Cortana Mall

Cortana Mall
Location Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Coordinates 30°27′26″N 91°05′35″W / 30.457236°N 91.093186°W / 30.457236; -91.093186Coordinates: 30°27′26″N 91°05′35″W / 30.457236°N 91.093186°W / 30.457236; -91.093186
Opening date August 4, 1976
Developer OTH
Management The Woodmont Company
Owner Moonbeam Equities
No. of stores and services 48 (formerly 110)
No. of anchor tenants 6 (1 open, 5 vacant)
Total retail floor area 1,432,889 sq ft (133,119.7 m2)
No. of floors 1
Website cortanamall.com

Cortana Mall (formerly The Mall at Cortana) is a mid-tier shopping mall in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is at the intersection of Airline Hwy. and Florida Blvd. It is currently owned by Moonbeam Equities of Las Vegas, NV and managed by The Woodmont Company.

Cortana Mall opened in 1976 on the site of the old Cortana Plantation. Its original five anchors were Goudchaux's/Maison Blanche, H. J. Wilson Co., JC Penney, Dillard's, and Sears. The mall also had space for 100 inline tenets. In 1981, Mervyn's was added along with ten extra inline tenets.

In 1997, Cortana Mall rebranded as The Mall at Cortana and began to experience decline when The Mall of Louisiana opened in South Baton Rouge that year.

The current Dillard's store at the mall was originally Goudchaux's/Maison Blanche until 1998, when Dillard's purchased Maison Blanche's parent company, Mercantile Stores. As a result, Dillard's relocated from its existing store to the former Masion Blanche. The original Dillard's was then sold to Saks Incorporated, who converted it to Parisian in 1998, then McRae's a year later.[1] After McRae's closed in 2006, it became Foley's and ultimately Macy's.

Other former anchors include H. J. Wilson Co., which became Service Merchandise in 1985, then Steve & Barry's from 2004 to 2009. It is now tenanted by Virginia College. Mervyns, which was added in 1981, has been vacant since 2006.[2]

As of March 2016, the mall anchors were: Sears, Dillard's, JC Penney and Virginia College. A fifth anchor, Macy's, announced that its Cortana Mall location would close in April 2016.

On January 4, 2017, it was announced the Sears store will be closing in the spring of that year.[3] During the same week, Footlocker announced they would be leaving the mall as well. On March 17, 2017, it was announced the J.C. Penney store will be closing on July 31 of that year. The closure of J.C. Penney left Dillard's Clearance Center as the only anchor left.[4] 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 have raised concerns about leaving the mall due to losing the two remaining major anchor stores.

As of December 2017 the Dillard's outlet has permanently closed the mall entrance. As of April 2018, the mall currently has about 40 occupied stores.

Virginia College concourse
JCPenney at The Mall at Cortana

References

  1. ↑ "Cortana Parisian to Change MaRae's to Take Spot at Mall". The Advocate. Baton Rough. June 26, 1999.
  2. ↑ "Leasable Space" (PDF). Retrieved 2008-06-13.
  3. ↑ Hays, Robb (2017-01-05). "Gonzales Kmart, Cortana Sears to close". WAFB.
  4. ↑ Boone, Timothy (2017-03-26). "As anchor stores close, Cortana Mall tenant says he's seen it before, future looks bleak". The Advocate.

  • WBRZ (1995). 2WBRZ The Best of Baton Rouge. Baton Rouge: WBRZ.



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