Here is a new mall to the blog. Vista Ridge Mall opened on October 4, 1989, and is listed at 1,046,000 square feet of retail space. The mall was renamed Music City Mall in late 2017 with new ownership. Now known as The Vista, this mall is located Northwest of Dallas in Lewisville Texas. This mall once hosted Foley's, JCPenney, Sears, and a full line Dillard's as anchors. Currently Zion Market, a 15-screen Cinemark, and Dillard's clearance center anchor the mall. This mall never really lived up to expectations. The mall took a couple of years to fill up with retailers and fill out the anchor lineup. Competition just a few years after opening, chipped away at the mall leaving us where we are at today. The city of Lewisville is working to get the mall redeveloped in a similar fashion to the former Collin Creek Mall that we covered here (click me). We captured the mall just before the mall was sold again in September 2022 with yet another name change, with the property now known as The Vista. I really liked this mall; it is a shame that it has struggled and will eventually be torn down. The mall was designed with a lot of detail and still looks very good inside.
In 2023 all of the Music City Mall signage was removed, so the mall has the old Vista Ridge logos visible from the mall entrances once again. As for the roadside signage, below it looks like they just took down the Music City logo and left the blue background.
We visited the mall on a blustery cold day with off and on snow flurries.
Now for some views around the mall. Dillard's still looks really nice for a clearance store.
The mall structure though is looking a bit dated.
The former Macy's.
Now for the most active part of the mall. The Zion Market inside of the former Sears.
The former JCPenney. This is the most unusually designed JCPenney store I have ever seen.
Now let's go inside of the mall. As mentioned earlier, the Music City Mall signage was removed, revealing the old mall logo.
Here is the mall map. It looks like the mall was designed for 6 anchors, but only made it to 4 and a half.
The center court of this mall is the best feature. Not only is this skylight visually stunning, but the mall also had live music in the center court on this visit making this an even better experience.
One of the concerns I had with photographing this mall was the aggressive security. A friend of the blog had recently been trespassed from the mall shortly before my visit to the mall. Security was very visible throughout the mall, but I was careful to avoid them while getting my footage for this article.
It was around the time of my visit that the ownership had started to give up on the future of the mall. Reading more recent reviews of the mall and the plan by the Lewisville Economic Development group, the interior mall may soon cease to exist.
One of the skylights in the Sears/Zion Market court.
Old GNC logo labelscar.
The mall corridors reminded me a lot of the former Highland Mall in Austin Texas.
Here is the Zion Market which was in still in the construction phase. The former Sears anchor is one of the bright spots in the mall.
You can see the support beams have been walled off and turned into spaces for businesses. The former Sears store would have had a mostly open floor plan for shoppers.
A large pool hall and bar.
Keep in mind that these spaces were still under construction. The first floor was completed as you will see later, but the second floor was not ready yet.
A few businesses were open such as this restaurant and gaming cafe.
A better look at the pool hall.
The old escalators. According to recent reviews, these are still not in service.
More views from around the second floor.
Looking back into the mall.
The Lest We Forget WWII museum that was located in Valley View Mall has a new home here.
One of the remaining chain stores.
We are walking to the East end of the mall where Macy's/Foley's was located. This anchor closed on March 21, 2021.
Former Abercrombie and Fitch. These stores have been closing little by little.
The mall elevator has a cool round steel design.
The Cinemark 15 screen cinema which was a later addition to the mall. The original Cinemark 12 screen cinema was located in the center court of the mall.
The skylight in front of the former Macy's with Citi Trends in the bottom of the photo.
A look at both mall entrances to the closed off former Macy's.
The tile in this mall reminds me of the 90's era JCPenney mall entrances.
The former Macy's mall entrances are pretty generic.
A few store advertisement displays and mall advertisement near the former Macy's.
Calendar of events.
Another mall map.
A peek inside of the former Macy's.
At least you don't have to travel far for another Macy's location.
A low key Music City Mall sign above the escalators.
Now we are on the first floor near Macy's.
With another generic entrance
A modern family restroom area next to the former Macy's entrance.
Now for a look at the mall heading back towards the center court.
I really want to know what this store was originally.
One of the vintage cars set up inside of the mall. There will be several more as we progess.
Was this possibly a Sam Goody/FYE location with all of the neon.
This store seems familiar, but I can't put my finger on it.
Inside of the above store.
One of the pianos, that will later be used.
Since I had this song stuck in my head when I saw this store, now you get to remember it as well.
The Tool Box and another retro Corvette.
Pretty sure this soldier memorial was also inside of the former Valley View Mall as well.
An interesting way to cover up a vacant storefront. Mall management went all-in on the Music City concept.
Another tile choice for this section of the mall in front of the former Sears.
Now for the first level of the Zion Market. The Sears closed in September of 2018 and was quickly replaced by the Zion Market which opened in August of 2019. Judging by the look of this space, the first floor was finished and filled out quickly, while the second floor was filling out after people were moving on after the Covid era.
The redevelopment of the former Sears reminds me a lot of the redevelopment of the former JCPenney at PlazAmerica's Mall in Houston. The first level of the former Sears is practically unrecognizable though.
I was very impressed with how lively and nice this redevelopment was on my visit.
The closed off escalators. Fortunately, you can access the second floor from the parking lot and mall access. There should also be an elevator somewhere in here, but I didn't find it.
A row of shops lines the corridor leading to the market.
The bakery at the outside entrance to the Zion Market.
Inside of the market.
The items are spread out into the walkway.
Now we will walk around the inside of the market for you to see the selection of food available.
The customer service desk was located at the base of the other side of the escalator.
The food court was very busy, so this is the best photo I was able to get. We did get a late lunch here and we were very pleased with our noodle bowls.
One of the bakeries inside of the food court.
Back into the mall we go.
Former Disney or Warner Brothers store?
Almost back to the center court.
At this point, the live musicians were playing. It was sad that they were playing to no audience. There were just not a lot of people walking around inside of the mall.
Another Corvette.
Another view of the massive center court skylight.
Another awesome elevator.
A couple of Music City Mall surfboards.
Now let's see the other half of the mall. The Dillard's clearance center was keeping traffic flowing through, but recently they have closed off their mall entrance.
The Ten Commandments sign.
The former JCPenney mall entrance.
This looks like a former Old Navy.
Another Corvette. Pro Image Sports is to the left. One of the most interesting stores to me inside of the main mall corridor.
The court in front of the never-built anchor pad.
This large Foot Locker is one of the remaining corporate chain holdouts in this section of the mall.
One of the coolest and 80's style escalators out there. The side was clear so you could see the inside of the escalator rolling.
There was also a piano player in this section of the mall (not pictured).
This Dillard's had downsized to a clearance store in 2019, just before the Covid pandemic hit. The second floor of the store was closed off at that time.
Interesting use of store space.
From the Dillard's Mall entrance looking towards the mall corridor.
I had to ride the cool escalators. It is sad that just 5 years after this sign was presumably installed, all of the anchors mentioned here were gone.
The lone bright spot next to the closed off second-floor Dillard's mall entrance. The neon signs here are very eye-catching.
Another bland department store entrance. At least Dillard's made it interesting once they closed the second floor to the public.
Looking back at the mall corridor.
A reception area. I am guessing this is also part of the event center that is coming up in our tour.
Music City Mall is a dog friendly mall. A lot of malls were doing this to try and bring back customers after Covid, but have since restricted the days and times you can bring dogs into the mall.
A photo-op area outside of the Dew Event center.
A great use of a large space inside of the mall.
Looking down the mall corridor towards the center court.
The tilework and skylight is a lot more interesting here IMO.
More views of the mall spaces. The second floor of the mall from the center court to Dillard's doesn't have much retail left. This space was empty inside.
An obvious former Hot Topic.
Inside of the former Hot Topic.
One thing I never noticed before is the spiders and bugs in the design of the Hot Topic entrance.
Heading towards the former JCPenney mall entrance.
More vacancies.
This is one of the oddest JCPenney mall entrance designs that I have seen. The exterior is also different than I have seen before.
Parlor of Entertainment. Online listing for this place has murder mystery, escape rooms, and puzzle rooms. Their last Facebook post was from 2022 so they may not be open anymore. This is a fitting section of the mall to have this since it is so dead up here.
Getting livelier as we get closer to the food court.
Easter themed store front.
Here is the food court. A lot of what was here on my visit has since left unfortunately. The food court was nearly full of eateries, and you can get an excellent view of the center court.
I really just couldn't get enough of the center court. It sounds like the center court structure will remain intact as part of the current future redevelopment plan. This is an asset and needs to be saved at all costs.
More of the food court.
A nice perk for shoppers. $1,000 in 2022 is worth a lot more than it is in 2024. Sadly with the state of the mall in 2024, you may have trouble spending $1,000 now outside of Dillard's.
Some of the center court businesses as we head out to see the sun go down.
JCPenney with Dillard's just below the sunset.
Still a few light snow flurries falling with brisk wind. I intended to walk closer to the JCPenney exterior entrances, but it was way too cold and windy for me.
One of the side entrances to JCPenney. Like I said, this is a very unusual design for a JCPenney store.
Back into the center court. Just as amazing as the center court looks in the day, it looks just as good at night.
A different family lounge near the center court of the mall.
They just don't design malls like this anymore.
Former Journey's.
Only the real ones know the man on this shirt.
There it is Bath and Body Works! You know and I know, they will be here until the end.
🐶🐕
One last photo as we wrap up this tour.
Up next is post #500. Sears Deerbrook Mall on April 24. On 15th Anniversary of the first blog post.
After looking back, I certainly flooded the blog with several posts right off of the bat. Quantity over quality wasn't a great formula, so today we have quality over quantity.
Here are links to my first day of posting on the blog.
