Highland Mall appears to be winding down retail operations in the mall and more stores have closed since my last visit in May of this year. The food court restaurants may be the only outlets that are allowed to stay after the mall is converted into a college over the next five years. Austin community college purchased the mall in pieces and they are moving all of their operations into the former mall.
The mall directory is updated, but has several stores listed in different categories that make the list look larger.
The food court has one new restaurant; a pizza place that was reopened in the Villa Pizza spot.
Gamestop and a pretzel store are down this hallway to the former JCPenney.
No cookies and ice cream here!
The center court
In front of the former JCPenney, Champs is still open but is one of the last stores left in this section of the mall.
Emptiness
JCPenney labelscar.
The Macy's corridor has the most stores still open.
Inside Macy's which will soon become offices for the college.
Back to the Macy's corridor with some of the open stores.
Going towards the Dillard's woman store corridor.
Inside of the Dillard's woman store.
The fountains are still on for now even though most of the stores have left this part of the mall.
The former Macy's first floor.
Inside of the JCPenney appears to have been gutted and ready for the renovation into offices.
The former Macy's view from the parking lot of the old JCPenney.
More shots of the former JCPenney.
The former Dillard's men store.
The former Dillard's woman store.
Was it typical for Dillard's to put two stores at the same mall? I know of Mall that had two Dillard's stores. The Mall was later completely demolished except for a Store now used as Kohl's. The Mall was rebuilt as a Higher-end Shopping Center and the area is doing well now.
ReplyDeleteIn Austin both of the other malls (Barton & Lakeline) have two Dillard's stores one for men and the other for women. The Esplanade mall in Kenner LA has two and First Colony In Sugar Land TX also has two stores. I guess it depends on the mall traffic to keep two stores. Baybrook Mall in Clear Lake TX had two but one is now a Macy's, Parkdale Mall in Beaumont had two but one is now a Bealls, and even the Mall of Memphis TN had two before both stores closed and then the whole mall closed. Dillard's has too many locations and they will struggle to maintain all of this retail space they have in the south. In the New Orleans market Dillard's purchased the Holmes department store chain with eight stores in the New Orleans market and immediately closed two locations and another one in 1997. Then 10 years later they purchased the parent company of Maison Blanche and closed Oakwood and Canal Street immediately, closed Clearview within two years of the takeover, and the Lake Forest Plaza location was closed in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina and demolished in 2007. Seven department stores lost with only Clearview (Target) and Oakwood (JCPenney) reopened after the closures. I also forgot to mention Belle Promenade which closed in 1999 to bring the total to 8 stores closed in the metro New Orleans area by Dillard's.
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