Metrocenter Mall is an enclosed shopping mall in South Jackson. The largest enclosed shopping mall in Mississippi, it is composed of 1,250,000 square feet of retail space on two levels, including four anchor spaces. Regional real estate developer Jim Wilson & Associates built the mall in Mississippi's capital city in 1978, as one of its portfolio of properties throughout the southeastern United States. Key tenants as of 2014 include one of two Burlington Coat Factory stores in the state, and offices of the City of Jackson. The mall is located near the junction of Interstates 20 and 220, along South Jackson's U.S. Highway 80 corridor. After years of ownership by Cannon Management and Jackson Metrocenter Limited, a decade-long decline at the mall led to a foreclosure in November 2012, and subsequent sale to Metrocenter Mall, LLC.HistoryWhen Metrocenter opened in March 1978, it was considered to be the largest mall in America with over 100 services and stores on two levels. The mall opened with three anchor department stores, Jackson-based McRae's, Alabama-based Gayfers, and national retailer Sears. New Orleans-based D.H. Holmes was added as the fourth department store anchor in May 1979. Restaurants were inside two of the department stores — Potpourri Restaurant inside D.H. Holmes, and Widow Watson's inside McRae's. Metrocenter also had a Service Merchandise, a specialty outlet of the Jackson-based Jitney-Jungle supermarket chain, and Mississippi's only General Cinema theater as outparcels, and took away most of the business of Jackson Mall, which opened in 1969 with JCPenney, Gayfers, and Woolco as its anchors, in North Jackson. Metrocenter continued to enjoy success after Northpark Mall opened north of the county line in Ridgeland in 1984.
