Now for the final mall in the Corsicana three-pack. This is the Corsicana Crossing Mall, once known as the VF Factory Outlet Mall. Most of these malls were built in the mid 1980's to early 1990's. This is the only interior mall built in Corsicana that still functions as a retail mall.
For a look at the mall when the mall was still doing well. Check out the below link from Pseudo3-D. Appreciate you sharing this with the blog!
In other Corsicana news, the long-vacant Super Kmart is finally scheduled to be redeveloped in the near future. Hobby Lobby, Academy, and Ulta will be going in the redeveloped building. It sounds like the old structure will be used and renovated. As you know we have covered that store, click here.
The road sign on I-45 has seen better days.
In fact, the whole side of the mall facing I-45 needs some serious work. The potholes here are no joke, be careful if you decide to drive around like I did.
Graffiti spots next to the mall entrance is not a good look. With as bad as this side of the mall looks, the mall entrance was unlocked for access to the mall.
The other side of the mall facing South is where the majority of the people seem to frequent. The only signage for the mall is right here.
The mall lost the anchor VF Factory outlet store in the December before my visit.
The inside of the mall is nearly identical to the Livingston Outlet Mall that I covered years ago.
Four businesses were operating in the mall during my visit. The space is pretty small with space for 8 businesses including kiosks. The vacant VF covered half of the space in the mall.
The VF Factory Outlet space leaves a huge vacancy to fill.
Some of the signage for the old anchor is still intact.
There was a variety of clothing new and used along with housewares, toys, and other goods.
There were not a lot of people at the mall on this hot Summer weekday afternoon.
Now for a couple more outdoor photos before we head out.
The good side of the mall.
And the ugly.
Normally I would say that it is great seeing one of these Factory Stores of America outlet malls, but this one is pretty rough and losing the VF Outlet will probably doom this mall here soon. I went to the Hempstead Factory Stores of America a number of times in the 1990s and it was quite similar to this one, but it was in much better shape, obviously. There were three stores were usually shopped at in the Hempstead mall, the VF Outlet itself which had good deals on Lee Jeans and similar products, the kitchen gadgets store, and the shoe store. Actually, I remember shopping at the perfume store as well. I'm not sure if they even had any other stores aside from the popcorn stand.
ReplyDeleteAs it is, there does not appear to be much left at this mall. The exterior condition is appalling, that parking lot makes this mall look older than it really is. The interior isn't so bad at least, but it would be easy to think that this mall is closed given the exterior conditions.
I'm glad to hear the Super Kmart is finally being redeveloped. That was a long wait! The mix of retailers going into that Super Kmart sounds like a list of fairly typical retailers who move into old Kmarts so I guess that isn't too surprising.
Anyway, thanks for sharing these photos, it does make me think of that old Hempstead mall. Sadly, this mall looks like it is just barely hanging on, but I guess that's still better than the fate many of this mall's sister malls have suffered.
It is crazy to think that this is the only interior retail mall that survived in Corsicana. Even though it is limping along, there is a decent variety of clothes available here. There were a couple of items I almost bought. This was my first visit here despite the numerous times we passed through the area going to Dallas. I don't know how the property will survive as it though, it looks dead from I-45.
DeleteWe never went to the Hempstead Outlet Mall, but I remember passing by. This mall is pretty much a twin of the Livingston Outlet mall that appears to have closed. The Iowa Louisiana VF Mall was larger with two corridors that connected in the center of the mall and room to connect a third corridor which was never built.
I guess the Corsicana area is ripe for development with the continued growth of Dallas. Some new home communities are going up near the old Super Kmart site and the College Park Mall has been nearly completely redeveloped. The RV storage lot was just a temporary tenant that didn't actually use the old Kmart building. I guess since the inside of the old store was gutted already it makes it easier to redevelop the old structure. You have to wonder how sound the building is after being vacant for nearly 20 years.
I was able to take a photo of the mall interior of when VF was still operating: http://www.carbon-izer.com/photoessay/corsicana/corsicana.html
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the link, is it okay for me to add your photo link to the article? I bet the mall looked much livelier when that place was open. I passed by this mall a bunch of times over the years and never stopped.
DeleteNo problem! Just link directly to the HTML page and not directly the photo links. Thanks!
DeleteThanks Pseudo3D, I added the link to the page.
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