Here are several views of the mall signs and entrances.
Here is the mall directory with many stores that no longer are in business. Many newer businesses are not listed either. Click here for the archived web page for the mall.
This is the mall entrance next to Burlington Coat Factory.
According to this blog this was once a mini entertainment center with games.
This is the second entrance to the Workforce Solutions office.
I am not sure what this store was but it takes up a substantial amount of space in the Burlington corridor.
The first floor in the Burlington corridor.
As you can see from this view of the Burlington corridor; the mall is very clean and well maintained.
A look down the second floor corridor near Burlington.
The Burlington mall entrance looks very fancy and may have not been changed from the Frost Brothers days.
Here is a look at some of the vacant storefronts in the Burlington corridor second floor.
The infamous Train collection.
The old Foot Locker.
Retro 1980's Foot Locker design. This is the 3rd old style Foot Locker that I have found and each one is missing the hoop that was in the middle of the scoreboard.
This may have been a former restaurant.
This store has a labelscar with the word toys. Was it a Kay Bee or Circus World?
A closer look at the labelscar.
The hall near the food court facing center court.
One of the three food court entrances. The open sign to the right is the Galaxy Golf course.
A former Corn Dog 7 with a labelscar.
A closer look at the labelscar.
GNC ain't dere no more.
Check out the old school font on this store sign.
Another store near the center court.
The directional signs are more current than the mall maps.
Wilcox Furniture was once a Montgomery Ward and before that a Joske's.
The second floor view of the Wilcox Furniture anchor.
There is a photo in this link that shows this part of the mall under construction.
The center court looks great despite several vacant storefronts.
This escalator was featured in this video clip from the movie the legend of Billy Jean.
The cookie store is gone.
Here are some of the stores that are open in between Sears and the center court.
The corridor that goes to the former Stein Mart. The mural is well designed.
A wood paneled former store entrance near Sears.
Sears is close to the food court and former Mervyn's.
A look at a few of the second floor businesses near Sears.
Two shots of the former Mervyn's corridor that was a later addition to the mall.
Mervyn's up close and a view of the still closed second floor. Planet Fitness occupies the first floor.
The labelscar for Mervyn's is faintly seen in this photo.
A pile of trash is all that remains in the former Mervyn's second level.
The arcade is in the middle of this photo with the entrance to Mervyn's to the far left.
The Port is the food court; currently only the Dollar Cinema, Arcade, and Orange Creations are the only businesses open in this part of the mall. There is still a bunch of neon especially on the front of the dollar cinema.
The food court is large but only one food outlet remains.
Burlington was originally a Frost Brothers.
Sears has been here since the beginning.
This was an HEB, then Stein Mart, and soon to be a church. This anchor was not originally attached to the mall.
Mervyn's, now Planet Fitness was built as an addition to the mall.
Views of the former Joske's/ Montgomery Ward anchor, now Wilcox Furniture.
Here are a couple of shots at the competition which is only two blocks away. La Palmera Mall has been recently updated and expanded to house more retailers with a second floor and an outdoor lifestyle center portion. La Palmera is nearly full and was packed with customers.
Looking at the La Palmera JCPenney is the only proof that this mall is the oldest in town, once named Padre Staples Mall.
Sunrise Mall is "hanging in there", which is a good thing. The only thing it has going for it is that it is centrally located along two very busy thoroughfares. I'm guessing that the owners are waiting for the real estate market to improve along with the eventual demise of Sears. Once that happens, Sunrise Mall I'm sure will have a date with the wreckers ball.
ReplyDeleteYeah I agree with Rob. Soon as the leases for the two major anchors expire, this mall is coming down.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to this mall, it looks like it thrived back in it's day. It's said that Texas keeps building these suburban shopping centers while neglect the original malls which have something that newer centers just lack. I like an old fashioned mall from time to time.
ReplyDeleteIn 2007, one of the new stores was "Caught You Bluffing" poker supply. I wonder if it's still there. I did take a bunch of pictures here, and only some of them were added to Labelscar.
ReplyDeleteI also heard (or read somewhere) that Workforce was originally a Chelsea Street Bar & Grill, but I dunno.
Lol caught you bluffing is a funny name, but that store is gone. I have just about every open business in my photos but I may have missed some.
DeleteShopping has been a favorite hobby for all since ancient times.
ReplyDeleteEarlier people use to shop n the streets along with their near and dear one. Increased modernization and technology brought about the concepts of malls.
lou
that arcade used to be an aladdin's castle, up until around 2005
ReplyDeleteThe large store on the lover level, by Burlington Coat Factory was originally an Oshman's sporting goods store.
ReplyDeleteAmazing! I will find out if the bank wants to save the mall (get more tenants) or planning to tear it down to build something else (my guess apartments = more $$$ per sq ft building up)
ReplyDeleteGreat, thanks for looking into that. I have not seen any new info online about this mall. My guess is that not much has changed since my visit a few years ago.
DeleteChelsea Street Pub was on the other side entrance between what is now Wilcox and the Halloween Spirit Store.
ReplyDeleteYup. And its re opened again.
DeleteCheck this Sunrise Mall video out from Dan Bell, he makes really good mall videos.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/aIx_YM5ER5Q
The mall was cool back in the day. I think a lot of hood rats were attracted when Dollar Cinema opened. Sunrise mall had a problem with gangs and young kids back when they would sport with baseball hats. Outside of Sears was a jewelry store I believe Zales, then across was the original Oshmans sports until they moved next to Burlington. Then the old Oshmans turned into Rick's which is now located on airline rd. You had record store further down and Foot action. In the middle was a pretzel store which also sold hot dogs. Also had a chic fil a and corn dog 7 surrounding the escalators. Then Monty Wards. Upstairs next to Dollar Cinema was a tuxedo place called Ginghis Tuxedos and then you had Pro Optical which is now on McArcle. There was also a foot locker and a candy store next to Kay Bee toy store. I believe there was another toy store across Foot locker that closed in the mid 80's. also next to top floor frost bros was a television store in the 80's. Near the upstair entrance at the secondary parking garage near Burlingtons was a Mexican restaurant called Ray's Mexican Restaurant. Over by the food court chic fil a moved up stairs I believe that became a Harley Davidson fast food. Also a Orange Julias but it closed and the second owner kept the Orange sign and changed to Orange Creations. Also had a Wendy's and across Dollar Cinema at the entrance was a recording studio you could make a cassette demo. Also there was Mervyns and next to it upstairs was an arcade. Near the arcade was the Military recruiting offices. This is pretty much what I can remember. Sucks that now Corpus only has one of each store. We have grown but are going backwards. That is why downtown Corpus is a ghost town too. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your memories of the mall. I really need to go back sometime soon. I especially need to check out the Kmart in Portland that is slated to close this Spring.
DeleteI used to love going to Sunrise as a kid. I would go with my dad, usually to Dollar Cinema. We park on the upper level parking lot, then walk down the walkway where there were usually a lot of people just hanging out, outside and inside. You walk in the Malls doors, and to your left was the Dollar Cinema. You look to your right and there are many quarter machines and seating. Packed as always. Like what the poster said above /\/\ the recording studio was there. The nautical themed food court looked amazing at that time. We would always eat on the ship area. Orange Julius was a spot me and my dad would always go to. Not orange creations, which is what is was changed to. Close to the Dollar Cinema I remember a bright, modern looking salon with high ceilings, just do not remember the name. Of course Aladdin's Castle was amazing.
ReplyDeleteI do remember Ray's Mexican Restaurant. I cannot find pictures anywhere. We used to go there to eat Nachos. I think they may have made the huge chips there, then on the chips would be refried beans, cheese, and jalapenos. We would always eat on the 2nd floor of the restaurant. I never sat in the first level area, but I remember the restaurant being very slim when it came to the width of the business, hard to explain. On the second level where we would sit I remember I would sit next to the rail so you could see down. The first level of the restaurant had open, bright light coming in from the top of the building, while the second level had its own separate lighting, a bit darker, but comfortable.
There was one business that I can not find anything about, I have been searching for with no luck. I do not have a name of the business. Just memories from when I was a kid. My mom would drop me and my sister off at this play center/ daycare business inside of the mall. I will list the details. You walk up with your parents, your parents pay, the employee would open a adult waist high wooden door, as soon as you walk in, there was a big jungle themed water bumper boat play area. Literally filled with water, and play in the bumper boats, jungle noises, fake gators, etc. You look to your right, and there are a few arcade systems. You look straight and there is a big ball pit surrounded by a big net enclosure. As you walk towards the ball pit, to your left would be 2 big moon jumps next to each other. You could go in one moon jump, step out then go to the other one. They were the exact same, no difference. Except that the back moon jump always seemed a bit messed up and always needed repairs. These moon jumps were on a wooden platform. This wooden platform had a wooden crawl maze as the foundation. You would get down and crawl into a wooden maze that was dark, but had strobes going off, with music playing, pretty cool actually. I remember the maze was painted white throughout with some types of stripes design. To your right would be seating to eat food from the snack bar located next to the seating area. Small snacks that did not require nothing more than a microwave probably. You walk past the moon jump, and you hit the last attraction, an actual theater! A big enclosed room, big theater screen, a movie playing, with a lot of the seating, yet there was never really anyone in there. This place seemed awesome, but I can only wonder how they would make any money? There was so much going on, and never a lot of kids. I never saw more than 10 kids at most when I would get dropped off. I have no information at all about the name of the business, or any pictures. Anything at all would be amazing, please email me wolf@rnin.co
Thank you for the excellent comment. Sunrise is actually still open to walk through despite what was reported a few months ago. The entire second floor of the interior mall is closed off to the public, but the majority of the first floor is still open to walk through. Only 3 businesses were still open but one of those was in the process of closing. I was there less than 2 weeks ago and I will post an update here in the future.
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