Here is an interesting mall located near Downtown El Paso. Built in 1962 and enclosed in 1974, Bassett Place Mall has weathered many anchor changes and remains a popular shopping destination. The mall is centrally located and a healthy distance away from the Cielo Vista and Sunland Park Malls. The mall is decently sized at just over 700,000 square feet of retail space, and has received several additions and modifications over the years to bring us to the present.
The anchors of the mall are Target (formerly White House Department Store, demolished in the early 90's), Costco (formerly Popular Dry Goods and Dillard's, demolished in the early 2000's for Costco), Kohl's (formerly Mervyn's closed in 2008), Premiere Cinema 17 IMAX (formerly S.S. Kresge/Bassett Cinema Six). Junior anchors are Dave and Busters and Conn's.
As you can see from the mall directory, there are not a lot of inline store spaces. There are just enough to keep the inside of the mall viable. The mall has a great variety of shopping and entertainment options.
Here is a very in-depth blog post that helped me compile the information for my post. There is a lot more mall history listed on the link below, check it out.
Target opened as a Target Greatland after replacing a White House Department store. Target has 2 entrances inside of the mall. This is the entrance on the West side of the mall.
Here is the mall corridor just past the above Target entrance.

The courtyard in front of the second Target entrance has a lot of sunlight and an interesting design.
Just about every inline space is filled in this mall.
The food court is to the left and Conn's to the right, more on this section of the mall later.
This is the former entrance to Dillard's. Costco is now on the other side of this wall and does not have a mall entrance.

Looking back into the mall from the East end. Conn's takes up a lot of space to the left and Dave and Busters to the right.
Entering this part of the mall, you might think you entered into a deadmall, it is very quiet down here. Bassett Place is definitely not a deadmall. Mall ownership over the years has adjusted very well to the anchor changes, competition from the massive Cielo Vista Mall, and has kept the mall nearly full.
The massive Costco was built on the land where Popular Dry Goods/Dillard's was once located.
A large big box shopping center addition is directly across the parking lot from the mall. Service Merchandise and Safeway were once located in this shopping center.
The back side of Costco and part of Dave and Busters.
Dave and Busters and the Premiere Cinemas 17 IMAX.
The West side of the mall.

Back into the mall we go, this is near the West mall entrance we started at earlier.
More storefronts in this area of the mall.
FYE is such a rare sight these days. Enjoy the extended tour of this FYE location.
General movie, music, and collectable merchandise. We did pick up a t-shirt, but we had our eyes on a lot more.
New releases.
As you can see from the next photos, this store was well stocked and had a ton of selection. DVD's, CD's, bluray, they had it all.
Sweets
What is old is new again, Garbage Pail Kids.
SNL merchandise
Candy and lots of it!
Discount bins.

Retro game and music player section.
Vinyl to the left and CD's to the right.
Lots of vinyl.
Well stocked!
Audio players and speakers. You can see the POP figures in the corner.
Premiere Cinemas 17 IMAX theater. This expanded theater opened where the S.S.Kresge/Bassett Cinema Six was located.
Finish Line
Old school Bath and Body Works.
The ceilings in this part of the mall are interesting. Very old school.
The Conn's mall entrance, located near the food court.
The food court was remodeled in 2015-2016 and shrunk down in size from 14 to 6 spaces to accommodate the new Dave and Busters.

This mural is covering up one of the few empty spaces in the mall near the food court.
Going back around towards the Kohl's and Cinema.
The Kohl's corridor is to the left of Victoria's Secret. More on the Kohl's section of the mall in a bit.
The Target signs in neon are such a rare sight these days. Bassett Place Mall has 3 neon Target signs!
This has to be one of the most plain GNC entrances.
The exterior of Conn's.
Kohl's formerly Mervyn's.
The mall road signs that are visible from I-10.
More of the Kohl's. This store looks so much like Mervyn's.
Target
Back to the West mall entrance.
Too bad I was unable to see this mall at night, these neon signs have to be a sight to see.

Here is yet another awesome entrance with the mirrored glass, I wonder if the globe lights come on at night still. This is the mall entrance to Kohl's.
The short Kohl's mall corridor has a few local businesses.
This random line of neon was awesome to see. I wonder if the whole mall had the neon lines back in the day. The East Target entrance is to the right.

Here are a couple more store fronts in the corridor between the 2 Target entrances.
This one was especially interesting, it was some kind of safety training for kids. the entrance was wide open, but nothing appeared to be going on inside.
More of the West Target and mall entrances.
Now for an added bonus, Bassett Place Mall from the sky.
Mall is in the center of the photo.
Mall is in the middle left of this photo, you can see I-10 much more clearly here.
Hope you enjoyed this visit, more to come!
It looks like this mall has seen many changes over the years, thanks for the photos. I don't think I have ever seen aerial shots of a mall from an airplane before on a retail blog so this is certainly a first!
ReplyDeleteThis mall seems to have a nice mix of anchors who are strong right now. That puts them in a favorable position over many other malls whose anchors are in a weak position and might close in the near future. Also, of course, people want to shop at stores like Target and Costco so that helps drive crowds.
Is that Kohl's a two-story building? For most people who had a mall Mervyn's, their local Mervyn's was a two-story store, but the Mervyn's near Willowbrook Mall (in the Fiesta shopping center, now a Rooms To Go) was only a single story. I certainly shopped at the two-story Mervyn's at Memorial City Mall and other places.
This looks like the kind of mall that looks dramatically different in daylight than at night due to all the skylights. I'm sure the mall looks quite interesting at night. Those neon Target signs are somewhat vintage if we can call mid-to-late 1990s things vintage. I suppose we can at this point. That grid-like light design is something very vintage, but I do like it. It looks a bit like the lights in Terminals A and B at Houston Intercontinental Airport. Those buildings opened in the same era that this mall was enclosed.
The tile floor at this mall has oddly wide grout lines. I wonder why they did that, but I guess it's no big deal. The wood on the store front of the Jewelry Box store looks kind of vintage even though it probably isn't. I think I've seen pictures of a few malls with Conn's in them. A Conn's gives malls some of the features malls with Sears once had, but the high pressure sales tactics at Conn's is an annoyance which wasn't around at Sears, Montgomery Ward, and others.
Yes Kohl's is two floors and both floors are open. The inside of the store has the feel of a Mervyn's as well. I should have gotten a few photos inside of the store, but I didn't. I also went into the Target without getting any photos.
DeleteIn hindsight I should have gone here at night and to the Cielo Vista Mall in the day. All of the neon in the mall would look so much better in the evening. Cielo Vista is nice, but not as charming as this mall.
Conn's is a good addition to the mall. Without a connected anchor at that end of the mall, it was probably dying before Conn's came in. The interior seems to have a mix of different styles. The Kohl's wing looks like it was added on in the 80's, the main mall in the 70's with a 90's era renovation, and the food court with a 2010's look. It all works well together.
A lot of mall managers across the country could learn how to redevelop malls using this one as an example. Just about everything that could go wrong with anchors at a mall has happened here. Every anchor loss was filled quickly with a better anchor and the inline stores have been scaled back to make way for entertainment and big box retailers.
I appreciate the extended FYE tour in particular. They closed ours several years ago, and I miss them. Expensive though they were, it was still always fun to browse.
ReplyDeleteLove that awesome square block pattern ceiling, too!
Thanks for the comment. The Houston area when I live lost FYE about 10 years ago. The closest FYE company store to us is a Suncoast about 90 minutes from me in Beaumont Texas.
DeleteWow, sometimes you never know who is reading this blog. Retail Retell, are you the Flickr user who used to post (and may still post) lots of photos of Krogers, especially greenhouse style ones, from Memphis/Northern Mississippi? Well, I know there were a few Kbloggers (Kroger bloggers in this case instead of Kmart bloggers) in that area. Anyway, if you are who I think you are, thanks for all the great photos over the years. I've enjoyed them. I'll have to check out your blog. I'm only just now starting to frequent the blogs of people who used to post photos over at Flickr like the Retail Regent blog, Twin Tiers Retail blog, and the Albertsons Florida Blog.
DeleteOf course, if you want to check out Krogers with all kinds of styles, you should check out Houston. We have more than a handful of greenhouse Krogers left, at least one Superstore Kroger left, Krogers which look like Safeways, Krogers which look like Albertsons, and more!
I also enjoyed the pictures of the FYE. Mall music and video stores are certainly a thing of the past here in Houston, but maybe the Beaumont FYE is still open. Still, that's not close to me. I'm glad that FYE still has a fairly significant selection of music CDs, but those stereo systems they are selling are pure Tozai grade. Oh well, what do you expect I guess.
I have ordered CDs from FYE a couple of times in recent years because they surprisingly have very good prices and promotions online which make their prices well below Amazon's, but when I tried to order some before Christmas, their website was seriously screwed up. It look several minutes for items to show up in the cart. When they did and when I went to place the order, they were claiming they could not find my address even though I typed it in correctly. I just gave up and ordered from Barnes & Noble instead.
The Beaumont FYE/Suncoast was still open as of early this year. Who knows if it will be there for much longer. I have been documenting any FYE store that I come across these days since they are becoming rare.
DeleteFYE is still struggling even after being acquired by a company with more capital to help them get better. There are only about 200 stores left, so there are not many stores left.
@Anonymous - Yes, that's me! Thanks so much for your kind words, that just made my day. I'm still active on flickr as well as on my blog. Those other blogs you mention are great as well, and on the sidebar to my blog I have a huge list linking to similar retail blogs you might enjoy.
DeleteI've never been to Texas, but it sounds like a great place to find some interesting retail, especially Kroger stores!
Concerning FYE, I wonder if the new owner (Sunrise Records, purchased FYE late last year) is encountering difficulties in their revival plan for the chain due to the current pandemic. Actually, I'm positive they are. Hopefully this doesn't ruin their whole plan, though. They're responsible for reviving HMV in Canada and the UK, and had hopes to rebrand FYEs here as Sunrise and re-expand the chain.
I actually did not know that Sunrise Records purchased FYE. This is news to me. I am familiar with the Canadian retail scene so I am familiar with Sunrise though. Hopefully this will work out well for them and maybe they can even expand. I'm sure rent at malls, even successful malls, will be at all-time lows so maybe this is the time to open stores. Of course, they're not making any money with mall stores right now because of the shutdowns and I'm sure that's hurting them a lot. Hopefully they can make some money through their online operations at least. Some rural places will probably be forced to deal with stay at home orders like the urban areas and rural residents are more reliant on physical media since Internet access can be limited in some places. Amazon has temporarily stopped replenishing their inventory of CDs and such in order to maximize warehouse space for items people are buying because of coronavirus. That might be an opportunity for FYE and others like Barnes & Noble, but I'm sure business must be terrible as a whole.
DeleteWhile our malls generally lack interesting stores (je's local mall, Deerbrook Mall, does at least have a Barnes & Noble), we do have some record stores around town. Half Price Books is probably the best place to look for oddball new and used CDs, DVDs, cassettes, and so forth, but we have some specialized music stores as well. We even have a classical music store. AFAIK, we might be the only major metro area which still has a classical music store. Of course, who knows, coronavirus might knock that out too.
Around 2008-2009, the retail blog scene was really good. A lot of the blogs then were 'national' blogs, but in recent years there have been a number of regional blogs which have popped up and they're very good. Many of these are former/current Flickr members obviously. I'm amazed at how much detail some of these blogs put into their posts. Since retailing blogging is more local now, I suppose people know the stores and areas they are covering well. I think we're seeing a retail blog renaissance and I think that's great because I like the blog format.
I'll be checking out your blog and the other blogs from Flickr members aside from the ones I'm already reading. There's a lot of great information about retailers those of us in Houston have no idea about. Even with the cases like Kroger, there are always oddball stores or at least small oddball things to cover in otherwise ordinary locations.
It seems like the focus of retail blogging/photo sites started with malls and defunct discount store chains in the 2000s, then the focus went to Kmart in the early-to-mid 2010s, and now focus is shifting to grocery stores, big box stores, and oddball discount stores. Of course, grocery stores have always been covered, but now they are the stars of the show like malls and Kmarts used to be in times past before those malls and Kmarts closed.
This is to all of the retail bloggers: You are all doing an excellent job. You are dedicated to your blog, you travel to places to take pictures, you do your best to try to reply to comments and most importantly, you are committed to something not many people are, retail history. Thank you for doing this. I don’t think a lot of people think about the hard work you guys all do, all of the work put into a post. People take for granted what you do. You are all doing a really amazing job. Thank you for everything you do.
DeleteThank you for the kind words and we appreciate your praise.
DeleteThere is a lot of work involved, but it is fun to see these places. New and old, we try to capture the nostalgia and create new memories. There are a lot of awesome retail historians out there, I do my best to keep my link tab updated for everyone to see.
What gave you the inspiration to start this blog? Have you been interested in retail for most of your life?
DeleteRetail has been an interest of mine for many years now. Some of my best memories with my family and friends happened in retail spots many, many years ago. So many of those places from my youth are gone. Thankfully, I started documenting retail in the late 90's with VHS and 35mm photos. Some of these recordings and photos have been featured on my blog. I have lived in both States that this blog covers for most of my life, so I am able to better specialize on the history of these places.
DeleteI don’t know where I saw this, but apparently, there was a Montgomery Ward at Bassett Place Mall. I don’t know if this is real or not.
ReplyDeleteLooking at some Internet sources, the other 2 malls in El Paso had Montgomery Ward locations. I did not see any listing in the Mall History page. It is possible they had a stand alone location near the mall at one point.
DeleteI just got confused. I thought that the Costco was formerly the Montgomery Ward just because they both had auto centers, but the Costco could have just been built from the ground-up, and not related at all to the Montgomery Ward. Or it could be an actually former Wards and extensively remodeled on the inside and on the outside to look like a Costco.
DeleteThe only Montgomery Wards I see listed in the area were at the Cielo Vista Mall and Sunland Park Malls. I would not be surprised if there is another store or two that were in the area prior to the opening of those malls, but I don't see a Bassett Place location mentioned. The Costco was built on the site of the former Dillard's/Popular Dry Goods site.
Deletehttps://www.elpasotimes.com/story/news/local/el-paso/2020/04/06/bassett-center-bassett-place-el-paso-first-mall/5108541002/
Not related to Montgomery Ward, but there was old mall in El Paso on Dyer and Wren. I think it was called Northpark Mall. The anchors were JCPenney, The Popular Department Store, and Furrs. It was demolished around 2009. Here is an article about it https://mallsofamerica.blogspot.com/2006/09/northgate-shopping-center.html
DeleteThanks for sending that link over. Texas has a lot of these older mostly forgotten malls, that are long gone. I recently found out about one in Victoria Texas straight out of the 1960's. Town Plaza Mall was the name of that mall.
DeleteDid you hear about that tornado in Jonesboro, AR? It went through The Mall at Turtle Creek and destroyed it. The most affected areas were a Best Buy and Barnes & Noble. A Dillard’s and JCPenny also got damaged. I wonder if they will reopen because they will probably get at least delayed by COVID-19/Decline of Brick and Mortar retail.
ReplyDeleteWow I did not know about that. I will have to follow what is going on there. I can see the department stores reopening if the mall is healthy. I am not familiar with that mall so I will see what is happening over the next few weeks. Thanks for letting me know about this.
DeleteI was reading I think CNN and they said the mall would have been packed around the time the tornado struck.
DeleteI looked up some info about the mall. It has the same name as a mall in Hattiesburg Mississippi that I once visited. The Jonesboro Mall is one of the newest malls in the USA. With the mall being the only one on the area, it will probably be rebuilt. Dillards seems to do well there from what I read, so they will probably be back.
DeleteHopefully there are few injuries from this disaster, there is enough going on without having to worry about severe weather these days.
I have a funny story someone told me with the Bassett Place Target. They were visiting El Paso to see a friend and that friend was a security guard at the mall. They were patrolling the parking lot and saw a Target employee pushing carts. This Target employee was trying to mess with the circuits in the cart pusher and somehow, it started to speed toward the doors. The doors shattered when the cart collided with the doors.
ReplyDeleteWhoops, sounds like something you would see happen on the Superstore show. I wonder if the employee had to mess with the circuits to keep it running since it was not getting fixed.
DeleteThe security guy said he was driving around the parking lot and didn’t stick around for long. The cart incident only took about 1 minute to unfold according to him.
DeleteThings happen fast, the employee this happened to was probably in big trouble. Did you ever visit the store when it was a Target Greatland?
DeleteI’ve never been to the Bassett Place Target store before. I’ve never been in a Target Greatland at all. Actually, I’m not sure if I’ve been in a former Greatland before.
DeleteI have never been to a Target Greatland store while it was a Greatland. There was one in The Woodlands but I never went. Super Targets are disappearing as well, the company is getting rid of nearly every Super Target by remodeling and downsizing the stores. There is still one in the Houston area for now.
DeleteThe one in Spring off of 45 or the one near NRG Center? I know the one in Spring got downsized to a regular Target a while back.
DeletePasadena is the last Super Target in the Houston area. I have not passed by in a while so that may not be the case anymore.
DeleteConsidering this mall does host a lot of events and of course as you said, strong anchors, this mall is still alive and well! FYE is also still up at Bassett Place as well! Though FYE is no stranger or rare in El Paso malls, Cielo Vista lost FYE back years ago until it returned around 2021, Sunland Park Mall has suffered decline but they also continue to hold FYE up! Although you did say Bassett Place Mall does look much more charming than Cielo Vista, which it is very beautiful and very retro, Sunland Park Mall is definitely the prettiest of the three, may not have neon and a lot of tenants like it once did in its past, but it’s a very beautiful mall with incredibly large sky lights throughout that entire mall! It’s also very pretty and well-lit at night as well! But overall, these are amazing photos of Bassett Place and hope it continues to remain healthy and retro just the way it is!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the update on Bassett Place. FYE has been coming back since the company is under new ownership. FYE came back to the Houston area in late 2022 after being gone for over a decade.
DeleteI am still in awe at how El Paso has three traditional malls and one outlet mall with Juarez having almost ten indoor malls. That is more malls than just about every metro area in Texas in 2024. I would agree that Sunland Park is the best-looking mall in the area including the Juarez Malls. I bet the neon era of the mall was really something to see. Thanks for the comment.
El Paso did have more indoor malls in its past but those have since then been closed and demolished (which is unfortunate) but with the amount of malls that Juarez has along with how large the malls here are, it’s a surprise to see Bassett is still doing fine but with strong anchors and good owners, they’ve been doing fine. As someone who lives in El Paso, it’s ironic to see how you say that the Juarez malls are nicer because many people would actually rather cross the border to shop Cielo Vista Mall instead over the malls they already have, considering that it just has more options and department stores, it was always well maintained as well as with renovations going on right now, things are definitely changing!
ReplyDeleteSorry for the confusion, I meant to say that Sunland Park is the best-looking mall out of the remaining ones. Bassett Place is second with all of the neon, but I would have to give Plaza Las Misiones the nod over Cielo Vista as far as looks. As for the store selection, Cielo Vista is hands down the best mall in the metro area. Hopefully the color scheme will change for the better at Cielo Vista, I am just not a fan of the sandy yellow color scheme.
DeleteCielo Vista has for sure changed, ever since that repaint occurred, the mall looks 100x better than what it looked like before though the exterior continues to remain dilapidated but hopefully it’ll change, Cielo Vista is also one of the last remaining Simon malls with a fountain area which is pretty cool as well. As for Sunland though, I did forget to mention they received new owners and renamed the mall to ‘The Shoppes At Solana’ which me personally along with so many others, previous name was way better, just isn’t the same anymore, only like 15 national brands left with majority being small business or locals I don’t see much that’s gonna happen because the mall just somehow looks…worse though there is more foot traffic just doesn’t feel the same.
DeleteWith the interior a Cielo Vista getting a new paint job, the owners may very well want to redo the exterior of the mall. If anything, the mall could get refreshed entrances since that seems to be popular these days. A lot of our malls here in Houston have seen entrances refreshed in the past 5 years of so. New signage, new logos, and a new design is what we have seen. In addition to the entrance renovations, many malls have seen renovated food courts. Unfortunately, a lot of old school neon was removed in these renovations in favor of vanilla designs. One of our local malls did get partially renovated in 2023 with dark blue and dark green ceilings in one corridor that looks really nice.
DeleteIt sounds like The Shoppes at Solana has an uphill battle ahead of them. I just looked at a really good recent photo tour on Google reviews. The good news is that only one small anchor is empty, and the anchor lineup is really strong. Making the mall an entertainment center and small business incubator seems to be the way to go. They really need to keep the few remaining national chains though. The name brands are still a vital component to help build the smaller businesses up.
Well Cielo Vista has had the white repaint for already 2 years, the entrances are still in process of being renovated though it’s somewhat awkward. As for The Solana, they have 2 empty anchor tenants and 3 filled up tenants (Sears being subdivided) Dillard’s ditched its men’s store and concealed the women’s and men’s store in one building. They seriously do have an uphill battle people want actual national brands coming back not local small businesses up there and since then both Cielo Vista and The Solana have been throwing each other off (not really) and competing against each other without saying a word, Bassett has been thrown in between them and has become very forgotten. Hopefully though, The Solana does revive but it’s just not the same anymore.
ReplyDeleteIs the economy still strong in El Paso like it is in other parts of the state? We are starting to see a bit of a slowdown here in Houston. We are still getting a lot of new residents, but skyscraper and retail construction has really slowed down. This is the first time in several years that no skyscrapers are in construction in our Downtown area. Our malls are fairly stagnant as well. The last Sears anchors to close in 2020 and 2021 have been sitting around with nothing new on the horizon except for the Spirit Halloween stores.
DeleteI have a feeling that Dillard's is going to consolidate a lot more of their dual anchors. Macy's still has dual anchors at Willowbrook Mall here, but I doubt it will be like that for much longer. A fairly recent mall directory still showed the two Dillard's stores, so I guess the mall management doesn't want to show another empty anchor space online.
Yeah economy seems to be stable here, Primark is avoiding the larger Texas cities (I guess for now) and has plans to expand into the El Paso area at Cielo Vista Mall, we do have a couple new shopping centers opening up which are mostly owned by El Paso-based River Oaks Properties and they seem to do well if they own nearly more than half of the shopping centers here. Dillard’s has definitely consolidated some of their stores including the Sunland Park store, I’m guessing because most are in dying malls and yeah, Sunland Park Mall just like Willowbrook Mall also didn’t update their directories just so they don’t have more empty spaces shown on the directories, especially with not removing Bath & Body Works and Old Navy form the directories.
ReplyDeleteA couple of El Paso malls will have more empty space to fill once Conn's closes up shop. Texas is getting hit hard, with 80 total stores closing. Conn's was one of the stores that was helping to fill empty mall space. Primark is a huge win for Cielo Vista Mall and will be a draw for shoppers. Looks like we will be getting one in Katy as well. I am not sure if that will be a destination for someone my age, but I am happy to see that Texas is still attracting new retailers.
DeleteYep, Bassett Place and Sunland Park Mall are gonna lose their Conn’s Furniture Stores, it’s gonna give both malls more space that needs to be filled, Bassett Place is deteriorating, in recent months, the boba tea shop in the mall closed, followed by the rue21 bankruptcy closure which I doubt they’ll return to Bassett Place in the reopening list since the signs have been removed, Journey’s also departed around the same time, and now we have Conn’s closing. Cielo Vista is also getting JD sports and Mango as well! Primark is definitely gonna be a big one though, Cielo Vista Mall is getting stronger and stronger, stores that were at Bassett have been doing better at Cielo Vista and many retailers that closed at Bassett are still up at Cielo Vista, Victoria’s Secret closed their Bassett store a year or two after this post, they’ve renovated the store inside Cielo Vista last year, Journey’s gave into a renovation at Cielo Vista with the Bassett store closing, the fro-yo shop inside Bassett has opened a location inside Cielo Vista. Basically Bassett Place Mall is getting weaker, Cielo Vista Mall has been snatching up places that Bassett Place Mall has, considering how Cielo Vista Mall is a lot busier, many retailers would rather stay there than at Bassett Place Mall, it’s also noticeable how Bassett has so many empty tenants and they don’t know what to do with them, they have walls covering many former tenants, Cielo Vista does up front but it’s not as empty, hopefully though, management’s considers giving Bassett Place Mall more attention because Cielo Vista Mall already got a repaint and entrance renovation, they’ll probably get more renovations done a while later, so Bassett Place really needs to hold up
ReplyDeleteWhat a turn of events in just a short span since my visit over 5 years ago. I guess Bassett Place is getting closer and closer to becoming another outdoor mall since the indoor spaces are struggling. Sunland Park sounds like it is slowly turning around despite losing Conn's, hopefully the mall will continue down that path. I wonder what plans Cielo Vista has for when Sears inevitable closure happens.
Delete