It’s still the case. Dillard’s still has its 1976-1977 D.H. Holmes exterior because they haven’t started thier renovation/expansion yet, and Sears’ exterior was redone in the spring of 2006, a few months before the mall was sold and a year before the mall was demolished.

http://www.hammondstar.com/articles/2009/10/02/top_stories/business/9103.txt

and another from 1012corrider.com

http://www.1012corridor.com/archives/1012-corridor-weekly/latest/

and one more from Stirling Properties website with some pictures of the all new center:

http://www.stirlingprop.com/site137.php wil

It will be interesting to see how many of the stores will be returning from the old Hammond Square.

The grand opening is finally here after 2 1/2 years of construction. Here are some links to the grand opening event from The Daily Star:

http://www.hammondstar.com/articles/2009/10/01/top_stories/business/9103.txt

http://www.hammondstar.com/articles/2009/10/01/top_stories/8860.txt

I was a Hammond resident for 20 years. Sadly, I don’t think I ever got any pics of that place. Really unfortunate that they decided to scrap the whole lot rather than renovate, quite sad…

re, Sizeler properties and that 12″ strip.. agree 100%; major management blunders were surely a big factor; management staunch insistence to ownership of Fagan drive and decision to block off that strip of land impeded development of the surrounding area: them blocking it prevented access to the surrounding area (except to the mall) from the major road.

See here for some more info: http://www.hammondstar.com/articles/2005/12/22/business/biz02.txt

In the short term it may have protected them from some competition directly next door; but in the long run, it clearly did much more harm than good

Had Sizeler put their resources into further development rather than into lawsuits, maybe they wouldn’t have gone into bankruptcy, and maybe they could’ve done something better than demolish and build open space.

I just wanted to give everyone some updates:

Target opened July 22 and had thier grand opening July 26, and the center portion of the new mall (the main street) is set to open in late September or early October.

@Jonah Norason (Pseudo3D), Actually, TJ Maxx won’t open until August 2nd, and Sears hasn’t remodeled yet. (The exterior was repainted and updated with new lower-case Sears logo in the spring of 2006, which was before the mall was purchased and demolished, and the interior was last renovated in the spring and summer of 1996, but a new renovation is supposed to occur eventually.) And in regard to Dillard’s, they’re supposed to do a total renovation/expansion sometime in the near future. The exterior still has the original look from the time it was D.H. Holmes when the mall was built in the late 70s. (Note: Dillard’s did slightly remodel the interior in the late summer/early fall of 1989 when the store was taken over, but the previous mall owners [Sizeler Properties] kept Dillard’s from renovating or expanding due Dillard’s owning thier building, but the new mall owners [Stirling Properties and Hammond businessman Jimmy Maurin] are letting Dillard’s expand.) Dillard’s has no plans to close.

Sorry for being long-winded, I just wanted to give my insights on things.