Wednesday’s announcement that Sears will close its anchor location at Cortana Mall as one of dozens of closures nationwide is just the latest in a string of departures for the beleaguered north Baton Rouge mall.
In recent weeks, The Limited, Lenscrafters and Gordon’s Jewelers have all closed their Cortana locations, and Foot Locker is moving out in March, mall management confirms. In early 2016, Cortana also lost Macy’s. With the closure of Sears, it will be down to just two retail anchor tenants—a Dillard’s discount store and J.C. Penney.
“Everybody is really concerned,” says Angela Stewart, who owns The Café in Cortana. “So far I’ve really been blessed. I have people who come here just to eat and leave … but I know I’m going to feel the effects from everything happening. There are people who aren’t going to come to this mall if I’m the only one here.”
Mall management declines to comment on the recent departures, referring questions to Moonbeam Equities, the Las Vegas-based private equity firm that bought Cortana in 2013. Company executives with Moonbeam had not returned a call seeking comment before this morning’s deadline.
When Moonbeam Equities acquired the 40-year-old Cortana nearly four years ago for just $6 million, it promised to redevelop the 1.4-million-square-foot mall into a mixed-use property. Local real estate brokers believe that’s still the best hope for Cortana’s future. But so far, with the exception of Virginia College, most of the mall’s remaining tenants are still in the retail sector, which means Sears’ departure will hit them hard.
“When you lose anchors you lose traffic,” says Jonathan Walker with Maestri-Murrell Real Estate. “Bringing in traffic is what keeps retailers in business.”
Walker says while the mall’s situation looks dire, its owners—at least until now—have not been under the gun to do anything to refurbish the property. Given the fire sale price they paid for it, they’re likely still generating a profit.
“Even with the vacancies they can still turn a profit without doing much because they got it so cheap,” Walker says.
Whatever the owners’ plans, officials with the new Baton Rouge North Economic Development District are looking to attract nontraditional tenants to the mall. They’re also hoping city and state leaders will provide economic incentives to make it more attractive for businesses, tech companies and health care providers to relocate to Cortana and help reinvent it.
“This is where we can use the three Ps—a public private partnership—to repurpose it,” says Rinaldi Jacobs, interim director of the district. “We’re going to seek out partners on this like BRAC and BRAF and the private sector so it’s not a singular lift for the district by itself but it is a great bold opportunity.”
—Stephanie Riegel
