Cortana Mall (formerly The Mall at Cortana was an enclosed

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 ...

Baton Rouge, Louisiana Baton Rouge ( ; ) is a city in and the capital of the U.S. state of Louisiana. Located the eastern bank of the Mississippi River, it is the parish seat of East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana's most populous parish—the equivalent of counties ...

, and was at the intersection of

Airline Highway Airline Highway is a divided highway in the U.S. state of Louisiana, built in stages between 1925 and 1953 to bypass the older Jefferson Highway. It runs , carrying U.S. Highway 61 from New Orleans northwest to Baton Rouge and U.S. Highway 19 ...

and Florida Blvd ( U.S. Route 190). It was last owned by Moonbeam Equities of

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vega ...

. It opened in 1976 and was demolished in 2021.

History

Cortana Mall opened in 1976 on the site of the old Cortana Plantation. Goudchaux's/ Maison Blanche was the first store to open, opening on February 16. The rest of the mall, initially containing 100 inline tenants opened on August 4, with three additional anchors,

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 ...

, Dillard's, and

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 ...

, as well as a three-screen cinema operated by General Cinema Corporation, opening in the remaining months of 1976. At the time of its opening, with 1.2 million square feet of space, Cortana Mall was the largest shopping mall in the south and 14th largest in the United States. A fifth anchor, H. J. Wilson Co., opened October 17, 1977. Mervyn's announced plans in late 1986 to join the mall as a sixth anchor, with the store opening July 17, 1987. At this time, ten extra inline tenants joined the mall. With this addition, Cortana Mall had space for about 140 stores and 1.6 million square feet of space. The mall's movie theater closed in 1988 when its lease was not renewed. In the 1990s, the mall underwent renovations, first in 1991 to update the interior and add security and then in 1997 to update its exterior signage and landscaping. It was in 1997 when Cortana Mall rebranded as the Mall at Cortana. With the rebrand, the Mall at Cortana and began to experience decline due to the

Mall of Louisiana The Mall of Louisiana is a mid-scale shopping mall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, between I-10 and Bluebonnet Blvd. It is the largest mall in Louisiana and contains the third largest indoor carousel in the world. It is the only regional mall in Bat ...

opening in South Baton Rouge in 1997. The issue was exacerbated when

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opened 3 miles away on Corporate Boulevard in 2005, causing many stores with duplicate Cortana locations to close or not renew their leases. It was also in the late 1990s that many of the anchors experienced name and location changes. The current Dillard's store at the mall was originally Goudchaux's, which was the first anchor to open at Cortana Mall. After the Sternberg family acquired New Orleans-based Maison Blanche in 1982, Goudchaux rebranded as Maison Blanche/Goudchaux and then became Maison Blanche in 1988 to discern itself from the similarly named Godchaux's Department Store in New Orleans.

Mercantile Stores Mercantile Stores Company Inc. until 1998, was a traditional department store retailer operating 102 fashion apparel stores and 16 home fashion stores in 17 states. The stores were operated under 13 different nameplates and varied in size, with t ...

purchased the Maison Blanche stores from the Sternberg family in 1992 and operated the store until selling it to Dillard's in 1998. As a result, Dillard's relocated from its existing store to the former Maison Blanche. In 2009, the store converted to a single-level clearance center, which was the last store to close in May 2021. The original Dillard's was then sold to

Saks Incorporated Saks, Inc. (originally Proffitt's, Inc.) was an American holding company founded in 1919. Before acquisition by the Canadian-founded Hudson's Bay Company in 2013, it held ownership of department store chains including New York City-based Saks Fi ...

, who converted it to Parisian in 1998, then

McRae's McRae's was a mid-range regional department store chain founded and based in Jackson, Mississippi, with locations in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana, and Florida. The nameplate was in existence for more than a century. History Samuel P. McRae fo ...

a year later. When May Properties purchased the McRae's (in Cortana) and Parisian (in the Mall of Louisiana) in 2001, the two stores reopened as

Foley's Foley's was a chain of department stores owned by May Department Stores and headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. On August 30, 2005, the division was dissolved and operation of the stores was assumed by Federated's Macy's West and Macy's ...

on March 28, 2001. After Foley's was acquired by

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

in September 2006, the Cortana and Mall of Louisiana stores both became

. In 1985,

Service Merchandise Service Merchandise was a retail chain of catalog showrooms carrying jewelry, toys, sporting goods, and electronics. The company, which first began in 1934 as a five-and-dime store, was in existence for 68 years before ceasing operations in 2002. ...

acquired H. J. Wilson Co. and rebranded the Cortana Mall store as such. Service Merchandise closed in early 2002 when the chain went bankrupt, leaving the anchor slot vacant until Steve & Barry's opened in 2004. Steve and Barry's closed as a result of the recession in 2009, leaving the space vacant for one year until

Virginia College Virginia College was a private for-profit college located primarily in the southeastern United States. It offered classes, certificates, diplomas, and degrees related to specific professions such as health sciences, information technology, busines ...

opened its Baton Rouge campus in the former store. The mall's last anchor,

Mervyns 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, ...

, closed in 2006 when the store decided to focus its efforts on the Southwestern United States. In 2009, several new inline tenants opened in the mall, and the mall's name reverted to Cortana Mall. In 2012, Mall Properties, the original owner of the mall, sold Cortana Mall back to its lenders and brought in Woodmont Company to manage the property. In 2013, Moonbeam Equities of Las Vegas, NV purchased the mall's inline tenants and the old Mervyn's for $6 million. During the late 2010s, Cortana Mall experienced retail freefall with numerous anchor and inline tenant closures. As of March 2016, the mall anchors were:

, Dillard's Clearance Center,

, and

. In April 2016, Macy's announced it was leaving Cortana Mall. On January 4, 2017, it was announced the Sears store would be closing in the spring of that year. During the same week, Footlocker announced they would be leaving the mall as well. On March 17, 2017, it was announced the JCPenney store will be closing on July 31 of that year. The closure of JCPenney left Dillard's Clearance Center as the only anchor left. On March 27, 2017, in an article from theadvocate.com highlighted there were only 48 stores within the mall that still had a tenant leaving 62 spaces vacant. Other remaining tenants and managers had raised concerns about leaving the mall due to losing the two remaining major anchor stores. Moonbeam put the property up for sale for $4 million in August 2017 but took the listing off the market in October 2018 due to lack of interest. In September 2018, Virginia College announced they would close the Cortana location in July 2019 as part of a nationwide downsizing. The campus closed at the end of 2018 when the college folded. By December 2017, the Dillard's outlet permanently closed the mall entrance. As of April 2018, the mall had about 40 occupied stores, which continued to dwindle. As of May 2019, the mall's inline tenets consisted of three jewelers, a hair salon, Bath & Body Works, a Philly cheesesteak grill, a church, a theatrical studio, and a small medical clinic among its inline tenants, with over 90% of the available properties and five anchors vacant. By the end of July 2019, Bath and Body Works closed, and the remaining tenants were ordered to vacate the premises by September 15, 2019. The last remaining tenants were a

USPS The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the ...

branch, a distribution center by the local Junior League, and a nurse practitioner clinic, and the mall was closed to mall walkers after September 3. The Baton Rouge Business Report stated there is a possible deal that

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...

may move their distribution center operations to the mall. It was later confirmed in November that Amazon planned to buy the mall, as well as the former Macy's and Virginia College buildings, and build a new distribution center. On January 11, 2021, it was announced that Dillard's Clearance Center would be closing in April 2021, which would leave the mall completely vacant. Demolition of the mall began on March 22, 2021 and was completed in late summer of 2021. As of December 2021, the site is currently undergoing redevelopment into a distribution center for

References

External links

Mall Hall of Fame, Cortana Mall history
{{Baton Rouge, Louisiana Buildings and structures in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Shopping malls in Louisiana Economy of Baton Rouge, Louisiana Tourist attractions in Baton Rouge, Louisiana Shopping malls established in 1976 Shopping malls disestablished in 2019 Defunct shopping malls in the United States Demolished shopping malls in the United States 1976 establishments in Louisiana 2019 disestablishments in Louisiana Buildings and structures demolished in 2021 Demolished buildings and structures in Louisiana