If you drove past Clearview City Center this summer and saw the roof torn open and steel piled up where the food court used to be, it probably felt like Metairie just woke up one morning to a different mall. It didn't. What you're watching this fall is the last step in a sequence that's been running quietly since 2020, and the demolition crews arrived after one restaurant had moved out.
That restaurant is Zea Rotisserie & Bar, and the order in which things happened here tells you more about how this property actually works than any rendering of the finished project ever will.
Six Years of Openings Before Anyone Saw a Wrecking Ball
The version of this story most people tell starts with the demolition. The more accurate version starts years earlier, while the enclosed mall was still standing and mostly still full.
Since the revitalization broke ground in 2020, the property added tenants one at a time, in spaces built around the edges of the old mall rather than inside it. A Regions Bank branch opened. Ruby Slipper Café moved in. The Metro at Clearview brought new apartments to the back of the site. Smalls Sliders, the fast-casual slider chain backed in part by Drew Brees, signed its lease and opened its bright orange building in the fourth quarter of 2023. Ochsner built a $115 million medical facility inside the old Sears. Target spent $9 million redoing its store.
None of that required a single wall of the old mall to come down. Here's roughly how it laid out:
| Year | What Opened | Where |
|---|---|---|
| 2020 | Revitalization project breaks ground | Property-wide |
| 2023 | Ochsner medical facility ($115M) | Former Sears building |
| 2023 (Q4) | Smalls Sliders | New standalone building |
| 2020–2025 | Regions Bank, Ruby Slipper, The Metro at Clearview apartments | Standalone spaces around the mall perimeter |
| 2025 | Target completes $9M store revamp | Existing Target building |
By the time anyone saw a bulldozer, Clearview City Center had already added a bank, a hospital-grade medical clinic, an apartment complex, and two restaurants without touching the mall's original footprint. The demolition didn't start the transformation. It's cleaning up after six years of it.
The Move That Came Before Demolition
So why did it take until 2026 for the wrecking ball to show up? Because the demolition footprint runs through the space Zea's Rotisserie & Bar had occupied for more than two decades, and you can't tear down a building with an operating dinner service inside it.
Zea's had to move first. The plan called for the restaurant to relocate into a new standalone building on the north side of the parking lot, and only after that move was complete could crews start on the section of the old mall between Ochsner, Target, and the AMC theater. Local coverage in mid-2025 put the handoff at May 2026. A separate report attributed to WDSU put it closer to February 2026. Neither is unreasonable for a construction timeline still in motion, but the gap is worth knowing if you've been trying to track exactly when your favorite rotisserie chicken spot changed addresses. The practical answer is: sometime in the first half of 2026, though the reports differ on the precise handoff date.
By July 2026, Thomas Richards, the managing partner overseeing the redevelopment, was describing the mall's interior in blunt terms in a report by FOX 8. Once the demolition crews cleared the space, he said the inside of the old structure was down to bare bones.
"The inside, if you were to peek in, it's just columns and a slab. It's been completely demolished."
That's not a metaphor about retail's decline. That's a literal description of what's left standing where the food court used to be.
What's Actually Coming Down, and What Isn't
The plan calls for demolishing everything between Ochsner, Target, and the AMC theater, which is the enclosed core of the original 1969 mall. It does not touch the buildings anchoring the corners. Target, the AMC theater, and Ochsner's medical facility are staying open through construction, which matters more than it sounds like it should. If you've been avoiding the property entirely because you assume it's a closed job site, it isn't. You can still see a movie, pick up a prescription-adjacent errand at Target, or make an Ochsner appointment on the same trip you always did. The disruption is concentrated in the middle, not spread across the whole parcel.
What's replacing that middle section is described consistently as an open-air lifestyle center, a departure from the enclosed mall format that opened here in 1969. Richards has framed the shift as a direct response to how online shopping reshaped what a shopping center needs to be, telling one outlet the site is well-positioned regardless of the format. One report also mentioned plans for a 270-unit apartment complex and a hotel as part of the broader build, alongside more retail and dining space and some area set aside for public events.
The Numbers Don't Quite Agree, and That's Worth Knowing
Most coverage of the project puts the total investment at $100 million. One wire report put the figure at $250 million. That's a meaningful spread for the same project, and rather than pick a winner, it's more honest to note that a redevelopment this size, still mid-construction, often gets reported at different totals depending on what's being counted: land, buildings, tenant improvements, or some combination that shifts as leases get signed.
What is consistent across every report is that a national retailer has already signed a lease for space in the new development. Richards confirmed it in July 2026 but said he couldn't yet disclose the name. Jefferson Economic Development Commission has also been working alongside the property to secure incentives aimed at drawing additional tenants, which suggests the leasing pipeline isn't finished even though demolition already is.
What Q1 2028 Actually Means Between Now and Then
The redevelopment's first phase has a targeted opening in the first quarter of 2028. That's roughly a year and a half from now, which is long enough that it's worth separating what changes immediately from what doesn't.
What changes now: the section between Ochsner, Target, and the AMC theater is an active construction zone, and Zea's has a new standalone address instead of its old spot inside the mall. Expect the usual texture of a multi-year build, equipment on site, some parking lot reconfiguration, and a fenced perimeter around the demolition footprint.
What doesn't change: Target, AMC, and Ochsner keep normal hours. Smalls Sliders, Ruby Slipper, Regions Bank, and the Metro at Clearview apartments were all finished well before demolition started, so none of that is affected by the current construction phase. If your routine already runs through this property for a movie, a slider run, or a bank errand, that routine holds through the next year and a half. What's coming after 2028 is still being leased, one tenant at a time, the same way the last six years were.
That pattern, tenant by tenant rather than all at once, is probably the most useful thing to take from watching this property. The finished rendering gets the headline, but the actual change here has always shown up in the leasing announcements first and the visible construction last.
If you're watching Clearview City Center evolve and wondering what it might mean for property values or timing a move near this corridor, that's a conversation worth having with someone who tracks this market closely. Ashley Nesser works Metairie and the surrounding corridors regularly and can walk you through what redevelopment like this tends to mean for nearby homes, both now and as the next phase gets closer to leasing. Let's Connect.
