The Esplanade Mall quick update Summer 2014

The Esplanade Mall is struggling these days. This is the 2nd largest mall in the metro area, but management changes and the loss of several stores is hurting the mall. The area between the center of the mall and Macy's is doing fairly well with only a few vacancies, but the other half of the mall is really struggling. I will not go into the history of the mall, but you can see it here on my previous article. This is still a very nice, clean mall so there is the potential to make this mall great again.

Here is a link to a 2015 news story about the mall.  

The former Dillard's Men's store entrance.

The main Dillard's store corridors have seen better days. Most of the stores along this corridor have left the mall or moved. The Dillard's was converted to a clearance store. This mall had 2 Dillard's stores 4 years ago. One store closed and the other one only operates the first floor as a clearance store. 

This is how the second level near the main Dillard's looks now. 

The food court. A film crew was taking down all kinds of equipment for a show or movie being filmed in the mall. 

Here are a couple of shots from the Target corridor facing the store and looking into the mall.

Here are a couple of shots near Macy's on the first and second floor. 

The Target appears to be the most popular anchor. 

The new Grand Theater is a short distance across from the mall. I wonder why they did not connect this to the mall. 

The old General Cinema at the back of the mall sits almost in the shadow of the new Grand Theater

The Macy's looks faded and worn on the outside, but the inside is nice and recently remodeled. The 3rd floor was closed as part of the reopening of the store. Flood damage from Hurricane Katrina caused lots of damage to the store and took several years for Macy's to finally reopen. The new Lakeside Macy's opened at the same time as this store reopened. The New Orleans Centre Macy's never reopened and still sits awaiting redevelopment. 

Lakeside Shopping Center Mall 2012 Metairie LA

Lakeside Mall opened in the early 1960's in the New Orleans suburb of Metairie LA. This mall has been covered in greater detail in several articles from Labelscar and The Mall Hall of Fame. Lakeside is the busiest mall in New Orleans and features upscale, chain stores, and a few local stores. The mall site also has several big box retailers including Dick's sporting goods. The mall is located at the busiest intersection in the New Orleans area at the corner of Veterans and Causeway Blvd. The reason the mall has not grown larger is because of the lack of available land around the mall. Parking can be a hassle, but there are several parking garages that have helped to increase the parking capacity. Lakeside is well positioned to thrive for many more years to come.

These reflective mall directories are very difficult to get a good photo of. To get a better idea of the mall setup check out the mall website.

This parking garage makes it difficult to get a good photo of this portion of the mall. The former entrance to K and B was to the right of the food court sign.

JCPenney's was once in a much smaller location within the original mall. This store has two shopping levels and a third level for storage and offices.

Dillard's has been upgraded and does not look anything like the DH Holmes that was here for many years before Dillard's took over.

Macy's is a newcomer to the mall opening in 2008.

A view of the main mall concourse with the huge skylight.

This is the "PF Changs" wing facing towards Macy's. The stairs go to the small second level of the mall.

The second floor of the mall is very small and leads to the mall offices, and a few small businesses mostly offices.

An example of one of the small fountains that are located in several parts of the mall.

Macy's was a great addition to the mall. If Nordstrom were to build a store in the New Orleans area this would be the mall they would locate to.

The main mall concourse facing the Food Court and the mall. To the left is where the mall entrance to the K and B was located.

JCPenney

Cafe Du Monde to the left with an example of the mirrored ceilings found throughout the mall.

Dillard's was originally a DH Holmes store.

The center court skylight.

The food court has several restaurants and a Radio Shack.

Esplanade Mall Kenner LA 2012

Update: This mall was featured in parts of the movie 21 Jumpstreet. The Macy's is shown in the movie with a generic sign reading "The Mall", and the Shoe Dept Encore is a part of a scene.

The Esplanade Mall at 1.3 million sq ft; officially opened October 9, 1985 at 10 am on the former Cincy Ranch Tract. The Esplanade was developed ahead of an older project called Loyola Square that was to have had five department stores (Lord and Taylor and Dillard's were the only two announced). The Esplanade broke ground in 1983 and Loyola Square was scheduled to open in 1984, but never got off of the ground. The two story Esplanade Mall opened with 80 stores; DH Holmes, Mervyn's, and Godchaux's as the anchors. In 1986 the Macy's opened along with more of the mall to increase the store count to over 100. The theme of the mall was "Just your style" and the mall was very popular for many years even during the oil bust years. 

(Logo from the grand opening ad)

Several stores from the grand opening store list.

5-7-9 Shop

9 West

Added Dimensions

Barney's Coffee and Tea Company

B Dalton Bookseller

Casual Corner

Chess King

Cuddly Friends

Cutlery World

Electronics Boutique

Espirit

Fanfares Shoes

Foot Locker

J Todd Diamond Creations

Jarrod's

JB Robinson Jewelers

Kay Bee Toys

Kinney The Great American Shoe Store

Leonard Krower

Little Sports

Mitchell's Formal Wear

Naturalizer Shoe Shoppes

Other Dimensions

Paul Harris

Pearle Vision Center

Petite Sophisticate

Porter-Stevens

Record Bar

Sound Shop

Stride Rite

The Bombay Company

The Children's Place

The Picture Show

Thom Mc Ann

Ups and Downs

Wolf Camera and Video

Zales

Fast forward to 2005, the mall and Macy's sustained flood damage from Hurricane Katrina. The mall was closed for a few weeks but reopened minus Macy's. Mervyn's reopened only to begin their closing sale as the company exited Louisiana in late 2005. Macy's waited until 2008 to fix their store and reopened in November 2008 along with the new store at Lakeside. Macy's did not reopen the third level of their store leaving the anchor with less total sales space. With the mall down to only the two Dillard's stores as anchors for nearly three years, many inline tenants left. Target opened in July 2011 but as a single level store. Dillard's in the Summer of 2011 closed the Men's store anchor and they are converting the Dillard's Women's store into a clearance center. The second floor of the clearance center has been closed off as well as part of the first floor. Macy's is the only anchor to have a second floor mall entrance still open, but the mall has two second floor entrances and the food court on the second level. The mall has a few new stores in the works and still has many popular stores. With a newer Macy's and brand new Target, Simon is just beginning to reinvent the Esplanade Mall for the future.

Note to viewers; my camera was having troubles during this mall visit; sorry for the blurry photos.      

The Dillards/ DH Holmes anchor has been downgraded to a clearance center.  

The next two photos are the second floor that has been closed off.

Target took the place of the closed Mervyn's, but the store is only one story.  

This is the entrance to the former Dillard's Mens store/ Godchaux store. The anchor was being used for some kind of home goods weekend sale on my last visit.

This Champs store is one of the last stores left in the second floor wing towards the Dillards clearance center. 

"The Chefs at La Terrasse are busy whipping up your favorite repasts" (from the opening article). This is the fanciest advertising for a food court. The La Terrasse food court has several bright New Orleans style lights.

1985 Food court restaurants

Chik Fil A (Across the mall from the actual food court)

Crescent City Po-Boy

Fried Stuff

Gyro Wrap

Hebert's

J Brenners Cheesesteak and Subs

Taco Viva

The Original Italian Ice Cream

Today the food court has little to offer with half of the spaces closed up or converted to retail shops.

The entrance to Macy's the only anchor with two floors still in use.

A hallway to nowhere; this area is above the mall entrance in between Macy's and Target.

The entrance near the food court.

Target has taken over the former Mervyn's space as a one level anchor with a mall entrance. I am surprised that they did not make the Target store two stories to match the design of the mall. Clearview Mall in Metairie has a two story Target in a one level mall.

The Dillard's men's store was recently closed.