Here is an update to the everchanging former Southwest Center Mall. Here is my previous visit if you would like to check it out. By the time of my visit, construction had begun on new tenants, and the mall name changed back to Red Bird. Redevelopment started a couple of months before our visit, here is the site plan. Red Bird will be an awesome mixed use property when completed, and thankfully most of the mall structure will remain in place. The redevelopment here is in full swing, while the Valley View Center Mall redevelopment is still in limbo.
Burlington was the last retail anchor left at the mall. It appeared that only one floor of the anchor was being used as well.
Sears vacated the mall back in early 2019. Here is what the future of the building will be, a new medical center.
Macy's closed in March 2017. Urban Air Trampoline Park was under construction on the first level of the anchor building.
As you can see, the new Red Bird logo is prominently displayed on the former Macy's anchor.
So here is where we entered the mall. I was not prepared for how things had changed already at the mall.
The food court was completely empty! At the time of my visit, I did not know that this wing of the mall was about to be closed off.
Footaction was one of the few retail holdouts left at this point in the soon to be closed wing of the mall.
Just past Footaction, JCPenney used to operate here. The building was demolished about a decade ago, leaving a big hole that had not been redeveloped as planned.
These circular openings to view the lower level are a nice touch.
The openings also let in light from the skylight.
This is a look down into the still closed off first level of the mall near where JCPenney used to be. More of this corridor had been opened up so you could use the staircase to access the food court.
An obvious Old Navy on the left.
A newly opened Redbird business development center.
Another look at the former Old Navy.
The center court of the mall. If you look closely, you will see the old Jimmy Jazz on the second floor with the new Jimmy Jazz on the first floor.
The former Dillard's mall entrance.
I did not notice this old school signage on my last visit, here it is now for your enjoyment.
An up close look at the old Jimmy Jazz.
Inside of the former Macy's anchor.
I am sure that this center court was a bustling place at one time. On this Saturday morning, not so much.
Another closed store on the second floor across from the old Jimmy Jazz.
I finally found some neon lights that worked. These decorative lights throughout the mall are cool to see in person. The reflection from the mirrors really makes these stand out.
As we move towards Sears, I am beginning to realize that something is not right up here.
Or is it? Foot Locker is still open up here.
But this store moved downstairs.
Here are a couple more stores open on the second floor. This brings the count to 5
open businesses on the second floor of the mall.
Burlington to the right and the former Sears mall entrance straight ahead.
The Burlington second floor entrance closed was off. No merchandise was inside of the store, similar to the PlazAmericas Mall store in Houston.
Another business left in the corner next to the former Sears.
Here is what the second floor inside of Sears looked like.
Here is the view from the Sears entrance going towards the rest of the mall. This are designed similarly to the JCPenney wing.
The other side of the above area with the Sears entrance visible.
I am pretty sure this was an old Everything's a Dollar entrance.
The Summer Camp is well hidden in this area of the mall near Sears.
Last look before venturing downstairs.
As we make it downstairs, we finally find some good clusters of businesses.
The Burlington mall entrance just does not look good with the burned out neon.
The former Sears mall entrance on the first level had a leftover Everything Must Go sign. I like the tree and vegetation still in place here, it is an old school look.
More businesses near the former Sears mall entrance.
Here is how the inside of the former Sears on the first level looked.
Looking from the Sears into the mall.
The mall entrance near Sears and Burlington had this advertisement of how the property will look in the future.
In this part of the mall between the Burlington and center court, nearly every space was filled. Kiosks were also active.
As we get back to the center court, things quiet down again.
The former Macy's mall entrance.
The inside of the former Macy's building had been gutted and permits were up for the upcoming Trampoline Park construction.
More views of the center court.
Looking back towards Burlington and the former Sears corridor.
Artwork on display in front of the former Dillard's entrance.
This is the last area of the mall open to visit. This corridor was mostly closed off during my last visit to the mall. Now the corridor was opened up all the way to the staircase to the food court.
This was some kind of new play area for kids.
The community room to the right was open and being used. On my last visit the community room was on the left. There was a wall covering up this corridor about where the entrance to the new community room is located.
This part of the mall looks really good and they have new Red Bird pictures along some of the walls.
The end of the mall with the staircase leading up to the food court. Looking at the plans, the mall will be demolished about where the staircase is located to make room for a park, Courtyard by Marriott Hotel, and Luxury apartments. This wall will probably become the new entrance to this part of the mall.
A couple of the stores from the second floor have also relocated to this part of the mall.
Looking into the closed off portion of the mall where JCPenney was located.
I forgot to mention the Underground Journey's that was open on the second floor, so make it 7 businesses.
It was at this point that we took a break so I could figure out what was going on at the mall. After a quick online search, we found our answer. The retailers were being moved to the first floor and the second floor was slated to be a business incubator with offices and more. A portion of the mall was going to be demolished which was going to eliminate the food court.
Some last views of the food court before we leave the mall.
I am pretty sure this was a Tilt Arcade at one time.
A view of the fence and ground work going on for the new buildings in front of the former Macy's.
In conclusion, Red Bird Mall is undergoing a huge redevelopment project. My visit was about 2 months after any major work had started, so the mall has probably changed a lot since then. As of my last visit to Dallas in August of 2020, there are now construction cranes on the site (not pictured) and more has changed since my visit. I did not have time to drive by for a quick update, but we could see a little bit as we drove past on I-20. Don't worry though, I was able to visit several new properties on that trip which will be featured here on the blog.
It’s so funny to me to see that bare-metal escalator inside the former Macy’s.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast in the first and second floor was strange to see. The second floor was practically untouched, but the first was completely gutted.
DeleteThe outside of that ex-Macy's certainly still has that classic Sanger-Harris look. That's certainly one of the mot recognizable department store exterior designs around. It's pretty amazing how clean that gutted out Macy's looks, I'm glad you got that image.
ReplyDeleteThe people of Dallas must have been very upset when they lost Sanger-Harris to Foley's and Tom Thumb to Randall's. Dallan residents like to think of themselves as being higher class than Houstonians, but Houston-based retailers took over their upper-mid level retail, lol. Dallas lost Titche's to San Antonio-based Joske's as well. Oh well, at least they have Neiman Marcus and JCPenney is based in the area as well.
I'm not sure if it's fair to call Red Bird Mall a dying mall at this point with the redevelopment, but it most certainly was a dying mall and yet another example of a DeBartolo dead/dying mall. Nobody knew how to build a dead mall like DeBartolo, lol. Given that the 49ers were/are owned by the DeBartolos and given the Cowboys' big rivalry with the 49ers in the early 1990s, I wonder if any Dallas Cowboys fans boycotted this mall back then.
I'm surprised Burlington didn't do more to cover up that mall entrance on the second floor. I suppose they don't mind people seeing their storage area.
In some ways, this mall looks like your typical retro dead/dying mall, but this mall would have been a lot more impressive than anything we had in Houston at the time except maybe for The Galleria. The same would be the case if we include Greenspoint and Baybrook Malls which opened afterwards. Some might argue about Greenspoint, but I don't think it was as fancy as Red Bird back in the 1970s.
Anyway, it's neat to look at these old malls. Thanks for the photos. It's good to hear that Red Bird has a future.
The area around Red Bird reminds me of the Sharpstown area here in Houston. They are doing a much better job of diversifying the mall property which will help bring the area back.
DeleteThe Burlington Coat Factory may eventually wall off their mall entrance like they have done at a lot of stores where they closed off the second floor.
I would like to see how the progress of this mall is going in another year or so. The mall property may barely be recognizable with all of the new stuff going in. I am glad that the majority of the mall will remain open unlike the mess at the Valley View Mall.
The Best Buy store near Hollister and 290 permanently closed sometime this year.
ReplyDeleteThat is strange, was that location close to another store?
DeleteI guess the one near Memorial City Mall, but that is a stretch.
DeleteIf I had to make a guess, I would say that the lease for that store was coming up for renewal and Best Buy decided not to renew. That's just a guess though. I was surprised Best Buy even opened a store in that location many years ago, but it survived for quite a while so it couldn't have done too badly. Then again, since it's gone, it probably didn't do too well either.
DeleteThe people living closer to the Beltway on 290 would probably prefer to shop at the Willowbrook area Best Buy and maybe the Copperfield one as well for the people more to the west. Those living on the west side of 290 in between the Loop and Beltway and those living closer to the Heights would probably prefer to shop at the Memorial City area Best Buy. That leaves the store's potential base of shoppers being the immediate area. While there is a pretty large population in that immediate area, it's a pretty blue-collar area and I'm sure it's not the ideal place to sell higher end electronics and appliances with fatter profit margins.
That said, the area has lots of retail traffic with a nearby Walmart, a Target in the shopping center, and lots of big box retail. Granted, some of the big box retail in the area is moving to the new powercenter by the Loop so that might have concerned Best Buy a bit. Unfortunately, the customer base in that area probably prefers to, or can only afford to, buy electronics from the likes of Walmart or Target and so that isn't ideal for Best Buy. The area Service Merchandise turned into a Joe V's discount grocery store so I'm sure Service Merchandise had some of the same problems selling higher profit margin items many years ago.
It is kind of funny though that the Best Buy survived all the years of limited access due to the freeway expansion project, but now that the freeway is done, it has closed. Oh well.
Best buy doesn't close stores very often. Usually they move to a different nearby location at a newer development.
DeleteYou make some good points with the Best Buy closure. The one that really sticks out is the new development by the loop. As so many retailers have learned over the years, the shopping districts can quickly suffer when a new development opens nearby. Best Buy management probably saw the writing on the wall and decided to leave before customer traffic declined even more.
DeleteThe redevelopment going on at the former Sears on Main Street is almost completed.
ReplyDeleteI have been watching the progress. It is getting there for sure.
DeleteEarly 2021 seems to be the year of retail video discoveries for me and the discoveries seem to continue. The University of North Texas has an online database of various media clips pertaining to Texas history. They have many video clips going back decades from Metroplex TV news stations on their website. I found a couple of them from the 1980s showing Red Bird Mall.
ReplyDeleteThe first from 1984, which is linked here, is about a promotion Red Bird Mall had encouraging people to play a treasure hunt type of game in the various stores. There are several good images from the mall in the short clip including of the Aladdin's Castle arcade.
The second video is from 1987, and is linked here, contrasts shopping at local, independent stores with shopping at a mall. The mall they used for the comparison is Red Bird Mall. Like the above video, there are some great images of Red Bird back when it was still a viable mall.
There are many other great retail videos on that UNT Texas history database, but most of them are related to supermarkets like Tom Thumb (pre-Randall's/Safeway), Safeway itself, Kroger, and Albertsons. If you're interested, you can use the search engine on their page to try to find what you're looking for. There are a couple of Kmart videos on there as well. Here's probably the most interesting one. I didn't realize that Kmart tried a 'Stocks & Socks' campaign like Sears did in the 1980s.
It is coincidental that the chain stores are now talking about their service as a reason to shop there over online stores. The small merchants in the 1987 video had the right idea for survival back then. Of course Walmart was just beginning their nationwide dominance at that time as well. Red Bird still has some of the same fixtures in place like the wood rails and winding staircases that you see in both videos.
DeleteThe Kmart video was a great look at the stores before the Big Kmart remodels.
Aside from the lack of shops and customers, Red Bird Mall indeed has not changed much from those videos ~35 years ago. It's amazing that what small mom & pop retailers are left probably don't even think about Red Bird Mall, or even more successful malls, when they worry about their biggest competitors!
DeleteSome of these chains might try to talk about their high quality of service over online retailers, but many of them just don't have the quality of service that those old-time shops had. I notice that there are still a lot of small pharmacies around. I'm sure a lot of people don't want to deal with the hassle of Walgreens, CVS, and the other big pharmacies who are prone to making mistakes.
Speaking of Walgreens, Mike from the Houston Historic Retail blog recently pointed out to me that the Jacksonville, TX Walgreens was downsized into an old Jack in the Box location. As you know, early 1990s Jack in the Boxes are on the small side for fast food places. That Walgreens must be really small and Walgreens hardly did anything to not make it look like a Jack in the Box. Here's a link to a picture of it.
Back to the topic of customer service, I recently went to a Best Buy to buy some computer parts. Their selection and prices on those parts are perhaps a little better now than they were some years ago. That's good, but I really don't like the way Best Buy stores are organized now. It's impossible to find what you're looking for without help and sometimes the clerks don't even know where things are since so much is locked away in racks they have near the ceiling that they need those big rolling ladders for to get things from. Anyway, the clerk was quite helpful in finding what I needed, which is good, but they probably should find a better way to organize their merchandise. Perhaps they purposely make things harder to find to reduce theft and to get clerks to potentially upsell on things when they are summoned for help, I don't know.
I did find another couple of retail videos on that Texas History database that you might find interesting. I found an even better video from inside a Kmart. This is a 1983 video talking about Kmart opening their store just for senior citizens so they could do Christmas shopping in peace. In some ways, that previews senior shopping hours during the pandemic. Anyway, there are some great images of the Kmart store in there, including the cafeteria, that I think you'll love. Also, here is a video from inside a Dallas Dillard's in 1983 where they discuss the first CD players being sold. In there, you can also see Dillard's appliance department (which I don't think their Houston stores ever had by the time they got here a few years later via Joske's) and also their collection of Texas Instruments video games/software for TI computers of the time that were a lot like the Commodore 64 (but less successful). Dillard's sold some really good electronics back then. This was certainly before they eliminated electronics and became Dullard's, lol.
There are a lot of great videos on that website and most of them are totally obscure. It's amazing what's hiding in quiet corners of the Internet.
Jeff from Retail USA did a recent update video on Red Bird Mall. Some new businesses have opened on the second floor, but the retail on the first floor is pretty much the same. There is a new little shopping center in front of the mall now that has Footaction and Foot Locker that used to be in the mall. I guess the mall owners needed to build new stores to keep those retailers from leaving. The former Sears store is in the process of a complete rebuild to become the new medical center.
DeleteBest Buy recently let go of a lot of full-time store level employees from what I have heard recently. It is a play straight out of the Circuit City playbook. Their reasoning is to integrate their online experience with their store experience better. A lot of the full-time employees were given the choice to become part-time employees or take a severance package. I am sure that is one of the reasons why the employees don't know or don't care about what is going on in the store. The inventory levels in the stores have been pretty bad since reopening after the pandemic lockdowns. I have visited a few Best Buy stores at least 10 times since mid 2020 and the inventory situation just is not getting any better. Just about every other retailer besides the ones that carry gun stuff have gotten their inventories back up to pre-2020 levels. It is almost like Best Buy is killing off their stores.
The Walgreens in the former Jack in the Box location is a strange sight indeed. The old Humble Walgreens location that was in the middle of the Humblewood shopping center for probably 40 years is now gone. There is a new mini pharmacy location just down the street that replaced the store. It is a shame that another vintage Walgreens is gone, there are very few of these stores left.
I watched the links on this post and have started watching your links on the Houston Historic Retail Blog. There are so many great videos on that database. I took your suggestion and found a few Kmart videos worth watching as well. Watching the videos is a great time capsule and really captures how people were living back in those times. The voice checkout and grocery scanner videos were especially fascinating. I remember the annoying voice that read out the price of each item scanned.
I have heard that the mall shoe stores prefer shopping center stores these days for a variety of reasons including having better control over shoe launch events. Given the state of the mall, it made sense for the developers to give the shoe stores outdoor storefronts. I will have to check out Jeff's video about the mall. Speaking of Jeff, since I think he's based out of the Metroplex, I wonder if he knows about all the retail videos from the Texas History Portal since most of them are from the Metroplex news.
DeleteSpeaking of Metroplex dead mall redevelopments, here's a video from what I believe is the grand opening of Collin Creek Mall in 1981 from the Texas History database. I'm sure you'll love seeing that given your past coverage of that mall.
I did not know that the Walgreens across from Deerbrook Mall closed. That's a real bummer, I was looking forward to visiting that location the next time I was in that area. It was quite retro from the limited amount of photos I could find from it. It's a real shame to lose another interesting retail location in this area. It seems that Walgreens really wants drive-thrus in their current stores and they might be willing to go into downsized locations that have drive-thrus versus larger locations that don't have them (though some large locations with drive-thrus have closed in favor of smaller locations with drive-thrus as well).
Speaking of Walgreens, Mike shared this image of a new Walgreens location in what is obviously an old Eckerd in a recent blog post. Walgreens didn't even do anything to take the Eckerdness out of that building. Walgreens has seemingly become like Rite Aid in that they seem okay using other retailer's old decor.
I didn't realize that Best Buy was letting full-time store employees go. You're right, that sounds like the move Circuit City did which seemed to hasten their demise. With Best Buy being just about the only electronics store around in most places, people are going to go there seeking electronic answers from knowledgeable employees. Customers may have a hard time finding help now. With that in mind, they're taking one advantage they have over the likes of Amazon away. That probably won't be a net positive for the company.
The electronics industry is really being hit hard with product shortages right now caused computer chip shortages that stem from various problems including the pandemic. This was a huge problem even before the Suez Canal blockage, but it might be an even bigger problem now. Although I'm not in the market to buy a new stereo receiver/amplifier, I do keep an eye on what's on the market in case I need to buy a new one in a pinch if mine goes out. Even a month ago, just about every model from every brand was on backorder and some of the expected in-stock dates are not until July or August. I'm sure this is hitting Best Buy hard and I'm not really sure how much they can do about it. It seems that powerful Amazon seems to be securing all of what little inventory there is out there in many electronics segments. While many things are impossible to buy right now, some things are quite plentiful and can be purchased very cheaply right now so it just depends.
Yeah, these videos are probably the next best thing to a time machine, lol. Instead of leaving 1985 like in Back to the Future, this time machine takes you back to 1985! Keep an eye out for Part II of my post because it will have some Kmart stuff if you didn't find it already. It'll be focused on department and discount stores. Mike also plans on posting a list of what I call 'Best of the Rest'. That's a long list of stuff that won't get a specific mention in the blog posts, but I'll still provide links to the videos. These shouldn't be viewed as reject videos, some of them are really good.
Jeff is based out of the DFW Metroplex. When I have a chance, I will send him a link. I had a lot of fun watching the videos on your first post. I just need to make time for part 2.
DeleteIt is strange to see these small Walgreens locations, but I guess merchandise sales are not viable at some locations.
I noticed Walgreens took over a former Rite Aid that I had documented before. I thought about stopping by, but my trip to the mall down the road was my priority. I had less than 45 minutes to visit and document the mall at that point.
I read about the chip shortage, there is also a rubber and wood shortage that may be hurting Best Buy as well. The employee layoffs was a terrible move, I don't get how management thinks this was a good idea. The short term profit gain will turn into long term losses as customer service goes down the tubes. It also turns me off as a customer. I don't want to buy from a company that treats their employees like that.
Best of the Rest, sounds like a necessary category especially for stores with very little or forgotten history.
The Walgreens in the old Rite Aid probably would have had old K&B decor in it if they didn't renovate it, right? That might have been neat to see. Walgreens was quite diligent about renovating their stores and keeping a fairly standardized look to them as much as possible given different store shapes, but they really seem to have a different mentality now. They really seem to be taking the Rite Aid approach of just slapping their name on a building and calling it a day. This is sloppy in a way, but also neat in a way for those of us interested in such oddballs, lol.
DeleteSpeaking of pharmacies and Jeff, I saw one of his recent videos (I think you commented on it so you probably saw it as well) from a Tennessee Greenhouse Kroger where the store had closed, but the pharmacy in the store and the gas station remained open. That is really odd. I wonder if that is a temporary situation or what. I really can't imagine them leaving that big store open for just the pharmacy unless they plan on leasing out the rest of the space. The NW Retail blogger did share with me a QFC in his area (Kroger operates under the QFC name in the Seattle area) where the supermarket closed, but Kroger kept the gas station open.
I'll include a link to my part 2 post about the videos here just in case any of your readers are interested. Within that link, there is a link to an online Google spreadsheet that has a list of a whole bunch of other videos in addition to what was in the blog. That's the Best of the Rest list. There's some good stuff on the spreadsheet including 1980s Toys R Us video game videos, Sears, Montgomery Ward, 1970s-1980s footage from inside Targets, and a whole lot more really.
I've heard about the insane prices for wood and I've also heard about the rubber shortages. Although you'd think that this would be a buyer's market with the state of the economy, it seems that there are a lot of hurdles for people wanting to spend their stimulus money and potentially also their tax refunds. Hopefully the situation will clear up in time for Christmas. Retailers are probably having to put in their Christmas orders in now and I'm sure they are feeling the pinch of they're having to pay current prices for inventory given the shortages.
Best Buy seemed to get a real boost when Hubert Jolly was their CEO a few years ago. He pulled them out of a slump nobody thought they were going to pull out of. However, now that he retired, it seems they are headed back in their old direction. I agree with you that it's a turn-off to shop at stores where the employees are treated badly and usually one can tell the employees aren't treated well by the condition of the store.
If I get a chance in the future, I will check old K&B/Rite Aid conversions in Louisiana to see how they look now. The Lake Charles K&B/Rite Aid is now a Dollar Tree and has been completely renovated.
DeleteI remember the Randall's in Pasadena closed and the Wells Fargo bank was briefly open after the store closed. The rest of the store was walled off and only a small hallway was left open to the Wells Fargo. Some Walmarts that closed had the gas station remain open afterwards. Similarly, the Sears in Mesquite which recently closed still has the Auto Center open for now. These are all rare instances, and very strange.
I am going to continue reading your part 2 post. The past few weeks and upcoming month are going to be busy for me. I am glad that I was sitting on some pre-written posts so the blog doesn't stagnate too much.
It seems like there are so many shortages right now. Computer chips, ammo, chicken wings, and the ones we mentioned above. Things that were in short supply a year ago like lysol, TP, paper towels, and cleaning products are probably being over produced. I guess it will take some time for the supply chain to balance out again.
Best Buy is going to be worth looking at over the next 5 years. I would hate to see the last nationwide big box electronics store go under. There are a lot of other regional big box chains still left, but most of those don't have the product selection that Best Buy does.