Two posts in one day! Be sure to check out my La Palmera post from earlier today here.
Portland Texas, just outside of Corpus Christi had one of the last Kmart stores in Texas. As of this posting, McAllen has the last remaining Kmart left in the State of Texas. The Portland store was 82,939 square feet and closed in April 2018.
Here are photos from my visit in January 2019. The store looked like it had closed many years ago, but it was less than a year at this point. It really shows that this building was not taken care of when the paint is this faded.
The rest of the shopping center was lively, but the empty Kmart building really stuck out. An Aaron's store is just next door to this building, but tucked back a little bit so it makes this place look really dark.
I had to walk around once I pulled up on this building. I found one spot to peek into the store.
The sidewalk view of the store entrance.
Two posts in one day. This is a rare treat! It's good to see the blog still continuing on even as we are on the cusp of a new decade.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I could gather from Google Maps, this Kmart store was indeed in rough shape on the outside even when it was still open. It looked like Kmart took the "Big" part of the "Big Kmart" sign off, but didn't repaint under it and it looked quite shabby. Perhaps Kmart knew this store would close when the lease ended so they didn't put much effort into it. It's not like Kmart puts much effort into most of their stores, but this one looked pretty bad even by Kmart's low standards.
That said, it is nice to see another mansard slice Kmart even if this one is closed. The local Kmart to me had a very similar design to this. If I remember correctly, this store is around a lot of other retail so maybe there's hope of it being redeveloped into something. I'd hate for this thing to have to sit and rot because it looks like it's already been rotting for sometime like you said even though it closed relatively recently.
Anyway, I'm glad we have at least one Kmart left in Texas and it's one you were able to visit recently. At least that Kmart puts in more effort than this one did to keep their store looking competitive.
I really wish that I would have made it to this store before it closed. I bet the inside of the store was awesome to see.
DeleteThe retail center where the Kmart is could use an update as well, it looks old. There is also a Bealls in the shopping center. With Stage converting all stores to Gordmans or closing, will this store survive?
The store converted to Big Kmart in April 1999 and was expanded prior in 1991. I don't know when the "Big" sign was removed but it must've been prior to 2007
DeleteThere were a lot of Big Kmart stores where the "Big" sign was removed over the years. I would guess either fading or Hurricane damage may have led to the sign removal. I know the Bossier City and Lake Charles locations had their signs removed not too long before the stores eventually closed.
DeleteNow I'm really curious what Fast Eddie's plans for the old stores are. I assumed that with the amount closing most were going to be rented out.
ReplyDeleteWho knows at this point. Everything he has done is contrary to what we would expect. So many recently closed Sears and Kmart locations are sitting vacant like this one.
DeleteNow this Kmart has been torn down, part of the property is now under construction for a new chic-fil-a and the Bealls and Bealls shoes are now also abandoned and went out of business I believe.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update. Bealls did go out of business, but the rights for the Stage stores name was sold to the competing Bealls/Burkes Outlet chain. I haven't heard if any of the Stage store locations will reopen.
DeleteThis is my town! I miss our Kmart so much 😠would definitely choose it over Chick-fil-A lol
ReplyDeleteThis was also the only Big Kmart in the Corpus area too. I went there a couple of times with my grandparents in the early 2000s
DeleteAwesome, I will post a replay to your other comment later today.
DeleteThis is my town! I miss our Kmart so much 😠would definitely choose it over Chick-fil-A lol
ReplyDeleteFor sure, Chick-Fila-A can always be built elsewhere. Sadly, only 4 mainland Kmarts will remain by early March. One store in New York, 2 stores in New Jersey, and 1 store Miami. I wasn't able to visit this store while it was in operation. If you have any photos that can be shared with the blog readers, please email them to me at southernmalls@gmail.com Thanks
DeleteSo a quick history of Kmart in the Coastal Bend area, Corpus was the first in the whole South Texas area to get a Kmart which opened in 1970 on South Padre Island Drive (or SPID as the locals call it) along with an adjacent Kmart Foods store. The second one opened in a former Globe Shopping City (discount store chain owned by Walgreens but was founded in Houston) on Ayers Street in 1978, the third was the one in Portland shown here which opened in 1980, and the fourth one was in the Calallen/Five Points area which opened in 1983 and was originally supposed to be a Woolco but opened as a Kmart. The first to close would be the Ayers one in 1990 as it was one of the stores that closed due to the fact that it couldn't be expanded anymore (you can see why here: https://goo.gl/maps/zBFWuTHGJt1pw4P7A) and Kmart was closing a lot of smaller stores at the time that couldn't be expanded. The second one to close was the SPID one in 1994 as it was replaced by a Super Kmart across the street. The third to close was the Calallen/Five Points during the 1995 closures, the fourth to close was the Super Kmart in 2002, and Portland was the very last one to close. I recommend checking Bluepages for more info on the stores as I'm currently in the process of updating all Texas Kmart locations
DeleteThat is a lot of locations for a smaller metropolitan area. Their smaller stores did not have the lasting power in the areas where they were located like Walmart does today. I really wish Kmart had survived, but they did not evolve to remain competitive. I passed up visiting the Portland Kmart many times over the years, and missed out on that classic location.
DeleteAs you may know, one of the surviving Lampert chains Sears Hometown is closing several locations. Between this month and next month is when these locations will close. Many of those locations were located inside or near former Sears anchors.