This mall has certainly changed since my last visit. Most of the mall corridor has been sealed off and incorporated into front facing big box retailers. A small portion of the old mall corridor still remains for now. The property is now known as Marshall Place since there is not much left of a mall. Ownership and management has really brought this property back to life. Marshall is too small to support an indoor mall and this place had been struggling for years. Most of these small town malls have been either redeveloped or are in the process of some form of redevelopment. College Park in Corsicana, University Mall in Nacogdoches, and Palestine Mall in Palestine were built by the same company. We will cover all of these malls to compare and contrast the redevelopments.
Boot Barn is located where the Kmart entrance to the mall was located.
Garden Shop fencing still in place. Blue Cross Blue Shield uses the old Kmart building now.
As we enter the last remaining mall corridor entrance, we can see that both sides of the mall where storefronts were at are now covered up.
The center court of the mall still remains. The area was barricaded off to keep people from congregating. (The Summer Covid spike was an issue throughout the state at the time of our visit).
As we look to the right of the center court, a small piece of the mall corridor remains. This was the corridor leading to the former JCPenney.
The corridor abruptly ends and then you can exit through this small hallway.
We had to explore the hallway to see where it led to.
Well, nothing to see down the hallway. I was hoping that maybe a part of an old store remained. Here is the view looking back into the remains of the mall.
Center court view looking from Stage.
Now we are inside of the Stage store which was in the process of closing down. Stage Stores was a casualty of 2020 and a huge blow to many small town malls.
How the fortunes of Stage Stores rapidly changed. That sign in the background looked like a Gordman's grand opening advertisement. This store along with the entire chain was all in on the Gordman's name. Only a handful of stores were converted prior to the chani going out of business.
The Stage Store liquidations happened at a bad time as well. Several JCPenney, Sears, Kmart, Macy's, and the entire Stein Mart chain were closing stores all around the same time. Even with discounts of 60-80% off the store was still full of merchandise. Of course, a lot of people were avoiding crowds as well during the height of the pandemic.
Another look at the center court.
Security office
One of the skylights in the mall corridor.
Now for the exterior shots of the mall. Ollie's was a new addition to the mall.
Burke's Outlet and Hobby Lobby are also new additions to the mall. Hobby Lobby was the old JCPenney and Burke's took over a chunk of mall space and the old Boot Barn location.
The last mall corridor entrance looks out of place with all of the new storefronts.
Another view of the entrance to Boot Barn with the Kmart styling.
Now for the best part of the tour, Ollie's!
The vibe of this store is really awesome. Goofy cartoon signage, handwritten signs from the employees, and unique products for sale.
Enjoy the photos of the store. Ollie's is expanding all throughout the United States.
You can see from this photo where the ceiling changes and the old mall corridor was roughly located.
Now here is my favorite sign.
No coffee due to Covid as the note said. Either way, this is a cool touch for the customers.
The attempt at masking Ollie is a big fail. It was hard enough to get people to fully mask up and poor Ollie didn't have the right size mask.
Babies R Us baskets.
Now from Ollie's to Boot Barn.
Inside of the Boot Barn, we can make out the skylight and the former entrance to Kmart.
This is the before photo of how this part of the mall looked.
The old mall skylight really helps brighten up the store.
The old mall corridor is unrecognizable now.
A look into the old Kmart prison yard.
The Stage anchor looks very tiny from this view.
The back of the old Kmart.
This Long John Silvers has seen better days.
More of the former Kmart.
The mall signage has been updated with the new tenants and new name.
More views of the former Kmart.
Mall entrance one more time.
One last view of the mall as we drive away.
