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NEITHER FLOOD NOR FIRE HOLD DOWN MALL

Joel Groover

The most dramatic and shocking images from Hurricane Katrina still linger in the American psyche — entire Gulf Coast towns leveled as though by a nuclear blast; desperate refugees screaming for help at the New Orleans Superdome; thousands trapped on rooftops or in attics amid fast–rising floodwaters.

But the hurricane and its aftermath also forced the New Orleans metropolitan area and much of the Gulf Coast to confront a steady stream of smaller psychological shocks. These disruptions in daily life added to the surreal feeling that this part of the world was in utter chaos, says Ronnie Harris, mayor of Gretna, La., which is just across the Mississippi River from New Orleans. Imagine how you would feel if your local mall had been looted and burned to the ground, Harris says.

“The thought is so foreign to people, but that is exactly what happened to me,” Harris said. Looters descended upon Oakwood Center, a 947,000–square–foot mall serving Gretna and surrounding communities, within days of the August 2005 storm. So devastated was the mall that its owner, General Growth Properties, might have cut its losses and chosen not to rebuild.

“The theory is that the fire was set by the looters,” said General Growth CEO John L. Bucksbaum, SCSM. “The structural steel was literally melted and twisted, causing the roof to collapse. In the portions that didn’t sustain structural damage, there was extensive smoke and water damage.”

General Growth was determined to preserve this community asset, however. “The day after it happened, we got to work on what we needed to do to rebuild,” Bucksbaum said. “We never contemplated anything but rebuilding.” The extent of the structural damage, combined with the need to deal with multiple insurance companies, to conform to new building codes and to satisfy lots of retail stakeholders, made the effort anything but easy. The two–year push culminated with the reopening of Oakwood Center on Oct. 19.

The reopened mall, with Dillard’s, JCPenney and Sears as anchors and a roster of about 70 retailers, has given Gretna and the surrounding area a psychological boost, Harris says. “In New Orleans the Mississippi River is not only a natural barrier, it is a psychological barrier as well,” he said. “To cross the bridge and go elsewhere to shop has been very difficult on our community.   I personally haven’t been [mall] shopping since the storm.”

The mall, which will employ about 2,000 during peak seasons, has a bright new look, with redesigned signage and logo, huge skylights, a fountain measuring 34 feet in diameter and earth–toned porcelain floor tiles throughout. General Growth’s future plans include new sit–down restaurants to supplement the 20,000–square–foot food court.

Among Oakwood Center’s newer names are Aldo, Forever 21 and Garden Fresh Grill, and there are still more retailers slated to open there by year–end.

The mall’s financial prospects, too, may be a bit brighter than those of retail businesses elsewhere in New Orleans, says Loren C. Scott, a Baton Rouge, La., consultant and a former economics professor at Louisiana State University. Because the area escaped floodwaters after the levy burst, much of the housing stock survived. That made it easier for people to return to their homes and create the population densities retailers want to see, Scott says.

On the whole, though, the New Orleans metro area still faces economic challenges, not least of which is the national housing slump, which has hit this area particularly hard. “In the first few months after the storm, we were adding jobs at about 7,400 a month,” Scott said. “That rate has slowed to about a 1,000 a month.”

Bucksbaum says he hopes the newly rebuilt Oakwood Center will buoy this fragile recovery. “When a city is devastated the way New Orleans was, anything you can do that is positive is going to be well received,” he said. “It needs a catalyst — and businesses reopening, especially something as big as Oakwood Mall, can serve as that catalyst.”