Cortana Mall - Baton Rouge, LA | a dead mall nearly abrogated from torpid ownership | ExLog#39

[Music] you [Music] hey what's up guys my name is Sal and this is another expedition log [Music] today marks the end of X log phase two and the end of the 2018 gulf mall tour today we'll be visiting a mall that I was able to catch in its last stage of vitality when stores were still open and shoppers are spending money despite the many scars lining the corridors and concourse of this mall such as holes in the ceiling and is still running fountain lined with algae and gross screen junk the mall was still alive when I saw it today it's not but I would like to show you how it used to be at least in 2018 so let's bring phase 2 of the expedition log series to an end in Baton Rouge Louisiana come take a walk with me and my dad captain Sal's senior in the court animal in Baton Rouge Louisiana [Music] but first a word from our sponsor price LeBlanc selling any truck you'll take literally anyone he'll sell you whatever you're willing to buy and my dad captain Sal senior samplings trucks are capable of it's pretty impressive [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] and then feed you a few wrong dropping you like a hot potato [Music] [Music] [Music] back in the 1960s the East Baton Rouge Parish in Louisiana had the Bon marché mall which was opened as an open-air mall in 1960 and still exists today but repurposed as a technology business park the local Baton Rouge community was opposed to the idea of any new mall due to the restrictive nature of proposed traffic redesigns but mostly because they had been noticing sharply deteriorating sales in downtown stores and they wanted to revitalize the central business district area [Music] in 1963 metropolitan Baton Rouge 84 point nine million dollars worth of goods were sold 20.8% of this was sold in downtown shops by 1970 to 236 million in goods were sold but only 6.1 percent of that were sold from the central business district downtown tests were even run in the downtown area to close off the streets near shops just to see if people were drawn in without the noise and commotion of traffic to make it a more safe and easy to shop area these tests failed miserably and the community hated it and a shiny new mall got the green light for construction [Music] [Applause] [Music] the mall would be built on a 103 acre tract of land that was previously the court Anna plantation back in 1856 the old sugar harvesting court and plantation was acquired by James a macat analysis of a small properties inc who hired the milton jhay Womack company for construction round is broken and construction began in 1974 the folks over at the Bon marché mall they got nervous when construction began and they converted their mall to be enclosed in the same year to try and compete with the shiny new mall on February 11th 1976 a 120,000 square foot god Shaw's department store opened and then on August 4th 1976 the dedication ceremony and grand opening was held for the court animal to which the Gauchos was attached the original anchors for the mall were the Gauchos Wilson's catalog showroom by HJ Wilson company Sears JC Penney and Dillard's the mall would receive its first renovation and expansion five years after the mall opened in 1981 the god Shah has received a second level and one year later the chain merged with the Maison Blanche department store chain of New Orleans nearby co-branding the store as God Shaw's Maison Blanche by 1982 1985 saw the Wilson's catalog showroom transformed into service merchandise and two years later the Cortana mall got a second expansion Mervyn's was added as the sixth a senior anchor and the seven store concourse was added to the mall with its formal dedication on July 12 1987 bringing the Cortana mall to 1.6 million square feet of Commerce [Music] in the 1980s the court animal was the place to be in Baton Rouge Louisiana six healthy anchors with hundreds of places to shop kids were running around the mall buzzing with excitement in 1989 with the release of Nintendo's Game Boy intoxicated by the thought of having just seen the newly released Batman with Michael Keaton he's one of the top three Batman actors for me Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade was in theaters along with Back to the Future Part 2 The Little Mermaid Ghostbusters 2 and Honey I Shrunk the Kids music from not only these movies were dancing in people's minds but from popular musicians of the time such as Duran Duran the bangles Depeche Mode REM and New Kids on the Block [Music] [Music] the move into the 90s brought some amazing changes and some challenges for America the Hubble telescope launched and began its mission in 1990 and Tim berners-lee published his formal proposal for the world wide web with the first web page being written shortly thereafter home alone Edward Scissorhands and The Godfather Part 3 came out in 1990 as well by 1991 the internet was made available for unrestricted commercial use with over 1 million users in the first year and Queen frontman and singer Freddie Mercury issued a public statement confirming his affliction with AIDS and he died one day after the announcement by 1997 we were at the end of Bill Clinton's first presidential term Princess Diana and mother Teresa had both died Mike Tyson bit Evander Holyfield's ear off in a match the Woolworths chain shuttered after 100 years Valley the Sheep was the first cloned mammal Steve Jobs returned to run Apple and JK rowling published the first Harry Potter book in theatres we had the premieres of Titanic men in black Batman and Robin arguably the worst Batman movie and liar liar' with Jim Carrey 1997 was a year of change across the world and it was felt in Baton Rouge to the court animal was formally rebranded to the mall at Cortana in an effort to offset the decline in business after two new malls opened within direct proximity to court and the Mall of Louisiana opened less than six miles away and town center at Cedar Lodge opened less than three miles away [Music] if I can have [Music] [Music] the Moloch for 10 makes holiday wishes to come true just bring $200 and specialty store receipts to the customer service center [Music] [Music] in 1998 Maison Blanche was purchased by mercantile stores who owned Dillard's the Dillard's at Cortana mall moved from its original location into the space formerly occupied by the Maison Blanche Gauchos and the old Dillard space was filled with a new department store called the Parisian it wasn't new but it was new at Cortana this store lasted one year and by 1999 the Parisian was replaced with a McRae's department store thankfully and against all odds the Cortana mall survived y2k and the early aughts had little effect on the mall McRae's wouldn't go defunct until March 8 2006 however most of them were converted to Belk stores but the Cortana McRae's was converted to a Foley's on March 28th 2001 service merchandise closed in 2002 in the building sat vacant for two years until it was reoccupied by a Steven Barry's discounted clothing store in 2004 by September 9th 2006 the Foley's nameplate was retired and the company was dissolved into Macy's South formally rebranding the Cortana location into a Macy's Mervyn's would also close their Cortana location in 2006 and it has been abandoned ever since in an effort to shift the local perception of the mall at Cortana the owners decided to revert the name back to court animal in March 2009 with this change many new stores would be open across the mall as part of the rebranding festivities and the owners pushed for a strong feeling of positive forward motion for the mall Dillard's renovated their store and shuttered the second floor converting it to a single floor clearance Center as part of the 2009 renovations Steven berries would also shudder this year just after at the rebranding this really doesn't sound like much forward momentum to me however a campus for the Virginia college which is a college based out of Birmingham Alabama opened in the vacancy left by Steven berries which was originally the Wilson's catalog showroom [Music] [Music] [Music] so as we make this turn up here we're coming up on the amazing array of fountains at the Cortana mall and they were still on well some of them were still on some of them were off but they had standing water but we're gonna run back to this corner here and we're gonna look back in this service corridor just because I get curious and I'd like to see these things there's a first glimpse we're gonna come back and take a look at more of these and you'll see some up-close shots of the standing water with all the algae and who knows what's in that water it's pretty disgusting as I was walking around back in this corridor I saw a couple of things that were a little suspect the first thing that I saw was the shopping cart that had a bunch of jargon on it and it just looked like it looked like somebody's mobile armoire or like their closet on wheels and I kind of suspected that down at the end of this hallway there might have been somebody there so I didn't want to put my dad in risk because he probably would have came back there looking for me so I decided to fo and get out of there [Music] there he is by the way he disappears behind that pillar spooky so here we are these are the amazing fountains at the court animal take a look at this just take it all in its smelled as bad as it looks I can't state strongly enough how bad the odor and this part of the mall was the standing water was mostly horrid but even the running water was just disgusting and I was pretty surprised that they actually still had it on look at this how is that not a health code violation mm standing water and there were mosquitoes flying around so if you see my motion jerking is because I was avoiding mosquitoes and swatting them away that's how bad this was [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] the original owners of court animal New York City's mall properties Inc were facing foreclosure on the property and by April 2011 they relinquished the mall back to their lender the Woodmont company was brought in for receivership to manage and lease the property and in March 2013 las vegas-based moonbeam capital investments LLC purchased the mall and their retained Woodmont to manage moonbeam paid six point one five million dollars for the mall and the Mervyn's which was one of seven underperforming malls that they purchased in 2013 one of the other malls that they purchased during this acquisition period was the burlington center mall in new jersey at the famous elephant statue named the waterhole and the elephant's name is petal moon being paid 4 million bucks for the burlington center mall actually have a video out for burlington which i published last february in 2018 but I was recently allowed full access inside the mall after was abandoned and I'll be releasing that incredible incredible footage in the Burlington sequel in the beginning of X log phase 3 port Anna mall is the end of X log phase to an X log phase 3 kicks off right after this and the next directors update which you don't want to miss lots of really great teasers reflections and updates will be included in that directors update along with some footage that you'll only get to see within that update so make sure you sub ring the bell and keep an eye out for that as well as the little Christmas for the sounds of Christmas come back [Music] and here we have my dad taking the mall massage chair challenge you'll have to check out the discord for full details on that the link for the dead moles of discord server is in my description below it's a really fun place and we're about to get a thousand members so make sure you join and if you're one of my patrons you get special access to a special room where it's just me and you guys in January of 2016 Macy's Inc announced that 40 locations would be closed across the country and by March of that year the court animal location was shuttered then one year later the mall would suffer its worst loss yet in 2017 court animal would lose both the JCPenney and Sears with both being closed by June of 2017 moonbeam prides themselves on reviving failing shopping centers being able to pull them out of the mire and make the most pitiful mall thrive but they just couldn't pull this one off just after the Sears and JCPenney closed in August of 2017 Moonbeam would place the ailing mall on the market for an asking price of 4 million bucks only to take the listing down shortly thereafter as there was virtually no interest by December of 2017 Dillard's sealed the mall access to their clearance center only allowing shoppers in through the front parking lot entrance by April of 2018 the mall only had 40 in line tenants left and in September of 2018 Virginia College announced that the court animal campus would be closing as of right now when I'm recording these words for you in May of 2019 the campus for a Virginia College is closed leaving the mall with only the Dillards clearance Center as the sole anchor and a reported occupancy of get this five stores five in-line tenants are open at this mall and I actually did call the management office to see if they were even still open and she said yeah come on down we got plenty of stores open but people on foot have confirmed that there's only about five stores left [Music] overall I was incredibly impressed with the upkeep of this small despite its sealing holes and the murky water in the fountain area the mall had its array of problems but overall the floors were pretty clean and it seems like the place was kept up pretty well for what it is as we walk towards this entrance we're gonna actually leave and my dad and I decided to go to the Dillard's but we knew that you couldn't get into there from inside the mall so we had to go hunting around luckily security was no issue when we were there the mall felt incredibly safe and I had no problems so good on you Baton Rouge so here we go we're gonna go outside and start our trek to Dillard's [Music] my dad's such a trooper I love that man captain Sal there he is we spotted what I think is the abandon Mervyn's but it might be the JCPenney my gut says Mervyn's and the label scar that you'll see after we come out screams Mervyn's well let me know in the comments if you know what this was just in an effort to see what the inside of this place looked like we walked into place and just started inquiring about how to go about making donations and just asking for more information there wasn't much to see documentation on donations leaving the pink perfect thank you sir and after just a brief conversation with the super nice people within the donation drop-off we had to leave because we felt the heat and it was time to go but look how cool those lights are super super cool and you couldn't get upstairs he was actually blocked off there wasn't just a tarp in front of those escalators it was blocked off at the top even if I tried to go up those escalators I couldn't showed you anything probably should have tried the elevator oh well [Music] what was that though so here we are going into the Dillards and this is a Dillard's clearance center and the second floor is closed off so we couldn't get up there we did look but there was only one door open and it was the front they lock this place down tight because there's so much merchandise inside it's like a sea of clearance goods so we got in and we just wanted to take a quick look around and immediately our first thought was let's go up those escalators and see what it looks like upstairs because you could actually look out through the window and see them all from inside but alas we couldn't everything was blocked off and people were staring at us the entire time so we're just gonna get a brief look inside the Dillards clearance center and then we'll get back into the wall for one last look the court animal is dead and the footage you're seeing is probably the last look that we'll get of this awesome awesome all in full holiday regalia with a survivable occupancy rate but as I explore more of these pale shrines to the glory days of retail and commerce I see more that cling on to life right up until the bitter end they remain open with sometimes just one store leasing space and management will even decorate for the holidays it's beautiful but bittersweet because nobody's there to enjoy this most of the time they'll only shudder the mall when either the city or state steps in for health code or structural violations or if a water main breaks or someone gets hurt [Music] I've seen malls with just one store open that stayed open with that one store open closed for those reasons I'm looking at you Burlington Center Mall and century three two other Moonbeam failures that only shuttered after catastrophic and multiple water main breaks within the mall despite years of health code violations and failing structural integrity it took the press getting wind of somebody getting hurt after a water main break from Moonbeam to actually shudder that place - Steve Maxon founder and CEO of Moonbeam and shawl prior chief operating officer Moonbeam the two of you should be ashamed of yourselves the way you've run your company is disgusting this parking lots pretty much on par with what I expect what parking lots to look like Adam all owned by Moonbeam and if you guys know what this building was and I think it might have been a bank let me know down in the comments but there was a stench that smelled like something died there and it was only at that building so something may have been decomposing inside there [Music] I have a ton more content coming on the way and as this marks the end of phase 2 phase 3 will kick off with a bang and possibly breaking 20,000 subscribers so thank you guys so much for all of the engagement and I appreciate every bit of it [Music] tire town Cortana check that out cubicles and everything I've dozens of amazing places to show you coming up malls abandoned places amazing structures cities sites everything so please stay tuned and watch out for my updates on YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook in discord and the links are below in the description for all of those I'd like to thank my patrons who directly support my channel and fill my tank with gas and my body with caffeine on all of these expeditions if all of you were to donate $1 per month I could do this full-time [Music] what's this used to be [Music] pretty Thanks to my subscribers and the dead moles of discord family who always pushed me to be better and last but not least you who stumbled on my channel randomly but decided to stay till the end I love all of you thank you guys so much all of you rock as always it was a pleasure taking you for a walk and talk my name is Sal and I'll see you guys next in phase 3 the expedition 1 series take care guys and have a fantastic day [Music] okay move you

Channel: Sal

Views: 28,252

Rating: 4.8887744 out of 5

Keywords: century iii, century 3 mall, dead mall, pittsburgh, mall, vaporwave, dan mason, urbex, mallsoft, schuylkill mall, 80s, 90s, moonbeam, plaza, decay, expedition log series, abandoned, sears, mountaineer, west virginia, sal, exploration, Baltimore, schuylkill, docu vlog, investigative, documentary, film, gunspoint, gunspoint mall, greenspoint, greenspoint mall, houston, texas, dangerous, crime, murder, dan bell, dead mall series, eddie lampert, jake williams, asmr, louisiana, cortana mall, cortana, baton rouge

Id: ZBuY0DQXZ-c

Length: 35min 0sec (2100 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2019