North Park Mall: Ridgeland, MS

Built in 1984, Jackson's newest traditional mall is likely to be the last mall ever built in the city as well as the last mall in the city to operate as a traditional mall.  This is due to the combination of the failure of the city's other two indoor malls coupled with the fact that every shopping center built in the city since then has been an outdoor power center or lifestyle center.  As an otherwise unremarkable mall, this is still one of the largest malls in the state at 957,000 square feet, and its now dominant position as the remaining mall is what keeps the mall going strong.  However, this is an unenviable position as Jackson drifts into one mall territory, which likely will lead to the mall absorbing elements that have killed its predecessor Metrocenter.  This is currently the issue with Eastdale Mall in Montgomery that lost its mall competition in 2008 and now is suffering decline despite having a full deck of anchors and no other enclosed malls to compete with.  While the mall features three anchors (in four anchor spaces) and low vacancies, it is not a mall that is likely to remain immune to the forces of competition.  Currently two anchors have another location elsewhere in the city, but that is likely to change further in time.  For now, it is a reasonably attractive mall owned by Simon with two Dillard's, JCPenney and Belk, so the mall is respectable for a city this size.

North Park Mall is actually located in the town of Ridgeland, which is a suburb of Jackson instead of the city itself.  When the mall opened, it dealt a devastating blow to nearby Jackson Mall closer to downtown.  As the older and smaller center with fewer choices, both JCPenney (with the Funky "P") and Gayfer's jumped ship from the mall to join the larger North Park Mall leaving the older mall anchorless, eventually closing before becoming a medical mall.  Gayfer's was actually moving into a smaller store at North Park, but it was also in a better neighborhood.  Along with JCPenney and Gayfer's came Jackson's own McRae's and the city's second location of DH Holmes.  Gayfer's took the north anchor, JCPenney the west, McRae's the east and Holmes the south.  The opening of this mall created a whole new suburban retail corridor that sprung up along I-55 north of the city coupled with older Highland Village to the south and many other shopping options inbetween.  

The first photo is of the mall's center court while the second photo is looking from center court down the DH Holmes/Dillard's South wing.  The center court is beautiful, although it would be more stunning with some greenery and a fountain.

Close-up detail of the Holmes mall entrance.  Dillard's has not changed this nor have they made any exterior modifications to this or its other store in the mall to their typical look.

McRae's apparently did not want to impress much with their mall entrances, because as Belk it is absolutely as plain as dirt.  Maybe somebody remembers?

For years, while North Park grew more popular, it was still overshadowed by its larger competition on the opposite side of the city, Metrocenter.  While doing fine, it was for a time a secondary choice.  Curiously, neither mall had both a JCPenney and Sears together.  Metrocenter had the Sears and North Park had the JCPenney.  It is wondered how such a situation like that could have occurred since most malls built in the 70's and 80's managed to eventually have both.  Nevertheless, as Metrocenter began its long decline starting in the 1990's at no point did North Park ever expand, suggesting that the favorable location of North Park was seen as enough by the mall's owners.  The mall renovated once before in 1995, relocating and expanding slightly for a food court, but this was as far as it went.  The mall apparently has been renovated again since, but it is unknown when exactly this was done.  The result of this was that when Sears closed at Metrocenter that the entire city became one of the first mid-sized cities in the nation without a Sears.

A couple views along the main mall wings.  No pictures were taken of the food court, which is on the lower level between JCPenney and Dillard's North.

Another view of center court with detail of the center skylights.

Nevertheless, in the period of anchor consolidation that took place in the 1990's, management was bound to be on edge.  In 1989, DH Holmes had already been converted to Dillard's, but when Dillard's also bought out Gayfer's, this resulted in the mall having two Dillard's stores.  Perhaps Sears was considered for the Gayfer's location if Dillard's closed, but it was clear that neither May Department Stores or Federated Department Stores (which are now all part of Macy's) did not have any serious interest in expanding to the market.  Furthermore, when McRae's recently chose a flagship store to replace their store at Metrocenter, they chose a location in a new shopping center in Flowood instead of designating the North Park store as such.  During the period that McRae's opened in Flowood, JCPenney also built a store in the area.  Belk, however, keeps the store open unlike Metrocenter and JCPenney so far is keeping both stores in the market.

Detail of the JCPenney mall entrance, which is the typical late 70's/early 80's design with dark glass, display windows and dark panels.

Dillard's North mall entrance, previously Gayfer's.

As basically a cross-shaped mall, the interior of the mall is bright and cheery with abundant natural light and two levels.  It is also one of only two two-level malls built in the state (not counting anchors), the other being Metrocenter.  The only malls comparable in size anywhere near it other than Metrocenter are in Baton Rouge, Memphis or Birmingham.  Nevertheless, the mall faces competition from the huge development in Flowood centered around Dogwood Festival Marketplace to the southeast.  Also, a couple exits up is Renaissance at Colony Park, which is a lifestyle center containing most of the upscale stores that likely once called North Park and Highland Village home.  The biggest threat to the mall in the future is if the anchors decide that it would be better to join one of these developments.  Currently Colony Park is anchorless and only Belk (former McRae's) is at Dogwood Festival Marketplace.  If Dillard's especially decides to leave for one of these developments and JCPenney's current troubles cause the company to fail, it would be devastating for the mall and could place the city in the eventual position of being the first city without a traditional enclosed mall.  While that is a worse case scenario, that is not entirely unlikely in the current market that faces a serious mall meltdown if JCPenney and Sears both end up closing, and even one anchor loss could be devastating for this mall.

Exterior views of the DH Holmes, now Dillard's South.  The store carries a lot of similarities to the store at the now-demolished Belle Promenade mall in New Orleans.

When JCPenney was doin' it right, they were doin' them all the same.  This store is similar to many others built in the mid-to-late 1980's.

Here is an outside shot with the food court on the right and part of the Dillard's North/Gayfer's on the left. 

For now, the mall seems to be in a good position.  However, it is a mall that seriously needs to consider making changes to make it more competitive in the long term.  In a city with few potential anchor choices, it is risky to keep four large anchors on any mall.  Expanding either the former Gayfer's, consolidating them into one larger, more updated Dillard's store would be a start with the former Holmes and connecting wing demolished for a lifestyle center addition.  Perhaps also the Dillard's should be rebuilt where JCPenney currently is with JCPenney taking the existing Dillard's north location.  This would reduce the risk of creating a vacant anchor that couldn't be filled and decrease the likelihood of Dillard's looking elsewhere.  This would also allow the mall to increase its square footage and diversify its offerings to better compete.  If this were done, this would also help the mall to attract a store like Macy's to fill JCPenney or Belk if either decided to close or relocate.  In this environment of fading malls, it is very important for the remaining malls to minimize their dependence on traditional department store anchors with the average mall aiming to have only one or two department store anchors and to convert larger portions of the mall to a pedestrian-only outdoor format with a more inviting and less insular design.  

The Gayfer's/Dillard's North here is one of the favorite late 70's/early 80's designs of Mercantile Stores featuring boxy entrances and lots of brown brick. 

The Belk, formerly McRae's, is one of the most brutalist stores I have seen.  This store was built just shy of the emergence of Post-Modern architectural design.  It is very imposing and could be mistaken for a very drab office building from the 70's.  McRae's built or acquired some very attractive or distinctive stores.  This is not one of those.  I'm sure there are many that will disagree, however.

In all, North Park Mall is a successful, albeit basic mall that should take steps to better define itself now that it is soon to be the only mall left in the city.  Perhaps it should even be renamed if they undertake the suggested renovations that I discussed here.  North Park Mall is a very generic name that has been shared with other malls, including dead ones.  Something akin to Mall of Mississippi, Capital Centre or The Mall of the Delta would be better to sell the mall.  As the center point of a sprawling retail corridor situated just beyond view of the interstate, North Park can either remain that destination or one day suffer the fate of its sister mall across town.

Also: I failed to get a picture of the mall directory, so here is the lease plan:
Lower Level | Upper Level

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Metrocenter: Jackson, MS

My first entry for the state of Mississippi is about Mississippi's largest mall, which is unfortunately a beleaguered mall that is barely holding onto its original intended retail purpose.  Opened in 1978, Metrocenter was once the shining star of the state hosting four excellent anchors in a great location with a ton of promise.  Those fortunes have faded away over the past two decades as population and demographic shifts have caused the mall to fall out of favor.  The result has unfortunately been the mall losing every single major department store anchor with exception of a Burlington Coat Factory filling the bottom level of a former Gayfer's.  Today, the mall is over 50% vacant with inline tenants largely gone and most of the bottom level closed to the public.  The interior portion of the mall will likely close soon if steps are not taken to repurpose the entire center for a non-retail use.  Nevertheless, the mall remains open for business for the time being.

Jim Wilson & Associates developed Metrocenter, which is located on the west side of Jackson.  Normally a developer of smaller enclosed malls, this was one of their largest projects at the time.  The original anchors were Jackson-based McRae's as the east anchor, New Orleans-based D.H. Holmes as the south anchor, Sears as the west anchor and Mobile-based Gayfer's as the north anchor.  It is a two-level mall with an impressive staggered center court with a large domed skylight, palm trees and a wide atrium.  Overall, the mall has an open, airy feel though an obvious early 90's remodel left the mall considerably less impressive than it likely was originally.  Despite this, the mall has never been expanded and retains a rather classy 70's look outside with some of the best looking anchor designs from the period it was built.  It's also in a highly visible and seemingly excellent location resting in the NW corner of US 80 and I-220 one exit north of I-20.

Here is the entrance wing between McRae's (Belk) and Burlington Coat Factory (Gayfer's).  An old Ruby Tuesday is on the left.  This is the only part of the lower level that still contains active stores.  The first photo is of the center court with the closed-off escalators on the right.  Only one set of escalators remains open to the lower level.

Lower-level entrance wing opposite the one above.  This is between the former Belk and former Dillard's (D.H. Holmes).

More of the same with a useless framework overhead.

The lower-level entrances include a small portion of the main mall remaining open.  Note the temporary wall in the background.  However, no stores are operational in this area.

Anchor consolidation did not help the fortunes of the mall.  Dillard's ultimately became owner of two anchors in the mall through purchase of the parent companies of those stores.  The first was when D.H. Holmes was purchased by Dillard's in 1989 with the store converted to the Dillard's nameplate.  While that change was purely cosmetic, this posed a bigger problem when Dillard's later also purchased Gayfer's in 1998.  Dillard's promised to keep both stores open only to quickly close the former Gayfer's in 1999.  Leaving one anchor vacant at the mall was only the beginning of the mall's troubles.  By then, the mall was languishing due to competition from North Park Mall, an emerging retail corridor on the east side of the city as well as the overall decline of the area surrounding the mall.  This was not a fault of the mall owners.  It was simply a case of circumstances beyond their control: a factor in the death and decline of many other similarly successful malls.

Photo of the overhead skylight from the McRae's/Belk court.

Former McRae's/Belk mall entrance.  This was McRae's flagship up until the store at Dogwood Festival Marketplace opened in 2002.  However, both stores remained open until 2010, though operating as Belk since 2006.

View of McRae's mall entrance from upper level south court. 

Lower level of same court.  Escalators were laid out perpendicular to the main mall in the north and south courts.

By 2004, it was becoming obvious the mall was facing an uncertain future.  This is when Dillard's left the mall leaving two anchors dark.  Crime problems were already escalating, curfews had been instated a few years before and the mall began to bleed tenants as the wealth and population continued to shift out of the city of Jackson to neighboring Brandon, Flowood and Ridgeland.  Looking at Jackson today, it is clear that the concentration of suburban development has long since moved away from Metrocenter.  It was by this time that Metrocenter showed up on Deadmalls.com.  Unfortunately, the state of the mall today proves that this status is deserved.

Walking toward center court along the upper level.  The wall in the previous photo is visible here on the lower level.

Looking back in the opposite direction toward McRae's.  The name of the store in both photos is a good title for this photo set.

Here is the mall directory.  The directory still shows Belk and Sears (both gone).  The top anchor and bottom anchor were both Dillard's, but originally were Holmes and Gayfer's, respectively.

 Sears mall entrance.  Unfortunately I was not able to capture a better angle.  Connect the dots.

Before further decline set in, the malls fortunes seem to be improving slightly.  In August 2007, Burlington Coat Factory moved in and took the lower level of the former Gayfer's.  The same year, McRae's parent company Saks, Inc. sold McRae's to Belk.  Two years later, the slide continued as Belk closed their store in the mall.  Belk cited that they wanted to focus on their other area stores, including the recently opened store at Dogwood Festival Market in Flowood to the east, which had previously opened as McRae's replacement flagship store.  Sadly, the McRae's at Metrocenter was the former flagship store.  Neither Dillard's nor Belk is close to the mall.  Later that year, the City of Jackson purchased the former Dillard's.  A year later, the mall would enter foreclosure with Westcor as the owners by that time.  The current owners, the Overby Company are a Jackson-area real estate firm who purchased the mall.  In 2011, the City of Jackson also proceeded purchase of the former McRae's store, which is currently under renovations for city offices currently located in the Jackson Medical Mall.  At the same time, Sears announced the closing of their store at the mall.  This not only was the final death knell for the mall leaving the mall anchorless, but this also marked the total departure of Sears from the entire city of Jackson.

A view opposite the Sears mall entrance.  The lower level here was completely closed off.

Dillard's (DH Holmes) mall entrance on the lower level off of center court.  The upper level entrance was walled off.

Burlington Coat Factory (Gayfer's) mall entrance also on the lower level of center court.  Again, the upper level mall entrance was walled off.  Burlington here has sealed off their mall entrance elminating any reason to go downstairs in the center court except to take pics of it.

Upper level elevator entrance in center court.  I chose the escalator.

Visiting Metrocenter was a creepy experience.  The mall in many ways is still trapped in time, though more evident from the outside.  The parking lot is full of weeds as if the mall has already closed, and the pavement is in horrible condition with buckled concrete, potholes and broken pavement pretty much everywhere.  Every anchor is dark as well with exception to the lower level of the old Gayfer's and Belk store under renovations for offices.  While very distinctive and elegant, the anchors looked forboding.  Holmes/Dillard's was in the worst shape with broken glass on the exterior.  McRae's, obviously showcasing its one-time flagship store, was the most elegant but clearly dated.  The entrances also were a definite throwback to a flashier time in retail design with its shiny mirrored look.  The mall's logo also looks to have never been updated.

Closed escalators rising to the Sears wing from center court.

View of the staggered center court complete with splashy decor and withering palm trees.  It looks like the party is over minus the beer cans and millionth spin of Margaritaville.

A look back toward the Sears wing.

A look at center court from lower level complete with sculpted shrubs.

Another angle of the lower level.

Note in the background the mirrors on the escalators.  Also notice that although they went pure fab for the center court then ran out of money when time came to put in the fountains.  While it may still be running, this is not a fountain.  This is bidet.

Inside, the mall feels like it has already been forgotten.  While most of the lower level was closed, it was still visible with temporary walls blocking each section.  In fact, no stores remained operational on the lower level except a couple local operations near the former Belk with outside access.  Mysteriously, the lower level of center court was still accessible despite Burlington Coat Factory closing its mall entrance and not a single store remaining operational below.  Even a couple small fountains still splashed a song.  The center court, also once elegant, proved to be depressing as palm trees withered due to neglect.  All but two escalators overall were blocked off except one in center court and one in the court next to the old Belk.  The mall still had a surprisingly high amount of business, though, considering the fading state of the mall.  Perhaps the place has become a curiosity of locals who just want to see it a few more times before it is gone.

Maybe this explains the bad luck the mall has had judging by the broken mirror.  Not many people were seeing this, though, as shoppers were non-existent in this area due to a lack of stores to shop in.

Absolutely no stores were closed up on the lower level.  One store I was able to walk right into as there were no barriers, no doors nor walls.  Check out this restaurant here just right out in the open.  This reminds me of this photo.

A view of the elevators to the left and only functioning escalators to the lower level court.  Holmes would be to the right.

This mirror-clad gaudy entrance looks unmistakably similar to the one used in the final renovation of now-dead Montgomery Mall.

Metrocenter directory outside of the mall.  I really do love the name and logo of this mall.

Metrocenter sign at main entrance facing US 80.

While I applaud the city's efforts to keep Metrocenter viable, I question if it is really going to save the interior part of the mall.  If the mall closes without any interest, the decaying building will likely become a health hazard to those offices that are located there.  The mall will need to be a mixed-use project throughout, but the sheer size, condition of the surrounding property and subpar location will make it difficult to completely fill the center.  Perhaps the city intends to grow into the rest of the mall, but otherwise what will become of a mall in its last stages of survival?  The prospects do not seem promising, but perhaps someone will find a great use for the amount of space that is there.  At least we will know what it looks like and what it once was before it is gone.

Lower-level entrance of Sears.  It was very plain, but had a 90's stucco "upgrade" on the upper level entrance typical of pretty much every 90's Sears store.

Former D.H. Holmes store.  Note the spot for the logo and the smashed glass.  The mall already is looking abandoned outside despite still being open. 

Apparently the City of Jackson has a vested interest in keeping the mall from being completely abandoned since they are in the process of renovating the old McRae's/Belk for city offices.  It is a very striking store and one of the best looking mall anchors of the 70's I have ever seen.

Gayfer's was pretty plain for the most part.  While the Burlington logo is on both levels, only this lower-level entrance is open with the chain only using half the store.

Here is a view of the Sears and Holmes with a visual of how rough the parking lot looks.

Overflow parking lot with I-220 in the background.

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