Southpark Mall Summer Grove Baptist Church Dec 2024

I decided to shift the Toys R Us in San Marcos article for a later time.

So, what's new at the former Southpark Mall in Shreveport Louisiana? The property operates in much the same way that it did nearly a decade ago when we last visited for the blog on this update. On this visit, we didn't walk through the interior. We did come across the following video that is the best walkthrough I have seen so far. A lot of the old mall is still around behind the newer sheetrock walls. The parking lot unfortunately needs a lot of repair work, but the mall building is in really good shape.

Here is somewhat recent tour of the mall from the Twin Blends Youtube channel.

We will start with the former Montgomery Ward. 

The inside of the store has definitely seen better days. I am glad they have not boarded up the windows so you can still see inside.

The merchandise pick-up exterior sign is now inside and out of the elements. 

The signage on the door has lasted decades after the store closed. 

Random stuff piled up inside of the store.

Before we drive around the mall property, here is a look at the former Montgomery Ward auto center.

The front of the Montgomery Ward facing Jewella has some banners advertising the church.

Looking past, we see the former JCPenney, now the main worship center of the church. 

The last retailer left, Burlington Coat Factory. This location is definitely an odd holdout considering that Burlington stores have been opening newer and smaller locations to replace these holdouts. 

This was the lunch-time crowd on the Saturday before Christmas 2024.

The old signage is looking rough. 

The former Dillard's building. Not sure what it is being used for these days, but it seems to be in good shape. 

The parking lot near Dillard's seems to be an unofficial rest stop for truckers.

A faint labelscar on the upper section of the building.

A look at the full length of the mall.

The shuttered entrance to the former Dillard's.

An excellent labelscar, over two decades after closing.

The mall entrance near Dillard's and Burlington.

The former Stage store is being used as a thrift store. 

The mall entrance leading directly to the JCPenney entrance.

That is all for this tour. More to come.

Central Mall Texarkana Texas Feb 2025

Here is a new mall to the blog. At long last, we made it to the Northeast tip of the state. 

Central Mall is a decent shopping mall located in Texarkana Texas just a few miles West of the state border with Arkansas. The mall is listed as having 678,480 square feet of retail space and opened in 1978. The current anchors are Dillard's and JCPenney. Lilly Page and a soon to open Planet Fitness are junior anchors at the mall. A vacant Sears rounds off the anchor spaces at the mall. The Dillard's here which was expanded in 2016 is the second oldest store in the whole chain. 4th dimension owns this mall along with Almeda in Houston and Central Mall in Port Arthur. Kohan previously owned these malls, so 4th dimension has their work cut out for them to bring these properties back to 100% occupancy. Anyway, back to Central Mall.

Burlington, Five Below, Ulta, Michael's, and Books A Million are in locations surrounding the mall property. Here is the road sign facing I-30.

Here is one view of the mall directory. As you can see, the mall is pretty much one long hallway from JCPenney to the former Sears.

The exterior of the mall property. The mall entry signage looks really old school. 

Dillard's

JCPenney

The South side of the mall.

The vacant Sears.

A quick look into the vacant Sears.

More views of the vacant Sears from the South side of the mall.

More of the South side of the mall.

Now into the mall we go.

A retro mirrored JCPenney entrance.

Looking down into the mall towards the center court.

A rare neon GNC sign.

I really like the high ceilings here; it breaks up the monotony of a straight-line mall.  

A little bit of ceiling damage.

The Dillard's center court.

As we head past Dillard's to the former Sears and food court area, there are a lot of empty spaces. 

The former Sears anchor spot. This store never received the bland tile 90's mall entrance update that most stores had. 

The Sears mall entrance doors were cracked open to see inside. I wonder if I could have rolled them open to have a good look around. Security was visible around the mall, so I definitely wasn't going to take my chances.

Chik Fil A is still going with a few other eateries inside. 

One of the two arcades in the mall, Silverball a very tiny one.

Now this is what I would consider to be a food hall instead of a food court. Not just a fancy name for a food court, a hallway with one row of tables and restaurants on both sides.

Back into the mall main corridor.

A nice tribute to first responders and military personnel.

Candy Craze is one of the few places left in this section of the mall. Another store in this area is the Lilly Page which is a lady's apparel superstore is inside of the old Bealls just across from the food court near Sears. This area matches the other court near JCPenney with high ceilings and wider hallways.

Now a look at the Dillard's corridor.

More mall signage and another mall map view with less reflections.

Center court of the mall facing the South entrance from Dillard's.

An interesting store near the South entrance.

One of the strange rules here is that unaccompanied minors under 18 are not allowed to be in the mall on Friday and Saturday nights after 5pm. 

Back to the center court of the mall. A new Miniso store is down here as well. One of the few retailers expanding to malls as others close locations.

Looking down towards JCPenney from the center court.

This former junior anchor space was at one time a Dillard's Men's store. Not sure what was here originally.

More views of the mall in the JCPenney side of the mall.

And for the second arcade at the mall, Starlite Golf.

Starlite Golf has a nice mural outside of the business.

One last look at the mural as we leave the mall. 

So here is my opinion of the mall. This is a decent shopping experience. Central Mall is doing much better than any of the Shreveport area malls located roughly an hour Southeast of Texarkana. Ownership needs to fill the vacant Sears anchor that is dragging down one side of the mall. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of options for a city of this size in 2025. Target, TJ Maxx, Ross, Cinemark, and Academy already have locations in the city. Dicks Sporting Goods could be an option since they are not in the area yet, but the city may not be large enough for their target population size. 

That is all for this post. More to come. More malls, a new Toys R Us store, and more retail to come.