What’s the story behind the eyesore of Esplanade Shopping Center in Baton Rouge off I-10?

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Is that the shopping center with Hooters in it

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Of the malls that occupied Baton Rouge, Corporate Mall is the shortest lived. It was a 120,000 square foot enclosed mall located at the intersection of College Drive at Corporate Boulevard as part of a commercial development known as Corporate Square. Groundbreaking began in 1972, and stores opened in November 1973. Technically, it was Baton Rouge's first enclosed mall (as Bon Marché enclosure was completed in 1974, and Cortana Mall opened in 1976) and was designed as a "fashion mall" consisting primarily of clothing stores, specialty stores, and restaurants. argest and primary anchor was the locally based I. H. Rubenstein and Sons clothing store. Other original tenants included Alan Abis, Almar Book Store, Beau James barber shop, Brass Hanger, Camera House, Carriage Trade Flower and Gifts, Christian Book and Gift Center, Clothes Closet, Doris Dodge Fashion Square, Fancy Fins, Gilhes, Holiday Hallmark Shop, Jules Madere Jewelers, Louisiana National Bank, Merle Norman, Ogden Record Shop, Piano and Organ Mart of Louisiana, Peppermint Tree, RFD, Todd, and Garland, Steinberg's, Sugar Shack, Tanner-Kimbrell, and Tiger Travel. Corporate Mall also had four restaurants to anchor the four corners of the mall: Shoney's, El Chico, The Square Peg, and E. L. Saturdays (a TGI Friday's Spinoff restaurant).

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Of the malls that occupied Baton Rouge, Corporate Mall is the shortest lived. It was a 120,000 square foot enclosed mall located at the intersection of College Drive at Corporate Boulevard as part of a commercial development known as Corporate Square. Groundbreaking began in 1972, and stores opened in November 1973. Technically, it was Baton Rouge's first enclosed mall (as Bon Marché enclosure was completed in 1974, and Cortana Mall opened in 1976)

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