Cielo Vista Mall opened in 1974 and has dominated the retail scene in El Paso for many years now. Cielo Vista benefits from proximity to Mexico and the majority of the population of El Paso. This is the premiere shopping mall of the area and there are very few vacancies, if any in 2021. The anchors at the time of this post are Sears, JCPenney, Macy's, Dillard's Men's Store, and Dillard's Women's store. There is also a two-level H&M near Macy's. This is the last mall in Texas that has a full-sized Sears department store.
Juarez across the border also has a super nice Sears store to see that store click here. The mall is listed at just under 1,250,000 square feet of retail space. The current Macy's started out as a Montgomery Ward which closed and was demolished to build a new Foley's. Foley's was taken over by Macy's. The Dillard's Women's store opened up as a Rhodes and the Dillard's Men's store opened up as a Joskes. The mall has had 2 expansions and 2 renovations over the years.
As you can see the mall has lots of arches and skylights. There are a variety of skylights throughout the mall. The only thing I didn't like about the mall is the ceiling color throughout most of the mall. The yellowish hue is not very appealing to the eyes. It would be so much better if there was a variety of colors. A sky blue would look so much better than this yellow.
The JCPenney has the rare red logo.
This court in front of JCPenney can be considered the center court. In both directions, lots of mall corridors can be found.
Heading towards the Macy's.
The ceilings here are really nice this is in front of one of the Dillard's Women's store entrances.
A better view of the front of this store and the nice fountain.
On the way to Sears.
Now for some interior photos of the Sears. As of this post, this is the last full sized Sears department store in the State of Texas. We start on the first floor in the Men's department.
The first floor is all apparel.
You can see the different ceiling heights. I wonder if this part of the store was part of an expansion.
Now we will explore the second floor.
Everything else is located on the second floor.
The optical center was still open at this point.
The tool department left a lot to be desired.
These work clothes were covering up this part of the store. The sign had this area as a watch and jewelry repair department.
Still a decent selection in their lawn and garden department. As you may know, 2019 was the last year that Sears was restocking this department.
Still a decent sporting goods department.
Mattresses and appliances stretched out through this part of the store.
Auto Center.
More appliances.
I am pretty sure that this area is the former electronics department.
This area also appears to be part of the former electronics department. The plugs on the wall are pretty much the last evidence of the TV wall.
The look across the store near the 2nd floor mall entrance.
The only parts of the store that were busy were close to the tool department. The rest of the store did not have very many people walking around at all.
The Toy Department at the beginning of the clearance sale. In the beginning of the Summer in 2019, the Toy Department was phased out of Sears stores once again. By the time Fall rolled around, most of the toys were gone.
It was strange to see this generic red tent inside of the store. Most Sears stores had a blue tent with the Sears making moments matter logo.
The outside of Sears.
Across the parking lot sits the Dillard's three-level Women's store/Former Rhodes.
The Tool Territory was looking pretty sad at this point. I wonder how it looks in 2021.
Another view of the massive Dillard's store.
Macy's/Former Foley's in the far view.
Retro neon McDonald's in the food court!
Some views of the directory. This is a very large 2-level mall.
Dillard's Women's store mall entrance with the food court on the way to the store.
More views of the Sears store. The generic 90's era Sears tiles at the entrances just look terrible here.
More views of the mall corridors.
Macy's mall entrance.
There is a lot of cool detail in this part of the mall. Lots of arches and the skylight.
The other Dillard's Women's store mall entrance with the nice fountain.
More of the JCPenney entrance.
Cool mini retro snack place next to the Dillard's Men's store.
Dillard's Men's store mall entrance.
Food court mall entrance.
Dillard's Men's store/Former Joskes.
Just to the West of this store in the distance is where the Cielo Vista Walmart is located. Just a few weeks after our visit, a horrendous mass shooting claimed the lives of 23 people and injured another 23 people. Such a senseless and awful crime. My heart goes out to all of the victims and the victims families who were affected by this tragedy.
More posts on the way.
