Towne Center is losing one of its longtime tenants early next year, when Mignon Faget relocates to the Mall of Louisiana. But the upscale shopping center at Corporate Boulevard and Jefferson Highway is getting two new tenants, including Jersey Mike’s, a New Jersey-based fast casual subway chain that is opening its first location in Louisiana.
Mignon Faget will be relocating to space on the ground floor of the mall formerly occupied by Coach, which closed several months ago. Mignon Faget manager Marie Popov says the New Orleans-based jewelry store is moving because business was slow at Towne Centre, where it has been located for more than a decade.
“We want more traffic,” Popov says. “There’s just not enough at Towne Center. It was fun while it lasted, but we think going to the mall will get us some younger customers. We are hoping to continue to attract our existing customers and also pick up a few new people.”
A spokeswoman for Creekstone Development, which manages Towne Center, says shopping center management is sorry to see Mignon Faget go, but adds that the majority of tenants in the 440,000-square-foot retail center are doing “extremely well.” Occupancy is at 94%.
While Creekstone has no plans yet to the fill the Mignon Faget space, which will not be vacated until sometime in the first quarter of 2017, the center is preparing for Jersey Mike’s, which will move into the space formerly occupied by Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory.
Jersey Mike’s is a fast casual chain founded in 1956 in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey. Today it has nearly 1,200 locations in 42 states around the U.S. The chain is expanding rapidly, with nearly three dozen restaurants slated to open in early January alone.
Joining Jersey Mike’s in Towne Center will be District Donuts. As previously reported, the donut shop is moving into the space vacated last year, when Starbuck’s relocated to a larger, freestanding outparcel also in the lifestyle center.
In March, a group of Houston-based investors led by the real estate company Moody Rambin acquired a 50% interest in the retail portion of Towne Center from one of its original owners, Phil Witter. The Creekstone spokeswoman says additional changes are planned for the shopping center, but that management is not yet ready to announce any deals.
—Stephanie Riegel
