Three months after Jonesboro tornado, Turtle Creek Mall starts to reopen

JONESBORO, Ark- After the march 28th Jonesboro tornado, the mall at turtle creek looked unsalvageable, but that’s not the case.

Since the tornado, millions of dollars in repairs have taken place inside the building with one store re-opening tomorrow.

“Right now, Dillard’s is going to re-open they’re doing fast repair work to re-open,” says Campbell. “J.C. Penny’s also spent a couple of million to repair their roof. Dillard’s is an anchor for that mall and it’s an Arkansas company, so we’re very proud that it’s opening back up. The mall has come a long way in three months.”

Campbell says about twelve million dollars in repairs has taken place overall for the mall with J.C. Penny’s spending two million alone, as they work to re-open.

Adding everything west of the food court now has electricity, but complete repairs could take up to two years.

Dillard’s will re-open tomorrow at 11 a.m.

Campbell says the food court will need to re-build as most of the damage was west of the food court, with everything east, received less damage and could re-open soon with repairs.

“Bath and Body Works and Victoria Secret are on pretty stable ground,” says Campbell. “The others may take a good while if and when they re-open. Most of those businesses want to get back to normal as quickly as possible and what we are seeing is most of them are re-building.”

Campbell say the mall starting to re-open is a symbol of hope for our community, adding that Mayor Perrin is also very pleased as well.