In the early 2000s, Shreveport’s AT&T plant on Mansfield Road shut down the assembly lines and closed the doors. Roughly 6,000 people lost their jobs.
Keith Hightower, the mayor at the time, remembers it well. He, then-U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. and union leadership flew to New Jersey to lobby AT&T to keep the facility open. They were not successful.
Shreveport’s Youree Drive was exploding, and Hightower asked Target to build a second location on Mansfield Road. “Everywhere we went calling on the retail component for Youree Drive, we pushed Mansfield Road and Pines Road,” he said.
The situation in the southwestern part of the city got worse when the more than 3-million-square foot General Motors plant, which had seen a nearly $1 billion upgrade several years earlier, shut down.
“We were very fearful,” said John Lorick, the owner of Southpark Auto Sales in Southern Hills. “We were seeing Kmart and businesses like that struggling or leaving and seeing the Youree Drive corridor exploding and we knew other businesses were going to follow that trend.”
And they did.
In short order, Southpark Mall on Jewella Avenue went out of business. “The mall closing hurt as much as anything,” Hightower said. “It was a big billboard saying, ‘this is not good.’Â It was awful, quick and frightening at the time.”
Lorick hosted a meeting at his auto dealership to talk about forming a business association. “We put word out about it, hoping to have about 10 or 15 people show up, and we had standing room only. Word got out and people showed, it was such a high interest.”
“We felt we had to do something to retain the business integrity in the area. We basically had to reinvent ourselves and we knew the big box stores were not staying with us.”
Lorick said the businesses that joined the Southern Hills Business Association realized when it formed in 2001 that change would not come overnight. “We really were left with no large businesses, so we felt the way to approach that was to seek smaller and encourage smaller local businesses and to fill up empty spaces.”
23 years later, the SHBA is seeing success.
A building is under construction on Mansfield Road in Shreveport, La., Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024.
Beverly Sater, the current business association president, says there is a vibrancy among the 175 paid SHBA business members. “Closed buildings are being occupied. The old Carl’s Junior has someone going in. A gas station at the corner of Mansfield and Crabapple is being torn down and built back up. And we have new apartments and new housing developments. We’re gaining new population to Southern Hills.”
The Mansfield Road corridor is now home to the city’s only ALDI’s grocery store, a Tractor Supply, Starbucks, a Chick Fil A and other chain restaurants, as well as the state’s only Long John Silver’s, but property is still available in a price range that attracts new business owners like James and Joyce Joyner.
Three months ago, the Joyners purchased the Vacuum Cleaner Hospital at 8959 Jewella Ave. The couple live in Southern Hills, they have another business in Southern Hills, and they decided to make a leap to a brick-and-mortar in Southern Hills. You could say that they are “all in” in Southern Hills.
Vacuum cleaners sit on display at the Vacuum Cleaner Hospital in Shreveport, La., Wednesday, Sept. 11, 2024.
They own a commercial janitorial service and Joyce Joyner said their new shop is a nice complement to it. It is a blend of vacuum cleaner repair facility, sales of new and refurbished vacuums, carpet and steamer cleaners and gift shop. Joyce has seen the changes in Southern Hills over 25 years.
“I see it coming back to life, I see new people coming in, I see business popping up, I don’t know how in the world they say we’re in a recession, I don’t see it. I just don’t. I see a lot of new things happening. I see growth, I see growth.”
The Joyners recently joined the SHBA, a move she wishes she had made before, and is making plans to have a display at the upcoming SHBA Business Expo.
A motorist drives up a business driveway as traffic in the background moves along Mansfield Road and Bert Kouns Industrial Loop in Shreveport, La., Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024.
It is a signature event of the SHBA that attracts 100 vendors and more than 1,000 visitors, some of whom, it is hoped, will invest in Southern Hills.
Harold Sater, one of the original members of the SHBA, says it’s time. “Mansfield Road is now one of the busiest roads in Shreveport.” “A lot of good things are happening in Stonewall, which is helping us grow. It’s a good feeling.”
Beverly echoes that. “It’s been very rewarding, new restaurants and new banks, a new grocery store, it’s making a big difference in interest in Southern Hills.”Â
“With the exit of businesses back then it left plenty of vacancies that over time became more affordable for small mom and pop and local businesses. I think that has led to the influx of what we have seen and with that got the attention of some of the national companies,” Lorick said.
“It’s a great area of spendable income. It’s affordable for people who are young, who are raising families. A contributing factor is the growth of Stonewall, and I think that’s going to continue.”
A Panda Express is under construction on Mansfield Road in Shreveport, La., Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2024.
Additional businesses, like Panda Express, are moving in, and Harold and Beverly Sater would love to see more, “A fine dining restaurant, a steak house would be really nice, an upscale boutique type store,” they said.
Former Mayor Hightower says strong associations like SHBA can encourage dreams like that to happen. “Neighborhood organizations have always been an important driver. You can’t have a mayor that’s in every part of the city every day and it’s great to have those organizations that that’s their single focus.”
SHBA Expo and Taste of Southern Hills
5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 24.
Summer Grove Baptist Church.
8924 Jewella Ave., Shreveport.
100-plus vendors.
Free to attend.
