Another article from my archives, a West Hills Mall update from the Summer of 2020. I also have another update from 2021 after all of the anchors closed. Reading the 2023 Google reviews of the mall, show that not much else has changed since the last two anchors closed.
As of late 2020, this mall no longer has any retail anchors. JCPenney and Palais Royal closed within weeks of each other leaving the smaller retailers to fend for themselves. More than half of the mall had already been redeveloped into offices, does the anchor closings mean the end of the retail life at this property? Time will tell, but things are not looking good for the retail side of things. As of this update, both anchor spaces have yet to be filled.
I managed to get close to 120 images of this tiny mall, so please enjoy. I had a feeling that this trip would be the only chance I would have to visit the mall before the anchors closed.
Into the JCPenney, we go. This was a typical small town JCPenney store. Not much had been changed throughout the store over the years. Enjoy the following set of photos.
The fixtures for sale.
Now into the mall we go.
The mall corridor is pretty small. Not much left to see here.
Palais Royal also closing.
From one side of the mall to the other.
Now for the inside of the Palais Royal.
I really like this centerpiece of the store.
Even into 2023, fitting rooms at some stores are closed because of 'Covid'.
The Stage store closing sales seemed to last forever. In the Spring of 2020, the store closures were announced, then by late 2020 the stores finally closed. I really liked their plan to change their store formats to the Gordman's nameplate and go the discount route. Unfortunately, those plans came too late to save the chain.
This is one of the few Stage stores that I documented over the years. We rarely shopped at Palais Royal or Bealls, so I don't have much to say about the stores.
Back into the mall.
One of the strangest things at this mall, is this cut through to the bathrooms. The old Zales was opened up with hallways leading to the bathrooms between the two benches. You can also access the hallway from the other side of the mall across from Lee Baron.
Gotta love the mirror glass JCPenney entrances.
Back into JCPenney. And yet another blast from the past with all of the Covid rules from 2020!
Now for the exterior of the mall.
So now we have seen what the retail half of the mall has to offer. What about the other half of the mall that has been redeveloped?
Here is the other side of the mall that we had not covered until this visit. As you can see, this side of the mall looks almost exactly like the other side. This whole half of the mall was redeveloped into offices and public service uses.
This is where the corridor ends. The other side of the dead end is roughly where the mall entrance to Palais Royal is.
As you can see when comparing the mall side directory with the office side directory, the offices now take up more than half of the available space. Baskin's was the anchor store at the bottom left of this directory.
Now for an added bonus, the last Sears Hardware in Texas that closed in late 2019/early 2020. The building was in the beginning stages of redevelopment.
More to come, stay tuned.
