Lake Forest Plaza

Lake Forest Plaza was a large shopping mall in the New Orleans East section of New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. Construction began in 1973 and the mall opened the following year, the largest mall in the area at the time. Following years of decline, the mall languished and lost many of its tenants. The final blow came with Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters in 2005 which lead to the mall being closed permanently. As part of a redevelopment of the site, the mall was demolished in 2007 except for the former Dillard's anchor store and the free-standing Grand Theater. The mall will be replaced by a Lowes store and open air retail developments.

The Plaza was once the largest shopping mall in the state of Louisiana, over one million square feet, single level. Original anchors were D. H. Holmes, Maison Blanche, (each 3 levels) Sears (2 levels), and Plaza Cinemas 4. A two level Mervyns was later added near the cinemas. The Maison Blanche and Sears stores relocated from the nearby Gentilly Woods Shopping Center. The Plaza also spawned the development of several smaller strip malls, and larger big box stores nearby.

At the time of its opening it was the most eagerly awaited retail development in all of Louisiana. At its peak it accounted for a full 25% of all sales taxes collected in Orleans Parish. It was truly one of the first shopping/dining /entertainment centers ever developed. Even today, no mall in the area even comes close to matching what the Plaza offered. The cloverleaf design of the mall was centered around the very first ice skating rink in the state, as well as the first ever "food court". As well as the food court outlets (Taco Loco, Flame-N-Burger, Hook Line & Sinker, Orange Julius, Karmelkorn, Baskin Robbins, Corn Dog 7, Aladdins Castle, China Express, Great American Cookie Co, etc.), there were quite a few sit down restaurants. The mall itself was divided into 4 sections which ran from anchor to anchor. Each section was individually named: Santa Rosa Mall, Santa Ana Mall, Santa Maria Mall, and Santa Clara Mall, each section written out in tiles on the floors of each wing. The center of the mall where the ice rink and food court stood was the Fiesta Plaza Mall. The decor was entirely brown tiled floors, tiled walls, wood benches, real live trees, and tons of skylights. Storefronts had stylish signage hung vertically in the corridors. While the mall was enormous in size, each corridor was actually very cozy and manageable, the unique cloverleaf design kept it in perspective.

Original stores included the very first Gap store in the area, Leonard Krower, Godchauxs, Morrisons Cafeteria, Sizzler Steakhouse, the first ever Chick-Fil-A in the state, Swiss Colony, Shoe Lodge, Dannys, The Ranch, the ever popular Farrells Ice Cream Parlor Restaurant, Gordons, Florsheim, National Shirts, GNC (also a first), Bakers, 5-7-9, Merry Go Round, Imperial Shoes, Porter Stevens, Rubenstein Brothers, All American Jeans, Spencers (of course!), Limited, Hickory Farms, Hibernia Bank, Bank Of New Orleans, a huge McDonalds, Space Port, Wicks n Sticks, Tinder Box, Walgreens (with a cafeteria), Swiss Colony, Hausmann's, B. Dalton, Collage, Brentano's (really cool outlet of the famous NYC store), Gryders Shoes, Ponsetis Shoes, Oshmans, Fiesta Mexican Restaurant, Lerners, Kay Bee Toys, Vision Plaza, etc etc.

But by the late 1980s, the convert|1200000|sqft|m2|sing=on mall had fallen into disrepair. Its anchor stores -- including Sears, Mervyn's and Maison Blanche -- began to close. And the complex developed a reputation for being isolated and crime-ridden. The mall thrived until about the late 80's when the economic downfall of New Orleans took an especially heavy toll on New Orleans East. Through the 90's, as the neighborhoods around it deteriorated and became unsafe, the mall felt the repercussions. Originally N.O. East was an upper/middle class neighborhood with lots of well heeled subdivisions and several large upscale apartment complexes. When the economy hit the skids in the 80's with the loss of the oil business, New Orleans East became less affluent and much more section eight. Many of the well heeled residents fled to the safer confines of the North Shore / Slidell area, which in its boom wound up with its own mall, (North Shore Square), which had many of the same anchors and mall stores as Lake Forest.

Sears was the first large anchor to close shop at the Plaza. Despite a major renovation in the late 80's which replaced the by now drab brown, earth tone tiling to a generic white/aqua color scheme, as well as removed the ice rink, it was too late to save Lake Forest. A renewed energy at competing Lakeside Mall in nearby Metairie, LA (which did not suffer the same sullen, crime ridden reputation of N.O. East) took many of the more affluent shoppers who formerly were loyal to Lake Forest.

Just prior to Katrina, the mall was left with only one large anchor in the former Maison Blanche building, which became a Dillards when they bought out the MB stores. Earlier on, when Dillards bought out the Holmes stores, they shuttered the Lake Forest Plaza location rather than converting it. The Cinemas wound up closing when Gulf States Theatres decided to concentrate on the East Lake Cinema 8, located across the interstate from the Plaza. In quick succession many of the national retailers closed up shop also. Eventually they were replaced by independent stores catering to an urban clientele. Entire corridors of the mall were boarded up with sheetrock, which while tastefully done, dramatically decreased the square footage accessible to the public. It seemed as if practically overnight the Plaza became a "dead mall". The mall was originally developed and managed by Sizeler Realty. Later it was sold a few times, eventually landing in the hand of Gowri Kalais. Today only the former MB building still stands, as well as a stadium seat Grand Theatre which was added in the early 2000s as an out parcel in a last ditch effort to bring life back to the Plaza. The rest of the complex has been demolished and is being replaced by a Lowes. Gowri Kalais is attempting to secure government help redeveloping the rest of the site into a new "town center" type of development with free standing stores, garages, hotels, apts and condos (many locals do not believe this will ever occur, as the current owner does not enjoy the confidence of either locals or politicians; and also owes the government money while he is attempting to gain more governmental assistance).

External links

* http://deadmalls.com/malls/plaza_at_lake_forest.html
* [http://www.highwayhost.org/ShoppingMalls/lakeforest1.htm December 2006 photos]