Here is the Kileen Mall which opened in 1981. There is not much history available about this mall online, but with the growth of the area this mall is set for many years to come. This is a decent sized mall (around 550,000 square feet) for the area and was nearly fully leased on my visit. The mall was also recently renovated, and looks nicer than the plain and boring renovations of many modern malls.
Looking from the JCPenney corridor to the food court entrance.
The entrance to JCPenney near the food court.
An old school Pulse ATM near one of the mall entrances.
The center court of the mall facing the Dillard's and Sears corridor.
Burlington, very retro mall entrance. I am guessing this was a former Wilson's/ Service Merchandise store.
Now for the outside of the mall starting with Sears. Dillard's Women's Store is to the far right of this picture.
JCPenney
The road sign which is visible from Highway 190.
Burlington
Dillard's Men's Store
More shots of the Sears store.
Thanks for the pictures of Killeen Mall. This mall seems to be doing quite well even though it is a decently sized mall. I'm guessing the RadioShack that is in the directory has since closed, but at least it was an interesting mall at the time the picture was taken with a Sears and RadioShack. It also seems to have a Tilt. To some extent, this mall is more interesting/useful than the malls we have in Houston.
ReplyDeleteThe mall looks quite nice inside. I agree that I like the renovations better than the renovations I see at other malls. The carpeted look is interesting. The combination of the carpeting and the lighting in the corridors makes the mall have a bit of a home-like feel to it IMO, but I can see some people not liking the design. It does seem like a lot of these mid-market malls feel more inviting and have a better mix of retailers than the malls we have in Houston. I don't know why that is. Perhaps the mid-market malls are less likely to be owned by one of the mega mall operators like Simon or GGP so they are more likely to have an oddball look to them. It's hard to say.
The Burlington mall entrance looks quite interesting indeed. According to Wikipedia, that anchor did indeed start out as a Wilson's, but it said it was then a Best Products store, not a Service Merchandise. I'm not sure how accurate that is. Interestingly enough, there is a link on the Killeen Mall Wikipedia page to a book that has a lot of information about Killeen's retail history. That book has a discussion about an older, smaller indoor mall in Killeen called Midtown Mall. I did some searching around and it seems like the Midtown Mall still exists (at least as of 2013) and is still open as a flea market type low-end shopping center. Who knows if the interior corridors are still open, but at least it still exists as a dead but not dead mall.
It seems like specialty stores last longer in smaller cities than in large urban areas. This mall also has a military store, pet store, and some gift shops I have not seen in other malls. There are a few vacant spaces, but the mall was very busy on my visit.
DeleteI did see the Midtown Mall it is off of the Business Hwy 190. I planned on stopping by later that day but ran out of time. It looked like the mall portion was only a small hallway, but I could not tell how big the corridor was as I was passing by.
It seems like specialty stores last longer in smaller cities than in large urban areas. This mall also has a military store, pet store, and some gift shops I have not seen in other malls. There are a few vacant spaces, but the mall was very busy on my visit.
DeleteI did see the Midtown Mall it is off of the Business Hwy 190. I planned on stopping by later that day but ran out of time. It looked like the mall portion was only a small hallway, but I could not tell how big the corridor was as I was passing by.
the Dillard's Men store looks like the former service merchandise that is located at San Jacinto Mall.
ReplyDeleteIt does look very similar but not as tall.
Delete