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When Porter-Stevens closed its stores in downtown New Orleans and Esplanade Mall last year, officials at Oakwood Center figured it would be safe to rent the retailer's 7,500-square-foot space a Oakwood to The Disney Store. After all, the company's lease expired at the end of January, and it didn't look lib the menswear chain was going to be around New Orleans anymore.
But when mall officials served notice on Porter-Stevens in January, they got a surprise. The company, contrary to expectations, wanted to stay in the Gretna shopping center. And it was willing to put up with three subsequent relocations--two of which will be in temporary quarters the size of a large dressing room--to do it.
"Normally we would have preferred to remain in our old location, but we were able to make this work," says Don Noel, president of Porter-Stevens, which also kept open its unit at Lakeside Shopping Center in Metairie. "This is a wonderful store for us."
Five years ago, industry observers say, such loyalty would have been unlikely. Back then, merchants couldn't decide if the place to be on the West Bank was Oakwood--which had been around since 1966 and had yet to catch fire--or the much newer Belle Promenade Mall in Marrero.
But after three years of renovations and remerchandising, which will culminate with the opening of a $16 million Maison Blanche unit a year from now, Oakwood has clearly taken the lead.
Though the mall has yet to catch up with Lakeside--still the No. 1 shopping center in the city--observers believe Oakwood has locked down its position as the dominant mall on the West Bank and is ready to mount a serious challenge for the No. 2 slot in the market, now occupied by Esplanade Mall, which outgrossed...