores look very retro with the exception of the Dick's Sporting Goods.
I can't say that I have seen a JCPenney store quite like this one. The exterior has an almost step like appearance.
Old Navy is still going strong in the Belk wing.
This area must have recently experienced a strong windstorm. A lot of trees were broken and branches downed.
Belk also has some similarities to the JCPenney. This store was originally a McRae's. Belk took over these stores in the early 2000's.
A really great view of the I-20 facing side of the mall.
The vacant Sears auto center sits on the North side of the mall.
The inside doesn't look too bad for something that presumably closed in 2018.
And you can lease the space out.
The former Stein Mart junior anchor that was used by the Rhea Lana consignment store.
Now for the former Sears that was a 1990 addition to the mall.
You can lease this space out as well, but the empty store cannot be seen from I-20.
Tilt Studio (Former Mervyn's/Burington). Here is another example of Burlington leaving a mall anchor space. Burlington has been downsizing their store locations or replacing them altogether. Burlington also vacated a similarly sized former Mervyn's at the Alexandria Mall that is about 90 miles away from Monroe.
I didn't know this at the time, but a vehicle had recently crashed into the Visionworks wall to the left of this mall entrance. You can see the boarded-up wall with caution tape in the photo.
The metallic look of the mall entrance is something we will see a lot of inside of the mall. You can also see the colors on the logo. In older photos there were a lot of fixtures inside of the mall with those colors as well.
The Dillard's has a more rounded store exterior that the others.
Dillard's with Tilt Studio in the background.
A mall entrance directional sign pointing to the anchors.
The polished metal really reflects the sky and sunset. We are at the Old Navy/Belk mall entrance.
Now let's see the inside of this place. The shuttered Forever 21 is to the right. Artists have painted the windows to bring a little bit of life to this dead store front.
Now this was my WOW moment.
The polished metal ceilings, the 80's style light fixtures, and planters with real plants
The amazing look of the skylights, chrome ceilings, and the light fixtures is not left in many malls these days. Alexandria Mall has some similar designs including the smooth metal. By the way, I recently did an updated tour at the Alexandria Mall so we can compare and contrast the two mall styles.
This looks like an old Gadzooks location.
This mall reminds me a lot of the former Mall of the Mainland and North Shore Square Mall.
Sadly, the fountain was off.
Down the main corridor headed towards JCPenney, the hall is really bland.
The ceiling design opens up in the middle to liven the area up again.
We are entering the center court of the mall. JCPenney and the former Sears are in this court. Get ready for more amazing views.
The former Sears is walled off, but the metal above the drywall is reflecting the mall corridor.
I tried to get a good directory photo, but there was a ton of reflection off of the glass. Hopefully you can read all of it between the two shots.
These seating spaces are interesting. They remind me of the old conversation pits that were in older malls.
More dry fountains. Hopefully these will be turned on again.
JCPenney had closed early at 7pm. This is my favorite photo of this trip.
This is a center court done right.
Now we are walking to the food court area, then to Dillard's.
I had to stop and snap a photo of the skylights as you would see by looking up. I really like the design throughout the mall.
We are standing with Dillard's straight ahead and the food court to the right. The food court has been renovated and has different lighting and flooring. We will go through in a little bit.
A rare Neon GNC.
The Dick's sporting goods entrance is to the left, and the Tilt wing of the mall is to the right.
A cool looking sports store.
The mall entrance to Dillard's is impressive as well.
Looking back into the mall from the Dillard's mall entrance.
Dick's Sporting Goods just looks out of place here.
Tilt Studio mall corridor.
Now we are in the food court part of the mall. Until 2019 there was a carousel in this area.
Thankfully they didn't go overboard on the food court renovation. I am guessing that in late 2019 or early 2020 this area was renovated to add the brick fixtures, new floors, and updated paint.
The Cinemark is also attached to the food court with an outside entrance.
The tables and chairs look fairly new. I guess it was part of the renovation.
The food court feels pretty massive.
At least they have some games in the food court to take up the empty space.
The Franchesca's had already closed, but a labelscar was still on the signage. Franchesca's recently closed all of their retail stores due to the company bankruptcy.
Looking towards the center court.
The hole in the ceiling above Bath and Body Works is a bit concerning.
Heading back to the center court.
More views of the center court.
Numerous chain stores are still located in the mall.
Continuing on towards Belk and the Old Navy entrance to the mall. The former Gamestop and H & M are on the right side of this photo.
More of the former H & M.
Aerie is a bit lonely without stores on either side of the store.
Rue 21 and Rainbow are still open down in this section of the mall near Belk.
Candy Craze, a lot of malls used to have this sweet store.
Almost reminds me of the fake storefronts at Mall of the Mainland.
One more look at Belk.
Artwork on the tinted over windows at the former Forever 21.
Even though Old Navy doesn't have a mall entrance, the spruced up this corridor so it feels a bit more lively.
Once you leave the mall, the Old Navy entrance is to the right.
And one last look at Pecanland Mall as we head out for the night.
I really enjoyed the trip down here. Seeing this mall was well worth the trip. Hope everyone enjoyed this mall. See you all next time. This is not the only mall we documented this Spring. We have a revisit of Alexandria Mall and a new Texas mall to add to the blog.
Sometimes all these years later, it is easy to lose sight of how much of a 'wow' factor a mall like this must have had when it first opened. Someone used to the 1970s and early 1980s malls which had a lot of earthtones and such must have felt like they arrived in some futuristic world when they stepped foot into this mall and saw all the mirrored finishes, skylights, paraline ceiling elements, and the light floors. There are still some vestiges of the earthtones era, the planters and such specifically, but otherwise it was a very different design for a mall than what people were used to. This is quite a different world than, say, something like Willowbrook Mall or Town & Country Mall which would have been only a few years older.
ReplyDeleteWalking into this mall must have been like walking into one of those late 1980s suburban Fiesta Marts for the first time back in the day. I certainly remember that feeling.
I do get a bit of a Mall of the Mainland feeling with this mall. The Mall of the Mainland is not nearly as fancy as this mall and it is several years newer, but it still has back half of the 1980s-very early 1990s feel to it. The floor is very similar too in the parts where the floor is probably original to Pecanland Mall. Fortunately, this mall seems to be doing a lot better than what the Mall of the Mainland did, though that kind of fake storefront might be enough to fool Nikki and Gloria.
As futuristic as the interior looks, the exterior designs of the original anchors are certainly less revolutionary. That JCPenney is a bit interesting, but yet at the same time, also a bit boring. JCPenney certainly went a bit more upscale with their exterior designs around the time that the Willowbrook location opened in 1992, though the condition of the outside of the Pecanland location looks better than the newer Willowbrook location.
Anyway, this is a neat mall, and it is good to see a lot of original elements are still around and the mall is hanging in there and is doing okay by modern mall standards. Thanks for chronicling this one, I'm sure it was worth it to have this be the last mall to complete the tour of Louisiana.
There are a few photos online that show how the mall used to look. It was a really impressive mall and still is in 2026. The vacancies in the Belk wing are concerning, hopefully Old Navy stays and more tenants open up down there. The next mall I will post from 2026 is the Alexandria Mall. That mall is really struggling despite getting a new Michael's store added recently. The Sears and Conn's wing of the mall was sealed off after Kirkland's closed late last year. The food court is down to the last restaurant there. The ceiling at that mall is nearly identical to Pecanland. I am glad to bring my outdated visit up to the modern day even though the mall is really struggling. Bath and Body Works closed in January of this year, so you know the mall is hurting.
DeleteThe Belk anchor looks more like a mid-1980's JCPenney than the JCPenney does. A lot of the 1983-1985 JCPenney stores had the tinted glass over the entryways like the Belk store does. I am not too familiar with the McRae's store designs as I only went briefly into one before it became a Belk store year ago.
There are a few lost malls in the state that I was never able to document. They have either been renovated too heavily to document. The Westwood Mall and Kingwood Deauville posts, I made never really felt very good I.M.O. I have another mall in Baton Rouge that I documented in 2021, but I don't feel very good about the photos to go along with the story. I was unable to get a good feel of the place with my attempts to photograph the leftovers of that mall. I may post those in the future, but I have struggled to put together a good post with what I have.