To mix things up a bit, here is a mall update from Louisiana.
Acadiana Mall in Lafayette Louisiana has been struggling lately. The mall went into foreclosure and now has a new owner. In 2019 Namdar Reality took over the mall (click here for more on that story on The Advertiser site)
As most of us retail enthusiasts know, Namdar is one of the least active mall owners and does the bare minimum to improve their properties. Acadiana Mall was renovated a few years ago prior to the default and has faced heavy competition from newer power centers in the city. There are parts of the mall that are doing great and other parts that are struggling. The mall was still closing at 7pm at this point and business was still not up to pre-Covid levels.
Since our last visit Sears closed in September 2017. JCPenney began a closing sale in 2020 when the company filed for bankruptcy, but was saved after a deal was struck to keep the store open (click here for this Advocate story about that store). Macy's has downsized their store by closing off the second floor. Dillard's is the only anchor store that is still operating normally.
Here are my previous articles at the mall.
We begin our tour at the food court entrance.
A small tour of the FYE store in the mall. This store is located to the left of the food court entrance.
More views of the store......
Always good to see Garbage Pail Kids getting some display space.
As you can see this FYE has a good selection of products.
Vinyl selection.
New and retro styled action figures.
FYE stores have downsized their physical media offerings.
The wall of POP figures.
A huge candy selection.
The checkout counter and impulse buy section.
One last look as we head into the mall.
The food court, the restaurants are to the right of this photo.
Former Sears to the right and the rest of the mall to the left.
We will start with the Sears corridor.
The Sears corridor doesn't have a lot of vacancies despite Sears being gone for nearly 4 years at this point. There is also no mall entrance to this corridor.
The vacant Sears mall entrance.
Back to where we started food court to the left and the rest of the mall straight ahead.
A quick look at the center corridor. More on this area in a bit.
Going down the Macy's corridor which has probably the most vacancies inside of the mall.
Macy's is looking very bare. In addition to the second floor being closed off, one of the outside entrances is also closed off on the first floor.
Closed off outside entrance.
It is difficult to tell from my photos, but the inventory at this store was very lean. Lots of open spaces in between clothing racks.
Escalators blocked off.
The lights are still on upstairs.
A lot of floor space is unused and open like in this part of the store.
Back out into the mall we go. Not a good look with the vacant store fronts with blankets covering up the emptiness.
As you can see here, the mall has an unusual shape. The mall appears to have bene built for 6 anchors, but only 4 showed up.
H&M and Forever 21 were the only chain stores left in the Macy's corridor. Both of these stores are at the front edge of the corridor near JCPenney.
The JCPenney court. JCPenney to the right and the center court of the mall to the left.
An older style Shoe Department with the JCPenney entrance in the far background. Forever 21 is to the right of this view.
Looking towards the center court.
This corridor of the mall leads to the center entrance.
The center court is very lively.
This is the best corridor of the mall, the corridor to Dillard's.
This is a three level Dillard's. It is a well maintained and modern store.
Looking towards the center court from the Dillard's mall entrance.
More views of the Dillard's corridor as we head back to the center court.
Looking towards the Sears/food court hallway from the center court.
Food court restaurants. The mall was closing up as I was leaving, these places were open earlier.
These places were in the process of closing up for the day.
A photo I missed earlier, the front of the FYE store.
Now for some exterior photos. I made 2 drive arounds which explains the randomness of some of the photos.
Here is the old Sears.
This part of the store appears to have some roof damage. Only part of the damage was covered up by tarps, maybe the rest of the tarps had blown off.
The massive Dillard's store.
One of the stores with exterior access.
The center court mall entrance.
Another view of the Sears.
Talbots has mall access as well as an exterior entrance.
This side of JCPenney has an interesting design.
This side of JCPenney has the typical brutalist look of their 1980's era stores.
Macy's is well designed, it is a throwback to the Maison Blanche era of department store designs.
More to come, stay tuned!
