Alexandria Mall is a

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located in

Alexandria, Louisiana Alexandria is the ninth-largest city in the state of Louisiana and is the parish seat of Rapides Parish, Louisiana, United States. It lies on the south bank of the Red River in almost the exact geographic center of the state. It is the prin ...

, United States. It features

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, Conn's,

Burlington Coat Factory Burlington, formerly known as Burlington Coat Factory, is an American national off-price department store retailer, and a division of Burlington Coat Factory Warehouse Corporation with more than 1,000 stores in 40 states and Puerto Rico, with it ...

, and

Bed Bath And Beyond Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. is an American chain of domestic merchandise retail stores. The chain operates many stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Bed Bath & Beyond was founded in 1971. It is counted among the Fortune ...

anchor stores In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

Mall history

Built by Buddy Tudor's family-owned construction company from Pineville, Alexandria Mall opened in 1973 with

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co. ( ), commonly known as Sears, is an American chain of department stores founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosenwald, with what began a ...

Beall-Ladymon Stage Stores was a department store company specializing in retailing off-price brand name apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, and housewares throughout the United States. Stores were usually located in shopping malls and centers or in s ...

(a chain based in

Shreveport, Louisiana Shreveport ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Louisiana. It is the third most populous city in Louisiana after New Orleans and Baton Rouge, respectively. The Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area, with a population of 393,406 in 2020, is t ...

), and local department stores Weiss & Goldring, Green's and Wellan's. At the time, the mall also featured a two screened Cinema called Cinema I & II and was run by General Cinema Corporation. An expansion, completed in 1986, added the department stores

and

Mervyn's Mervyn's was an American middle-scale department store chain based in Hayward, California, and founded by Mervin G. Morris (1920–2021). It carried national brands of clothing, footwear, bedding, furniture, jewelry, beauty products, electronics, ...

, and several additional stores and a food court. Clothing store

Stein Mart Stein Mart was an American discount men's and women's department store chain based in Jacksonville, Florida. Stein Mart had locations primarily in the Southeast, Texas, and California. Stein Mart stores sold recent trends in clothing for both m ...

and

Sam Goody Sam Goody was a music and entertainment retailer in the United States and United Kingdom, operated by The Musicland Group, Inc. It was purchased by Best Buy in 2000, sold to Sun Capital Partners in 2003, and filed for bankruptcy in 2006, clos ...

later opened in the Wellan's space. In honor of the mall's expansion, local pizza chefs cooked a pizza. Beall-Ladymon was acquired and renamed by

Stage Stores Stage Stores was a department store company specializing in retailing off-price brand name apparel, accessories, cosmetics, footwear, and housewares throughout the United States. Stores were usually located in shopping malls and centers or in st ...

in 1994. In 2004, the mall was sold to J. Herzog Properties of

Denver, Colorado Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the Unit ...

Jones Lang Lasalle Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) is a global commercial real estate services company, founded in the United Kingdom with offices in 80 countries. The company also provides investment management services worldwide, including services to insti ...

took over leasing and management in 2010. Stein Mart closed on April 30, 2006, followed soon by the closure of Mervyn's. In March 2007,

opened in the former Mervyn's location, while Weiss & Goldring relocated outside the mall.

Bed Bath & Beyond Bed Bath & Beyond Inc. is an American chain of domestic merchandise retail stores. The chain operates many stores in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. Bed Bath & Beyond was founded in 1971. It is counted among the Fortune 5 ...

opened in 2008 in the previous location of Weiss & Goldring. The previous Stein Mart location used to house a children's play place called Slinkee's. Both Slinkee's and the neighboring Lagniappe Theater Company, who had moved into the former Stein Mart and Sam Goody retail locations respectively (both locations having been part of the original Wellan's space), were forced to move out, in preparation for a new anchor tenant, that could be a Conn's. It was eventually revealed that a Conn's would move into the Alexandria Mall in 2016. On May 31, 2018, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 72 stores nationwide. The store closed in September 2018. It was announced that the Stage located in the mall would be closing early 2019. It is now closed.

References

External links

Alexandria Mall Official Website
{{Shopping malls in Louisiana Shopping malls established in 1973 Shopping malls in Louisiana JLL (company) Buildings and structures in Alexandria, Louisiana Tourist attractions in Alexandria, Louisiana