Here we are at the Sunland Park Mall in El Paso Texas, I finally made it to the Western tip of the state. Sunland Park Mall opened in 1988 and has over 900,000 square feet of space. This mall is anchored by Sears and 2 Dillards stores. There are 5 anchor spaces at the mall. Macys closed in 2017 and will be replaced by Star Western Wear later this year. Forever 21 closed a few days after my visit to the mall in April 2018. Forever 21 was a former Mervyns that closed in 2008. Macys was a former Foleys that was converted into Macys with the rest of the chain.
The mall is really well designed and looks awesome inside. Sadly this mall is suffering from declining sales and the loss of 2 major anchors. Parts of the mall have vacancies and there are also some non-retail tenants. I read several articles about the decline of this mall, which is being blamed on the nearby El Paso Outlets and Highway construction. If anyone has any further info on this mall, please comment below. I would like to find out more about the history of El Paso retail, even though this was the only El Paso Mall I was able to visit.
The last Kmart in El Paso that closed in January 2018 was located just down the street from the mall, but I was unable to pass by that shopping center.
The mall directory
The escalators were out of order in the Sears wing.
The mall has a ton of natural light with a warm stone flooring and trim throughout the mall. It was refreshing to see a mall without the boring bland look you see these days.
These stores on the second floor are interesting. I would prefer to see these kinds of mini stores in 2 story malls instead of kiosks.
I almost needed to keep my sunglasses on inside. The mall was very bright.
The circus tent style roof in the food court seemed out of place.
The big fly was part of a Spring display they had in the food court.
Old school Bath and Body Works.
The Dillards Women's store. Both Dillards stores are in the same section of the mall along with one of the entrances to the closed off Macys.
But the Dillards court was also hiding a gem. FYE stores are vanishing so it was awesome to find one I had not visited before.
Now we head up to the second floor.
Another tent roof.
These courts looked really awesome, they really make you feel like the mall is enormous.
The closed off Macys entrance.
The Dillards Men's Store
Here is the food court which is also located on the second floor.
A new looking movie house is located at the food court mall entrance.
Now let's head back to where we started.
Dressbarn, why would anyone shop there? The name just sounds terrible, I have no idea how this store has a nationwide following.
The Sears court also has a tent roof.
Forever 21, my other photo of the entrance did not come out well. Apparently this store closed less than 10 days after my visit.
Sears and Amazon together at last, lol. The Sears wing has the most vacancies.
Let's pop in Sears. Now this is a very cool and unusual design for a Sears store.
The skylight just keeps going.
Here is the first floor.
Mattresses in the former electronics department.
Here are a few shots of the exterior of the mall with the mountain in the background. The closed Macys and Dillards Women's store are shown also.
Sears looks very unique.
Another wider view of the mall.
Stay tuned, more new places are coming soon.
Wow, what an interesting and colorful mall. Thanks for the discovery. It's a shame that the mall is struggling because it looks really nice. It's a relatively new mall, but even then it's still 30 years old. I bet this mall looks really different at night than during the day with all those skylights.
ReplyDeleteThat photo studio store near the Sears looks totally retro. The Sears itself is really interesting with the continuation of the mall's skylights. The store looks really nice. It's kind of strange seeing lawn tractors in a department store that nice. The ex-electronics department looks a little strange. It looks like they still have at least one TV in there with all those mattresses.
The escalator area at the Sears looks strange too. What's with all the dirt on the ledges by the escalators? Or maybe that isn't dirt, but rather decorations? It's hard to tell. The store seems well maintained so I kind of doubt it's dirt/dust, but I don't know what else it could be.
I hope this mall can survive. It would be down to only one anchor if Sears fails and I'm not sure if Dillard's would be willing to be the mall's sole anchor. I'm sure this mall gets a lot of cross-border international shoppers, but perhaps those shoppers have been taking their business to other malls like the outlet ones you mentioned.
I'm looking forward to seeing your other new posts. West Texas isn't well chronicled on retail blogs AFAIK, but there might be some real gems out there like this mall.
I really like this mall especially since it still has an FYE and Sears. It was a refreshingly well maintained property and looked awesome with the mountains in the background. The city has stepped in as well to help bring the mall back so hopefully things turn around.
DeleteJust an FYI, when I saw this Sears store in your pictures, I immediately knew that this was not originally a Sears store. Sears stores even at their zenith were always pretty basic architecturally speaking. An El Paso based department store chain called The Popular, or Popular Dry Goods closed in 1995. The Popular originally opened with Sunland Park (1987-88) and was then sold to Sears after the chain went out of business in 1995.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the info, this was my first visit to El Paso. Sadly this location will begin closing soon. I wonder what will the future will be of the mall with the loss of Forever 21 and now Sears. Do you know if the Starr Western Wear has opened in the former Macy's?
DeleteIt is crazy how quickly both Blockbuster and Kmart left El Paso after being one of the final holdouts of each chain. Kmart is down to just the McAllen store in Texas.
It's very sad to hear that this interesting Sears location is slated to close. Thanks for the information about the history of the store. I agree that it doesn't look like an original Sears even though 1990s-built Sears were a bit more upscale looking inside than Sears stores from previous eras. I'm glad you were able to visit it and photograph it before it closed. It's sad to see all the Sears and Kmart closures in El Paso over the last few months.
DeleteSunland park mall was awesome during the 90s and early 2000s.now it's just looks like a ghost town so sad
ReplyDeleteSad indeed, the mall is very bright and clean. I enjoyed my visit to the mall. At least some of the empty anchors have been filled so the mall still has a fighting chance.
DeleteThis was my mall in the 90s and 00s! I worked at Hot Dog on a Stick and Chick Fil A. The original 5 anchors were Dillard's, Montgomery Ward (now Men's Dillard's), Mervyn's, The Popular (Sears location), and JCPenney (where Macy's was). In the early 2000s, the Wurlitzer organ from the Plaza Theatre was installed in the food court. It played twice a day, making life hard for us Food Court employees! The glass block bridges between JCPenney/Montgomery Ward and JCPenney/Mervyn's were fountains. I remember tons of coins in the basins. The Food Court entrance also was a water feature, with water flowing down the wall on the left side. Seeing movies at the General Cinemas theatre was my favorite thing to do. I have so many wonderful memories of the mall, and am saddened seeing its empty state today.
ReplyDeleteI personally like the look and floor plan of this mall the best out of all of the El Paso and Juarez Malls. Las Missiones in Juarez being a close second.
DeleteThank you for sharing your experiences at the mall with us. Those fountains sound really awesome, it is a shame that they are rare to see in malls today. I haven't heard the name General Cinemas in a while, we had a few of those in New Orleans and Houston where I lived.