 BY ADAM DAIGLE | Acadiana Business Editor If you follow business news around the country like I do (it's part of the job, after all), you'll know that interesting things are happening with those behemoth shopping malls from the 1980s that are now mostly empty. One of my realtor sources told me a few months back that he's optimistic about the future of shopping malls. When's the last time you heard the words "optimistic" and "shopping malls" in the same sentence? Which brings us to the big news that came out late Monday: the Northgate Mall sold for $2.8 million. The buyer, local developer Jacoby Landry, has plans to reinvent the mall. Can it work? Time will tell. This I know: he'll have Mandi Mitchell and the Lafayette Economic Development Authority backing his efforts. I'll say it again: Stay tuned. You can read more about the deal here. | 
