New Orleans Riverwalk redevelopment quick update

Here is the last New Orleans post for a while. Here is a quick update about the Riverwalk Mall. This redeveloped mall had only been open for about two months on my visit. Over 70 million was invested into the mall to expand and remodel the entire structure. The mall reopened on May 22, 2014. 

The mall is very different than before, but some of the past is still there. A few stores came back to the mall that were there before and the river views are still prominent.

If you want to see what the mall looked like before, click here.

A few stores returned to the mall, but most of the stores are new to the mall. Some of the stores are new to Louisiana which speaks volumes about the prospects of this mall.

And now for the inside of the mall. As you can see it looks very nice, bright, and modern.

This is the lower level.

The second level

The upper level

The food court is very interesting, look at the huge ceiling fans. Sadly within about six months of opening, there was an assault in the new food court.

North Shore Square Slidell La 2014

The North Shore Square is the only indoor mall serving the North shore suburbs of New Orleans. The mall has 5 anchor stores but as of this posting only 4 are still in business. JCPenney, Dillard's Men's store, Dillard's Women's store, and Burlington Coat Factory are the currently operating. The mall is listed as having over 600,000 square feet of retail space, click to find out more about the mall. 

The mall has many retro storefronts from the past and possibly even from 1985 when the mall opened. Sears recently closed, and the two Dillard's stores may be leaving as well. To make matters worse, the JCPenney lease is rumored to be up soon, and Forever 21 (junior anchor) may be joining Dillard's at the new Fremaux Town Center. If all this happens the only anchor left would be Burlington Coat Factory. Across the street from the mall there are several big box stores including Walmart. The Fremaux Town Center in Slidell, The River Chase shopping center in Covington, and Pinnacle Nord Du Lac also in Covington are all expanding. North Shore Square is in the middle of the above areas and will have a hard time competing with these new developments. 

More information about the mall can be found here on Labelscar.

All store spaces in the mall on my visit were nearly full, but things can change quickly if the anchor stores continue to leave for other developments. 

The pictures were taken around closing time so the mall did not have too many shoppers on my visit.

A very retro GNC storefront.

Dillard's Men's Store

The mall directory.

There are fountains in the front of the JCPenney, not many malls these days have water fountains.

A mirrored glass JCPenney mall entrance.

Mirrored glass Radio Shack entrance. If only the sign had not been changed to the newer Radio Shack logo. This store closed in 2015 as part of the bankruptcy. 

A large FYE store with neon lighting.

Yet another retro sign, the limited.

A look down the mall corridor near the middle of the mall.

Dillard's Woman's store

Burlington Coat Factory was originally a Mervyn's. The inside of the store looks almost exactly the same as when the store was a Mervyn's. 

A look at the Sears and Food Court corridor.

A view of the food court. 

Some closer views of the Sears mall entrance.

And now for the outside of the mall. I could not get a good photo of the Sears, all of the parking lot lights were off even while the store was open.

The JCPenney store.

Dillard's Men's Store originally DH Holmes. The arch above the entrance easily gives away the former identity of the store. 

Dillard's Women's Store. This was originally a Maison Blanche department store.

Sears Slidell North Shore Square closing sale August 2014

Here is the mall entrance of the North Shore Square Sears located in Slidell Louisiana. The closing of this store is surprising because this was the only full service Sears store in St. Tammany parish, which has over 230,000 residents. There is a store in nearby Hammond Louisiana, but it is not convenient to the majority of St. Tammany parish. The Sears like all the other anchor stores at North Shore Square is only one story. At this point the closing sale had just begun and the store was still full and organized neatly. The store was originally scheduled to close by June, but the closing sale was postponed by a few months. 

I will dive into the mall for the next blog post, but things are not looking good for North Shore Square Mall these days. 

The store was fairly empty on my visit which made getting photos very easy. 

Here is the clothing department near the mall entrance.

The tool department.

Looking towards the mattresses and appliances from the tool department.

Looking back towards the front of the store from the tools/auto department.

The appliance department. 

The electronics department view from the appliances.

A closer view of the electronics department.

The end of the appliance department near housewares and more clothing.

Men's clothing near the housewares section.

This store probably closed at the end of October or the beginning of November 2014. I was unable to find any sources with the actual closing date.

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.