Wanting to breathe new life in one of the northshore’s highest-profile retail sites, officials in Slidell will partner with St. Tammany economic development leaders on a market feasibility study of the nearly-empty North Shore Square Mall.
The Slidell City Council recently agreed to put up $100,000 to bring in a consultant to study ways to get the hulking site off Interstate 12 back into commerce.
Chris Masingill, who heads St. Tammany Corp., the parish economic development agency, said the analysis would not only look at the chances of reviving any retail possibilities, but also alternative uses for the old mall.
“It’s a good site,” Masingill said. “We can find a use for it.”
Options could range from landing a data center or developing some sort of entertainment venue to having the city purchase it or even keeping retail there, Masingill said.
“But the first step is that we need to go and study the market,” he added.
A sign for the North Shore Square Mall in Slidell on Thursday, August 15, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
Once an economic engine, North Shore Square Mall is largely empty. Two anchors remain, a popular Dillard’s Clearance Center and At Home, but for the most part the shopping center’s vast parking lots sit nearly empty.
After it opened in 1985, the 621,000-square-foot mall quickly became a regional shopping hub that drew visitors from across St. Tammany as well as nearby parts of Mississippi. But the mall found itself caught in the same retail spiral that consumed countless other malls across the region and U.S.
As more stores closed, city officials have pushed the mall’s owner, Morguard, a Canadian company that manages more than $17 billion in real estate across North America, to do something to revitalize the site.
Bill Borchert, a Slidell City Council member who recently became the city’s mayor with the resignation of Greg Cromer, said constituents often ask him about the mall.
“It’s one of the things I think we hear most: What are they doing with the mall?” Borchert said.
Though Morguard manages a vast apartment complex portfolio across the U.S., including apartments in Slidell, city officials don’t want more apartments at the mall site.
“We don’t want apartments there,” he said of the mall site. “That’s a retail tax base.”
Borchert said he, Council member Nick DiSanti, Cromer and Masingill recently traveled to the Dallas area to view some venues that had been redeveloped after being dormant.
Efforts to reach Morguard officials for comment were not successful.
Borchert said hiring a consultant to study the possibilities for North Shore Square is a great first step.
“We know we don’t know everything,” Borchert said. “But we know there are people out there who do.”
Cromer, in an interview last summer, said he had shown North Shore Square to interested prospects “at least a dozen times in the six years I’ve been mayor.”
The closed North Shore Square Mall in Slidell on Thursday, August 15, 2024. (Photo by Chris Granger, The Times-Picayune)
He said at the time that ideas for repurposing the mall have varied.
“Movie set, office space, some kind of health care center. All kinds of things,” Cromer said during an interview last August.
Masingill, whose job is to sell the parish to interested companies, remains bullish on figuring out the riddle of the Slidell mall.
“We’ve come close on some opportunities,” he said.
DiSanti said the mall’s location is a huge plus, noting the vibrant retail along Northshore Boulevard at Walmart, Sam’s Club and Home Depot, which are all nearby.
“We’re optimistic about the value of that corridor,” DiSanti said. “There’s investment in that corridor. It’s an excellent location.”
Masingill and the others hope the study will provide some clarity on what to do with the mall.
“I believe there’s still a significant opportunity there,” Masingill added.