Alexandria Mall

In March 1972, Buddy Tudor's family-owned construction company from Pineville began construction of Alexandria Mall. The mall opened its doors on August 1, 1973 with over 30 stores, spanning nearly 500,000 sq ft (46,000 m²) in total. It featured national department stores JCPenney and Sears (both of which replaced preexisting locations in Alexandria), regional chain Bealls (later Beall-Ladymon), based in Shreveport, Louisiana, and local department stores Weiss & Goldring, Gus Kaplan (later Green's) and Wellan's as anchors. Other original tenants included Piccadilly Cafeteria, Peoples Shoes, Lerner Shops and a two-screen cinema run by General Cinema Corporation.^[4][5]

In August 1986, an expansion to the mall was completed that doubled its size to 869,732 sq ft (80,800.7 m²) and added 56 additional stores, including the department stores Dillard's and Mervyn's (the latter of which opened that October due to a delay in construction), and a food court dubbed "The Market Place". Concurrently, portions of the existing mall were renovated, and the two-screen cinema was replaced with a six-screen multiplex on the mall's periphery.^[6][7][8] In honor of the mall's expansion, local pizza chefs cooked a 650-pound (290 kg) pizza.^[9]

In July 1989, Wellan's closed after failing to pay rent for seven months; the Alexandria Mall store was the chain's last remaining location.^[10] In 1994, Beall-Ladymon was acquired by Stage Stores and renamed to Stage. In November of that year, a renovation of the Sears wing of the mall and its entrance was completed, and part of the former Wellan's became a Sam Goody store;^[11] Stein Mart filled the remainder of the space in October 1995.^[12]

In February 2001, General Growth Properties (GGP) took over leasing and management of the mall.^[13] It was then sold to J. Herzog Properties of Denver, Colorado in 2004, with GGP retaining its management role.^[14] Mervyn's closed in January 2006,^[15] followed soon by the closure of Stein Mart on April 30.^[16] In March 2007, Burlington Coat Factory opened in the former Mervyn's location,^[17] while Weiss & Goldring relocated outside the mall into a former Firestone tire center that was converted into a strip mall.^[18] Bed Bath & Beyond opened in 2008 in the previous location of Weiss & Goldring, and the former Stein Mart became a children's play place called Slinkee's.

GGP handed over management of the mall to Jones Lang LaSalle in 2010.^[19] Both Slinkee's and the neighboring Lagniappe Theater Company had their leases terminated on September 29, 2015, as the mall was under negotiations to convert their spaces into a Conn's store, which opened on February 13, 2016.^[20][21]

In September 2018, Sears closed as part of the chain's plan to close 72 stores nationwide.^[22] Stage closed in early 2019. Bed Bath & Beyond closed in March 2023,^[23] and Michaels opened in its place later that year.^[24] In fall 2024, Burlington Coat Factory moved to the nearby MacArthur Village shopping center, and Conn's closed as part of the chain's bankruptcy proceedings.^[25][26]

Chick-Fil-A closed their Mall location on December 31, 2025.^[27]

• Alexandria Mall Official Website