Former Slidell Target site purchased in a cash sale, real estate firm says

A 125,000-square-foot former Target that has stood empty since February 2018 has been bought, according to Beau Box Commercial Real Estate, which announced the sale of the Slidell site Monday but didn’t disclose the purchase price or the buyer.

Henry Galindo, director of operations for Beau Box, said the real estate company would not disclose that information because the cash sale hadn’t been recorded yet. The property was listed for $2 million.

“We do not have any information on what may be coming to the space,” he added.

The building is located on 12 acres at Interstate 12 and Airport Road, where it was a major anchor, along with Academy Sporting Goods. While stores like Ross Dress for Less and Party City are still operating, the strip mall is dotted with vacant spaces.

It’s also just across I-12 from the largely defunct North Shore Square mall. That property shut down its interior space in mid 2019 following an exodus of tenants, fueled in part by the opening of Fremaux Town Center in 2014 and by the loss of national retailers unable to stay viable in the age of online shopping.

Slidell Mayor Greg Cromer, who campaigned in part on bringing business to the city, said that he had not heard about Target being sold and didn’t know who the buyer was.

A group of local business people had been interested in the property for a project that Cromer would not disclose, though he said they are not the buyer.

Target opened the Slidell store in 2003. When news of its imminent closure began circulating in November of 2017, customers took to Facebook with a petition asking the Minneapolis-based retailer to reconsider.

The company said at the time that it evaluated every store’s performance annually and typically made decisions to close after several years of decreasing profitability.

The closure left St. Tammany Parish with one Target, located in Covington.