Here is the mall that helped kill off the nearby Sunrise Mall. The mall originally opened as Padre Staples Mall on July 30, 1970, but the name was later changed to La Palmera in 2008. The mall originally opened up with the corridor from JCPenney to Dillard's on one-level. In 1985 in response to the competition from the nearby Sunrise Mall, the second floor was added along with Foley's (now Macy's). Macy's, Dillard's, H&M, and JCPenney are the current anchor stores. Several chain restaurants are also attached to the exterior of the mall. Padre Staples was the second mall in Corpus Christi. The first mall was the Cullen Mall which opened in 1963 and closed in 1995.
Food court entrance.
Dillard's
JCPenney is very old school.
Macy's looks like the Deerbrook Macy's store looked like prior to the 2008 renovation.
The entrance to the mall from the above door.
Here is the layout of the mall. If you look to the top left of the directory, you will see the second floor.
Here is a JCPenney with a rarely seen red sign.
The center court near JCPenney and Macy's has lower ceilings.
As you get a little more than halfway through the first floor, the second floor appears. You have to wonder why only a part of the mall has a second floor instead of the whole mall.
The food court is located a little further to the left on the first floor.
Here is the second floor. Dillard's and H&M are the only anchors to have an entrance on the second floor.
Here is the escalator that ends off the second floor.
The Macy's corridor is very short.
One last look at the center court.
La Palmera is a very unremarkable mall, but it outlasted all area malls. The strength of the anchors kept this mall from going under. The expansion, updates, and name change only strengthened the mall over nearby Sunrise. Even though Sunrise had the 1987 expansion, the majority of the interior was never updated. Sunrise had Sears, Mervyn's, Joske's, Montgomery Ward, and Frost Brothers. Padre Staples has 2 of the original anchors along with Macy's and H&M.
Sunrise Mall may have received most of the attention from mall followers in Corpus Christi, but it was Padre Staples/La Palmera Mall which received/receives the majority of the shoppers. It's interesting to finally take a look inside Sunrise's more anonymous neighbor. Thanks for the photos.
ReplyDeleteI'd have to say that the most interesting part of this mall is the JCPenney. Many JCPenney stores from the late 1960s/early 1970s had interesting artwork on the outside and this store is one of those. It certainly makes the store look vintage from the outside. The red mall entrance signage is also interesting. I wonder if that's been there for a long time or if that's something relatively new.
The interior of this mall has an odd mix of elements. Part of the mall has carpeted corridors, but some have the now-ubiquitous white tiles that so many malls have received since the 1990s. In the last picture, there are dark tiles around the fountain. I wonder if those tiles are original to the mall or were part of an older renovation. The color certainly looks like they could be old tiles, but maybe they are relatively new.
This mall seems to be doing rather well. It looks like a Dave & Buster's has moved into the area. The lease rate seems to be pretty good based on what I see in the pictures and the stores seem to be recognizable names. It's probably a good thing the mall didn't extend the 2nd floor or else that might have hurt their leasing rate. It looks like what they did was enough to end their competition from Sunrise Mall.
On the topic of Sunrise Mall, I didn't realize this, but there is a mall in Brownsville called Sunrise Mall. It looks to be a successful mall even today. According to Wikipedia, Dillard's took over the mall in the 1990s and had Kmart move from the mall to a neighboring center so that they could move their store to the old Kmart pad. Dillard's previously had a store at the older Brownsville mall, Amigoland Mall. Amigoland Mall has since closed and it seems that it was converted into a college.
La Palmera seems small, but the mall has slightly more leasable space than Sunrise Mall.
DeleteLa Palmera had some huge challenges, but was able to overcome them and finish on top. Corpus just doesn't have the population to support 2 malls next to each other. There is also a factory outlet mall in the area that seems to be doing well.
I need to visit Brownsville one of these days, too bad Amigoland Mall is no longer around. The Sunrise Mall there still has a Sears.
Upon further research, the former Amigoland Mall in Brownsville might still be open to the public. I was looking at the place in Google Maps and it looks like there is a cafe and medical supplies shop in the old mall. There is also a Mexican consulate. Within Google Maps, I clicked on the cafe to see the reviews and user uploaded photos of it. It looks like the cafe is operating in the mall and some of the tables for it are actually out in the old main mall corridor. It looks like there might be an old fountain by the cafe as well. It looks very 1970s-1980s in there.
DeleteAmigoland Mall might be worth a visit if you're ever in the area. The outside (and the few images I can get from the inside) has a very Spanish looking theme to it. Of course, Mexico is perhaps visible from the mall's parking lot since it's practically right on the border. The old Montgomery Ward and JCPenney auto centers are still there. The latest Google Street View images from the mall are from 2011 so they are quite outdated, but I quite clearly see some labelscar for an old Wal-Mart. Supposedly there is a closed Kmart around there too. The whole area is pretty desolate now. The mall is in kind of an odd spot too because there's not much around it except for open land even though it's very close to the center of the city. That might explain why it failed, but it sounds like it was a successful mall until Dillard's and JCPenney left and Montgomery Ward went out of business at all around the same time.
I found a vintage directory for Amigoland Mall. The Wikipedia page for the mall says that JCPenney used to operate a supermarket at their Amigoland location and the vintage directory seems to confirm that. It looks like it was within the same building as the JCPenney store, but perhaps walled off from it. Perhaps it was like a Kmart Foods then. It seems odd that JCPenney would be running a supermarket as late as 1974 given that they eliminated hardlines only about a decade later, but this is most certainly an interesting oddity.
As for the Brownsville Sunrise Mall, the latest Google Street View images are from 2017 and the ex-Kmart was still vacant then. It looks like it might still be vacant now, but I can't confirm that. The Kmart there must have been one of the last ones they built. The rest of the powercenter around the mall seems to be doing okay though. I'm sure the mall does well with shoppers who cross the border from Mexico to go shopping in the US. I don't know how interesting the Brownsville Sunrise Mall is, but any mall with an operating Sears these days is bound to be at least a little interesting.
So, yeah, there might be some interesting retail spots to check out in Brownsville if you're ever in the area.
It looks like you can go into at least part of the old Amigoland Mall. I would definitely try to check it out when I go back down to the Valley. There is a video from late 2017 that shows the inside of the mall briefly, and then a vintage video from the early days of the mall.
DeleteRetail operations on the US side of the Mexican border are normally very busy. I guess this mall was built to try and capitalize on this. The mall is fairly small and Brownsville just does not have the draw that McAllen has.
The Sunrise Mall down there seems to be a typical boring modern mall. Too bad it is not as cool as the Sunrise Mall in Corpus Christi. The entrances are similar to the ones at Valle Vista Mall in Harlingen. I am guessing that Sunrise has also taken shoppers away from Harlingen since the mall there is dying. All of this is speculation since I have only been to Harlingen and McAllen once. McAllen seems to have the Lions share of the area retail, and has the biggest area mall as well.
Amigoland Mall looks quite interesting from that video. It looks like that very interesting flooring is still around and open to the public. I'm sure the whole former Amigoland Mall isn't open these days, but it looks like a big enough part of it is still open to the public that one can get a good view of it. It's certainly appears to be worth a trip if you're in the area.
DeleteBrownsville's Sunrise Mall does look like your typical boring white tile mall, but it does have a Sears. It had two different Kmarts in it at one time as well. Well, one was part of the mall and the other was in the affiliated shopping center. There aren't too many malls with that many former Kmarts. I'm not sure how interesting that makes the mall, but it is something.
There used to be a mall in Pharr with a Montgomery Ward in it as well. Labelscar did a blog post about it many years ago and has photos of it before it was converted into a regular shopping center.
It seems to me that McAllen is the biggest shopping destination down in the Valley. Perhaps everyone is going there to visit the last Kmart in Texas, lol.
Well I had some free time and visited the Southern tip of the Rio Grande Valley earlier this month. I stopped by Amigoland, but the doors were locked on a Saturday.
DeleteI also visited the Sunrise Mall. Unfortunately the Sears there closed on January 5th 2020. The interior of the mall actually has some awesome courts in front of the anchor stores. The mall recently lost Sears, and 2 junior anchors Agaci and Charming Charlie. Agaci and Sears are in the same corridor so it makes that part of the mall look somewhat dead. Dicks Sporting Goods and a future Gordmans will still keep that part of the mall going.
The former Pharr Mall has been wiped from the retail landscape. It is just a regular strip of big box stores now. I actually located the site of where it was.
McAllen has the most retail including the largest mall in the region. La Plaza Mall in McAllen is massive and the former Sears space is an extension of the mall now. Parts of the mall have junior anchors with 2 levels. Another section of the mall is being partially demolished to make way for a new cinema. The mall is very busy and was packed on my visit.
The Kmart in McAllen was also part of my trip. The store is in decent shape, but it has the same inventory issues found at Sears stores. Nearly every department except for toys and clothing has much less inventory than my last visit. Some product selections have gotten pathetic. Things like deodorant and tooth care are nearly empty. Aisles that were well stocked on my last visit, look like they have not been stocked since then. Things are looking bad at that store. It might be the last time that I am able to visit that Kmart.
I'm from Brownsville, and as a follower of this blog, I've been hoping to see Amigoland and Sunrise here. Too bad Amigoland was closed that day; it's used as a part of the local community college. Sunrise is still doing well, thankfully. Hollister and Aerie have recently opened and they're doing relatively well for these times; many young people visit them.
DeleteThe former Sears/Agaci side is supposedly also going to be helped by three new tenants - a Wave store in Agaci (Idk what they sell), and a TruFit gym and Main Event entertainment center in the Sears spot. So at least this side of the mall will get more visitors than it had when it was a Sears. The Main Event, especially, was something much needed. The Pharr one had been getting a ton of people from over here. It seems Sunrise Mall will stay for a good while.
As someone from Brownsville who follows your blog, I can't wait for you to talk about Amigoland and Sunrise. Too bad Amigoland was closed that day; it's probably because the college kids weren't on session (it's used as a center for the local community college.)
DeleteMeanwhile, Sunrise Mall is still chugging along. We got Hollister and Aerie a few weeks ago, and they've got pretty good traffic for these times. It doesn't really seem as if the "apocalypse" has hit anywhere aside from that side of the mall. The Agaci is supposed to be replaced by a Wave store (I don't know who they are), and a TruFit gym and a Main Event entertainment center will take Sears's place. At least more people will visit this side of the mall than when Sears was there! And for the Main Event, it took way too long for it to get here. Many people went to the Pharr one, and it seems they saw they'd do great business over here. All in all, it seems we'll still get Sunrise Mall for a good while.
Thanks for the comment. I am glad things are looking up at Sunrise Mall. It was super busy on my Saturday evening visit. Sounds like management at the mall is being very proactive in getting spaces filled.
DeleteHopefully sometime in the future, I will catch Amigoland when it is open. I might have to take a trip down there this Summer and check out the nearby beaches.
Wow, I was not expecting you to visit Brownsville so quickly after our discussion. That is unfortunate that Amigoland Mall was not open during your visit, but hopefully it'll be open during a future visit. I suppose you know now when not to visit it. How did it look from the outside and what was the surrounding area like? It'll be interesting to see a blog post about this especially if you get pictures of the inside. That mall seems like a hidden treasure here in Texas.
DeleteThanks for the update about the 'other' Sunrise Mall. I'm glad to hear that it's doing well, but I didn't know the Sears was closing. I can't say I'm surprised though unfortunately. Did you get any photos of the mall? It might make for an interesting blog post along with the Amigoland Mall.
It's sad to hear about the state of the last Kmart in Texas. There are so few Kmarts left in the nation that I'd imagine that they're having some real inventory problems. The lack of investment from Lampert isn't helping, obviously. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that the store is closing soon given the state of it. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to read that all of the Kmarts are closing. There just aren't very many of them and they are having some major inventory problems along with Sears. At least you were able to visit the store a few months back when it was doing better. Lol, does the McAllen Kmart still have an abundance of Jarritos?
I will send you an email with some of the photos of Amigoland. I really wanted to do a 2020 Kmart visit to see how things are going, so I made enough time on this visit to see both sides of the area.
DeleteYes, I got photos of the malls in McAllen and Brownsville. My computer is down at the moment, so I have been way behind on the blog. I am going to knock out a few small posts from my phone until I can get the computer issue resolved.
The Kmart has some of the same inventory fill-ins that we have been seeing at Sears. Random items spread across aisles to fill empty space. Jarritos were in stock, but not as crazy as last time. A whole half-aisle was filled with bottle water packs this time. Name brand sodas were also cut way back. Some displays and end caps just had empty boxes. Most of the upper shelving units are bare across the store so I was able to get photos of the department signage this time.
Let me begin by saying that it is great that the blog is still going here in the new decade. As we see with the Amigoland Mall and the other malls in the Valley, there are still places to document so it's great that new things are being added to the blog.
DeleteKmart has made it to the 2020s, but just barely. It seems the McAllen Kmart management is doing the best they can to present something to their shoppers, but Lampert just isn't giving them much to work with. I'm not sure if you've seen this, but there is a retail photographer on Flickr who visited the McAllen Kmart around the same time that you did. They took many photos and so it's easy to see the problems that you mention. The link to the photos are on this page here, but unfortunately they didn't make a specific album just for the McAllen Kmart photos so you'll just have to go through all their photos to find it. Fortunately, the Kmart photos are still on the first page as of the time that I'm writing this. You'll also see that they took some photos inside the now closed Belden's grocery store in Meyerland which you might find quite interesting.
The photos show almost entire aisles that are devoid of inventory. You mention packs of water filling random shelves, but I also see individual bottles of water filling inventory holes in departments where one would not expect to see bottled water. I also see what you mean about the lack of name brand sodas.
Some areas of the store seem better stocked than others. It seems the store has no shortage of toilet seats for sale. It also seems the $1 area is quite well-stocked with off brand cleaning supplies. The electronics department is quite well-stocked with Hanes socks. They do seem to have quite a few DVDs, but I suspect there aren't many new releases in there.
In other Sears/Kmart news, I'm sure you read that Lampert has sold off the DieHard brand to Advance Auto Parts. It seems that Sears did retain the rights to sell DieHard brand stuff in their stores, but Lampert does not have many valuable brands left to sell. I suppose Kenmore is the only remaining one left.
Also, I saw during a recent visit to Sears that all Sears Optical departments are closing on February 1st. My understanding is that Sears Optical is operated by the Luxottica eyewear company that also runs LensCrafters, Pearle Vision, Sunglass Hut, and Target Optical. The signs at the Willowbrook Mall Sears Optical was redirecting Sears Optical customers to those stores. Anyway, Sears Optical has been around for a long, long time so the closure of it is sad to hear. I doubt anything will fill those spaces in Sears stores, but who knows. Sears did fill some of their photo studio vacancies.
There are still a bunch of malls left to cover in the southern part of the State. There are a few that I hope to see sometime in the near future.
DeleteWe have since spoken since the Kmart comments about McAllen so I will continue the other conversation going.
The Sears optical is a huge loss for the stores. It was one of the departments that could still do well despite the continued shrinking of other departments in the stores. It seems like the last few companies that were supporting Sears are throwing in the towel.
An interesting note about the JC Penney's at this mall is that it used to have an Auto Center and Garden Center. The Garden Center was located in the front of the store in the first photo and the Auto Center was behind the store. It became a Firestone when JC Penney sold their Auto Centers to Firestone in the early 80's.
ReplyDeleteWow, I cannot remember seeing a JCPenney with a Garden Center. It sounds like JCPenney experimented with certain departments over the years. I recently found out that the Amigoland JCPenney had a grocery store at one point.
DeleteA few JCPenney stores still have the attached auto garage visible. The Richland Mall store in Waco is one. The signs were taken down, but the garage doors are still easy to spot at that location.
Here's an article on the history of the mall: https://www.caller.com/story/news/special-reports/building-our-future/throwback/2019/05/08/padre-staples-mall-corpus-christi/1132753001/ The JC Penney Garden Center is visible in this photo: https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2019/05/07/PCCT/302568ae-4eb1-4b3d-bd11-af8916802479-1970_PadreStaplesMall-002.jpg?width=1280
DeleteThis mall also had the first ever Chick-Fil-A in Texas along with a Luby's Cafeteria, WoolWorth's, and other stores. There was a movie theater and Palais Royal added in the 85 expansion where Dillard's old location was. A Carousel was also added at the same time too. It was where those brown tiles are in your last picture.
Thanks for sending over those links. I was actually at La Palmera a couple of weeks ago and took a good look at the JCPenney building. Seeing the old photo helped me to picture how that area was set up. Looks like they are building a parking garage on the back side of JCPenney now, it would be nice they extended the second floor throughout the mall as well. When we went, the mall was super slow, but all of the stores were open. It is crazy to realize how quickly things changed with the current Covid-19 standards across the USA.
DeleteYou're welcome! This was my childhood mall and I've had a lot of great memories there. BTW, since you were in the area, has anything happened with Sunrise Mall yet? I haven't seen any updates since Sears closed.
ReplyDeleteNothing that I can tell has happened at the mall yet. The anchors with the exception of Sears were open for business as usual prior to the recent closures of gyms and non-essential businesses.
DeleteIf you go early at night, the Burlington sign is actually still on inside of the mall. I would not recommend getting too close because there are several no trespassing signs on the former mall entrances. I did buy a couple of things at Burlington and went into Wilcox Furniture on my visit, but you can't see inside of the mall from either store. I took a walk around the entire property at dusk and it was very sketchy. Most of the parking lot and all of the parking garages are not lit up at night, so it can be very spooky. I arrived when the sun was still up and had to walk to my car in the dark garage, near Freedom Fitness. The garage smells like urine so there is no telling what happens up there at night.
Here's some photos I found of Sunrise Mall when it first opened in 1981: https://www.flickr.com/photos/55800183@N06/albums/72157630084483708
ReplyDeleteAnd here's one of the Chelsea Street Pub at Sunrise Mall back in 1993: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gstrakos/11715477935
I really wish the owners of Sunrise Mall would reopen the interior for mall walkers. The mall would be perfect for a redevelopment similar to the old Amigoland Mall. The parking garages if fixed up, are perfect for a medical/college redevelopment of the property.
DeleteThe mall is an absolute time capsule that must be saved somehow.
I agree with that. It might not be a college since Texas A&M University is close to where Sunrise Mall is but it could easily be a medical redevelopment like what happened with one of the Deauville Malls in Houston. Only time will tell what the city plans to do with the mall.
ReplyDeleteThere is one other dead mall in the Coastal Bend area that you might want to check out. It's called Sagewood Mall and it's in Alice, TX. Here's a video that someone did on the mall 5 years ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0zm_6a53d4s
ReplyDeleteWow, I never knew that mall existed. This place deserves an explore if I am ever back in that area. There are a few older malls like this one limping along in different areas of Texas. This one appears to still be open with just the Goodwill operating. It looks like it is not that far of a drive from Corpus. Thank you so much for bringing this place to my attention. I visited Amigoland Mall for the first time in March so you may enjoy those photos.
DeleteWow, that Sagewood Mall is an excellent find. I wonder if the interior part of that mall is still open. That video was shot about four years ago and the mall looked like it was falling apart even then. Who knows what condition it is in now given that Hurricane Harvey and other things have passed by in the years since.
DeleteThank you! I just recently found out about it while doing research about some Coastal Bend. From what I can find out, the mall opened in 1969 with TG&Y, Bealls, and JC Penney (closed in 2013) as the main anchor tenants. There was also an HEB Grocery store there too. The only tenant's that are still operating besides the Goodwill are a gym and Firestone (which opened with the mall). I also can't wait to see the Amigoland write up since I found out about that mall because of the comments here. Hopefully you can cover Sagewood Mall before it gets repurposed or torn down.
DeleteFrom the google reviews, it appears to still be open. The only store that people have written about is the Goodwill. I really want to see this place now. It is a hidden gem.
DeleteA few of the small town malls across Texas are being repurposed such as the Marshall Mall and University Mall in Nacogdoches. Whole wings of the mall are being shut down for redevelopment. At the Marshall Mall, most of the mall corridors have been cut off for redevelopment, leaving only a small corridor and the walkway to Stage. Maybe this Summer, I could make the trip down there. The mall sounds like it is well worth the trip down there. I just need to make sure to make it during business hours.
DeleteI also forgot to mention that the JC Penney at Sagewood Mall might've had an auto center. It probably closed in 1983 when the auto centers were sold to Firestone and since there was already a Firestone that opened with the mall in 1969, they ended up closing the other one. It's currently a Chinese buffet from the looks of it: https://goo.gl/maps/WzVo3fPBGBgoZpT77 When I first saw it, I thought it was a former restaurant but I remembered that the mall had JCPenney and the awning on the building looks similar to the former auto centers at La Palmera and Amigoland malls. I could be wrong however but that's what I've tried to make out of it.
ReplyDeleteThat building certainly looks like a former auto center. The front awning and upper area of the structure are just like many of the former JCPenney auto centers. I really want to visit this mall, I hope the inside is still open.
DeleteAre you also planning on covering Town Plaza Mall in Victoria, TX? It's getting repurposed by a university but I don't think it's quite finished yet.
DeleteI am going to see if that is possible. Maybe later on in the Summer, I will be able to make a trip down there. I am really interested in the property, but I may be too late.
DeleteThere's another dead mall that I stumbled upon recently in Seguin called Oak Park Mall. It's also a very small mall like the other 2 I mentioned. From what I could find on this mall, it opened in 1967 with Wuest’s supermarket (later Handy Andy and currently Arlan's Market), Kress, JC Penney, Montgomery Ward, and several other smaller retailers. Most of the mall is now part of the Seguin Independent School District but the grocery store is still open. Here's a street view of the mall: https://goo.gl/maps/JihjDgLjRWnsN5Rt9
DeleteThat is a pretty cool find. I wonder if any of the mall is accessible to the public. There is next to nothing online about this property as you mentioned. I find it strange that Arlans from Seabrook area near Houston took over stores in the San Antonio area like this one.
DeleteArlan's bought what was left of Handy Andy's stores in 2011. And it was hard to find information on this mall but if you type "Oak Park Mall" in Seguin's newspaper on newspapers.com, it should give you some information on the mall (paper only goes up to 1999) but from what I can gather so far is that JC Penney left the mall in 1992 and moved to a former Kmart where it lasted until 2017 and was replaced by Bealls (which will also close too) the Kmart was divided between JC Penney and Hastings from what I can tell on Street View and you can see remnants from Kmart's garden and auto centers on the side of the store too: https://goo.gl/maps/SkWNvmaPd98Hmuaw8
DeleteThe old JC Penney is now a learning center and I'm not sure if it and the rest of the mall are open to the public but I know that the grocery store is. I found a Facebook page for that learning center that might give an idea of what that JC Penney looked liked: https://www.facebook.com/Mercer-Blumberg-Learning-Center-790115714386810/?ref=page_internal there was also an auto center at this JC Penney from what Seguin's paper has mentioned.
Yeah you can definitely tell from the concrete where things used to be at the old Kmart. It must have been a small store for it to have a Bealls in it now. Speaking of Bealls, that store has the updated logo with the Stage stores symbol on it. I haven't seen that before.
DeleteFrom the looks of the photos online, the property still looks very much like a mall. It is cool that the grocery store lives on, so that piece of the mall is still going.
Would you still try and cover Sagewood and Oak Park before your "retirement" in 2021? None of these malls have a lot of information on the web about them and I'd love to see you bring some much needed attention to them if possible.
DeleteI do really want to cover these malls along with the River Hills Mall in Kerrville. I also want to do some updates on San Antonio Malls. I may wind up getting all of these on one road trip.
Delete