Here is a new mall to the blog. Vista Ridge Mall opened on October 4, 1989, and is listed at 1,046,000 square feet of retail space. The mall was renamed Music City Mall in late 2017 with new ownership. Now known as The Vista, this mall is located Northwest of Dallas in Lewisville Texas. This mall once hosted Foley's, JCPenney, Sears, and a full line Dillard's as anchors. Currently Zion Market, a 15-screen Cinemark, and Dillard's clearance center anchor the mall. This mall never really lived up to expectations. The mall took a couple of years to fill up with retailers and fill out the anchor lineup. Competition just a few years after opening, chipped away at the mall leaving us where we are at today. The city of Lewisville is working to get the mall redeveloped in a similar fashion to the former Collin Creek Mall that we covered here (click me). We captured the mall just before the mall was sold again in September 2022 with yet another name change, with the property now known as The Vista. I really liked this mall; it is a shame that it has struggled and will eventually be torn down. The mall was designed with a lot of detail and still looks very good inside.
In 2023 all of the Music City Mall signage was removed, so the mall has the old Vista Ridge logos visible from the mall entrances once again. As for the roadside signage, below it looks like they just took down the Music City logo and left the blue background.
We visited the mall on a blustery cold day with off and on snow flurries.
Now for some views around the mall. Dillard's still looks really nice for a clearance store.
The mall structure though is looking a bit dated.
The former Macy's.
Now for the most active part of the mall. The Zion Market inside of the former Sears.
The former JCPenney. This is the most unusually designed JCPenney store I have ever seen.
Now let's go inside of the mall. As mentioned earlier, the Music City Mall signage was removed, revealing the old mall logo.
Here is the mall map. It looks like the mall was designed for 6 anchors, but only made it to 4 and a half.
The center court of this mall is the best feature. Not only is this skylight visually stunning, but the mall also had live music in the center court on this visit making this an even better experience.
One of the concerns I had with photographing this mall was the aggressive security. A friend of the blog had recently been trespassed from the mall shortly before my visit to the mall. Security was very visible throughout the mall, but I was careful to avoid them while getting my footage for this article.
It was around the time of my visit that the ownership had started to give up on the future of the mall. Reading more recent reviews of the mall and the plan by the Lewisville Economic Development group, the interior mall may soon cease to exist.
One of the skylights in the Sears/Zion Market court.
Old GNC logo labelscar.
The mall corridors reminded me a lot of the former Highland Mall in Austin Texas.
Here is the Zion Market which was in still in the construction phase. The former Sears anchor is one of the bright spots in the mall.
You can see the support beams have been walled off and turned into spaces for businesses. The former Sears store would have had a mostly open floor plan for shoppers.
A large pool hall and bar.
Keep in mind that these spaces were still under construction. The first floor was completed as you will see later, but the second floor was not ready yet.
A few businesses were open such as this restaurant and gaming cafe.
A better look at the pool hall.
The old escalators. According to recent reviews, these are still not in service.
More views from around the second floor.
Looking back into the mall.
The Lest We Forget WWII museum that was located in Valley View Mall has a new home here.
One of the remaining chain stores.
We are walking to the East end of the mall where Macy's/Foley's was located. This anchor closed on March 21, 2021.
Former Abercrombie and Fitch. These stores have been closing little by little.
The mall elevator has a cool round steel design.
The Cinemark 15 screen cinema which was a later addition to the mall. The original Cinemark 12 screen cinema was located in the center court of the mall.
The skylight in front of the former Macy's with Citi Trends in the bottom of the photo.
A look at both mall entrances to the closed off former Macy's.
The tile in this mall reminds me of the 90's era JCPenney mall entrances.
The former Macy's mall entrances are pretty generic.
A few store advertisement displays and mall advertisement near the former Macy's.
Calendar of events.
Another mall map.
A peek inside of the former Macy's.
At least you don't have to travel far for another Macy's location.
A low key Music City Mall sign above the escalators.
Now we are on the first floor near Macy's.
With another generic entrance
A modern family restroom area next to the former Macy's entrance.
Now for a look at the mall heading back towards the center court.
I really want to know what this store was originally.
One of the vintage cars set up inside of the mall. There will be several more as we progess.
Was this possibly a Sam Goody/FYE location with all of the neon.
This store seems familiar, but I can't put my finger on it.
Inside of the above store.
One of the pianos, that will later be used.
Since I had this song stuck in my head when I saw this store, now you get to remember it as well.
The Tool Box and another retro Corvette.
Pretty sure this soldier memorial was also inside of the former Valley View Mall as well.
An interesting way to cover up a vacant storefront. Mall management went all-in on the Music City concept.
Another tile choice for this section of the mall in front of the former Sears.
Now for the first level of the Zion Market. The Sears closed in September of 2018 and was quickly replaced by the Zion Market which opened in August of 2019. Judging by the look of this space, the first floor was finished and filled out quickly, while the second floor was filling out after people were moving on after the Covid era.
The redevelopment of the former Sears reminds me a lot of the redevelopment of the former JCPenney at PlazAmerica's Mall in Houston. The first level of the former Sears is practically unrecognizable though.
I was very impressed with how lively and nice this redevelopment was on my visit.
The closed off escalators. Fortunately, you can access the second floor from the parking lot and mall access. There should also be an elevator somewhere in here, but I didn't find it.
A row of shops lines the corridor leading to the market.
The bakery at the outside entrance to the Zion Market.
Inside of the market.
The items are spread out into the walkway.
Now we will walk around the inside of the market for you to see the selection of food available.
The customer service desk was located at the base of the other side of the escalator.
The food court was very busy, so this is the best photo I was able to get. We did get a late lunch here and we were very pleased with our noodle bowls.
One of the bakeries inside of the food court.
Back into the mall we go.
Former Disney or Warner Brothers store?
Almost back to the center court.
At this point, the live musicians were playing. It was sad that they were playing to no audience. There were just not a lot of people walking around inside of the mall.
Another Corvette.
Another view of the massive center court skylight.
Another awesome elevator.
A couple of Music City Mall surfboards.
Now let's see the other half of the mall. The Dillard's clearance center was keeping traffic flowing through, but recently they have closed off their mall entrance.
The Ten Commandments sign.
The former JCPenney mall entrance.
This looks like a former Old Navy.
Another Corvette. Pro Image Sports is to the left. One of the most interesting stores to me inside of the main mall corridor.
The court in front of the never-built anchor pad.
This large Foot Locker is one of the remaining corporate chain holdouts in this section of the mall.
One of the coolest and 80's style escalators out there. The side was clear so you could see the inside of the escalator rolling.
There was also a piano player in this section of the mall (not pictured).
This Dillard's had downsized to a clearance store in 2019, just before the Covid pandemic hit. The second floor of the store was closed off at that time.
Interesting use of store space.
From the Dillard's Mall entrance looking towards the mall corridor.
I had to ride the cool escalators. It is sad that just 5 years after this sign was presumably installed, all of the anchors mentioned here were gone.
The lone bright spot next to the closed off second-floor Dillard's mall entrance. The neon signs here are very eye-catching.
Another bland department store entrance. At least Dillard's made it interesting once they closed the second floor to the public.
Looking back at the mall corridor.
A reception area. I am guessing this is also part of the event center that is coming up in our tour.
Music City Mall is a dog friendly mall. A lot of malls were doing this to try and bring back customers after Covid, but have since restricted the days and times you can bring dogs into the mall.
A photo-op area outside of the Dew Event center.
A great use of a large space inside of the mall.
Looking down the mall corridor towards the center court.
The tilework and skylight is a lot more interesting here IMO.
More views of the mall spaces. The second floor of the mall from the center court to Dillard's doesn't have much retail left. This space was empty inside.
An obvious former Hot Topic.
Inside of the former Hot Topic.
One thing I never noticed before is the spiders and bugs in the design of the Hot Topic entrance.
Heading towards the former JCPenney mall entrance.
More vacancies.
This is one of the oddest JCPenney mall entrance designs that I have seen. The exterior is also different than I have seen before.
Parlor of Entertainment. Online listing for this place has murder mystery, escape rooms, and puzzle rooms. Their last Facebook post was from 2022 so they may not be open anymore. This is a fitting section of the mall to have this since it is so dead up here.
Getting livelier as we get closer to the food court.
Easter themed store front.
Here is the food court. A lot of what was here on my visit has since left unfortunately. The food court was nearly full of eateries, and you can get an excellent view of the center court.
I really just couldn't get enough of the center court. It sounds like the center court structure will remain intact as part of the current future redevelopment plan. This is an asset and needs to be saved at all costs.
More of the food court.
A nice perk for shoppers. $1,000 in 2022 is worth a lot more than it is in 2024. Sadly with the state of the mall in 2024, you may have trouble spending $1,000 now outside of Dillard's.
Some of the center court businesses as we head out to see the sun go down.
JCPenney with Dillard's just below the sunset.
Still a few light snow flurries falling with brisk wind. I intended to walk closer to the JCPenney exterior entrances, but it was way too cold and windy for me.
One of the side entrances to JCPenney. Like I said, this is a very unusual design for a JCPenney store.
Back into the center court. Just as amazing as the center court looks in the day, it looks just as good at night.
A different family lounge near the center court of the mall.
They just don't design malls like this anymore.
Former Journey's.
Only the real ones know the man on this shirt.
There it is Bath and Body Works! You know and I know, they will be here until the end.
🐶🐕
One last photo as we wrap up this tour.
Up next is post #500. Sears Deerbrook Mall on April 24. On 15th Anniversary of the first blog post.
After looking back, I certainly flooded the blog with several posts right off of the bat. Quantity over quality wasn't a great formula, so today we have quality over quantity.
Here are links to my first day of posting on the blog.
I was really confused about the name and logo of this mall when I started reading this post because the subject of the last post the Labelscar blog ever did was about the Music City Mall in Odessa, TX and they had they have the exact same name and logo as this mall had in Lewisville, TX. Here's a link to that Labelscar blog post about the Odessa Music City Mall: https://web.archive.org/web/20200629023331/http://www.labelscar.com/texas/music-city-mall
ReplyDeleteWell, after doing some research, it seems the mall in Odessa was formerly known as the Permian Mall and this Lewisville mall was formerly called Vista Ridge Mall as you mention. The same person bought both malls, and maybe some other ones, and gave them the same name and logo. Huh, that certainly explains the confusion, but at least the Lewisville Music City Mall is now known as The Vista so hopefully the confusion is only on a historical basis now. The same owner likes to put the Ten Commandments up in his malls so I guess that explains that (Labelscar had a photo of the Ten Commandments at the Odessa mall).
My initial reaction seeing the outside photos of the mall was that this mall looks like Mall of the Mainland in many ways, but just a lot larger and more grand. Granted, they did open a couple years apart so that might explain it, but it also seems that the Herring Marathon Group was involved in the development of both malls. Also, both malls seemed to open with a significant amount of vacancies. I guess then that this is the Mall of the Mainland of North Texas, albeit with Ten Commandments rather than the Nikki & Gloria postcard.
Inside, this mall is much grander than Mall of the Mainland, there really is no comparison. The mall was probably too grand for the area and given the state of the Texas economy in the late 1980s/early 1990s. The overmalling of DFW probably didn't help either. That said, this mall is hanging in there, at least at the time the photos were taken, better than the current dying malls of Houston.
The WWII museum is an interesting addition to a mall and things like the gaming cafe are a bit of a more modern version of some of Railroad Club that opened at Northwest Mall. I laughed at the store called Mr. Cheapo, but I guess that name could go onto most dying mall stores.
I've seen old Sears converted to grocery stores before like the one at Colonie Center in Albany, NY which now has a Whole Foods in it. This Lewisville grocery store looks absolutely nothing like a Sears. I never would have guessed it was a Sears just by looking at it.
Unfortunately, the future does not look promising for this mall. I'd imagine the utility and upkeep costs for such a large, grand mall, one that is now 35 years old, are probably high and it may not make sense to keep the mall open now that the mall is under new ownership. We'll see what happens.
I'm really looking forward to the 15th anniversary of this blog which will also be the 500th post. As I've mentioned before, Mike and I have something planned over at HHR to commemorate the moment after your post goes live and we'll certainly be highlighting some of those great posts from the early and more recent years of this blog. Some of those early subjects from the blog have changed tremendously over 15 years so it is great to have these blog posts for historical records. I mentioned Labelscar earlier and this blog is certainly an extension of that blog!
Retail Mix USA visited this mall a few times and it really piqued my interest. The music city name was confusing since there is already a mall in Texas with that name. This is a mall that should have never been built, IMO. As you mentioned DFW was overmalled, just like Houston and San Antonio. Especially on the North side of town, you had multiple malls on just about every highway going North.
DeleteMr. Cheapo was probably not too much of a draw to the mall, but has a funny name nonetheless. The Pro-Image Sports store was actually brand new to the mall on my visit. I have visited Pro-Image Sports stores at many malls in Texas, so it was a surprise that they opened a new store at this mall. A lot of the entertainment options such as the arcade and escape room are gone unfortunately.
Mall of the Mainland had a lot of similarities to this mall, and you were able to find out why. Too bad Music City didn't have the neon everywhere like Mall of the Mainland did. Speaking of the other Music City Mall in Odessa, looks like the mall still has neon and mirrored ceilings. A mall like that is rare in 2024.
The Zion Market is heavily renovated, but if you look close enough, you can see some of the old Sears remnants especially on the second floor. I wonder if Houston could get a Zion Market in the future. The old Willowbrook Sears would be my choice for them to locate to. As much as I would like to see the old Sears at Deerbrook redeveloped, I don't think it is as desirable as the Willowbrook location.
There have not been a lot of updates on this mall since my visit, but the reviews are not good for the most part. Dillard's and Zion Market get good marks, but the rest of the mall sounds like it has taken a turn for the worst. I wonder if leases are no longer being renewed to clear out the mall. It sounds like a similar redevelopment of the property, like nearby Collin Creek is undergoing will happen here. Speaking of Collin Creek, a small, enclosed portion of the old mall will remain in place as part of the new development.
The Deerbrook Mall Sears article is under construction, and I added a bit more than I anticipated to make it extra special. I figured now is the best time to photograph some of my Sears signage and fixtures for the blog. I will also the latest Sears and Kmart list of open stores. There are only 17 stores left total!
I agree that this mall kind of looks like Mall of the Mainland (as well as a little like The Woodlands Mall, which also makes sense because this mall was jointly developed by Homart), but in terms of its success, I wouldn't put this mall in the same category. It's clearly not doing well right now, but unlike Mall of the Mainland, which seemed quiet and empty every time I went there, this mall did actually have many years of success. When I first visited this mall in 2007, it was absolutely bustling, and was pretty much fully occupied with national chain stores. Even as recently as my visits in 2017, I'd say this mall was healthier in terms of occupancy and store selection than Mall of the Mainland (which apparently never went over 70 percent occupancy, and never got any of the popular chain stores) ever was.
DeleteContrary to what OP says about it never living up to its expectations, I'd actually say this was a quite successful mall up until it started declining around 2013 or so. It held its own against Grapevine Mills and Stonebriar Centre for many years. I think the opening of The Shops at Highland Village, as well as GGP's laissez-faire attitude toward this mall during their bankruptcy, were the biggest reasons this mall fell into decline.
I have always though that this was a beautiful mall. I really like the unique touches with the geometric courts and the see-through escalators. It's a shame that they are considering demolishing it. I hope the city changes its mind and decides to at least leave the mall building standing, even if they demolish several of the department stores.
Mall of the Mainland is definitely a mall that should have never been built. Even though the property has found success in recent years, it could have just as well been another shopping center. About the only success that Mall of the Mainland had was a full anchor line-up at opening. History may be repeating itself as the nearby new Premium Outlet Mall has several vacancies.
DeleteI appreciate the extra information about the good years at the mall. Since this was my first visit here, I went off of Online sources to fill in the mall history.
A rebuild like they are doing at Collin Creek is hopefully what the mall property will get in the future. A section of that mall has been saved and will be a part of the new development. The center court here would be a prime spot to keep, even if it becomes a traffic circle in the new development.
I used to come here alot when i was younger about 10 years ago and ive only seen it in its waning years. Even when jcpenney, macys and sears were there it was dead quiet and mostly empty. Im glad to see the mall's astounding interior design being shown off as it was definitely the highlight of the place.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the comment. It is sad to know that the mall has been in decline for the past 10 years. It really is an amazing place to see in person.
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