River Hills Mall Kerrville Texas October 2024

It has been a while since the blog has been active. Here is a second post for the day to make up for the long delay in activity. To see the first post of the day, click here https://southernretail.blogspot.com/2025/12/almeda-mall-with-macys-closing-sale-feb.html

Here is a revisit to one of the few remaining small-town malls in Texas. As of this blog post, the mall is still operating and does not appear to have been affected by the heartbreaking flooding that occurred in this area earlier this year. Unfortunately, the mall is changing as there is a 48,862 square foot Academy under construction within the mall. 

If any locals see this post, can you comment below and provide any updates on the mall?

This old mall walker sign shows the route through the mall. The main corridor goes from JCPenney to Belk with mall entrances at each anchor and the main entrance in the middle. It is a simple layout that was repeated in many Texas small-town malls.

The mall still retains the old school look of the past. Besides tenant changes, little has changed over the years besides some new paint and cleaning. And this mall is really clean.

Retro Hibbett Sports store with the JCPenney annex on the left. Hibbett Sports is still open as of this post.

Burke's Outlet changed to Bealls.

As you can see from the photos, this mall corridor only has spaces for stores on one side. One half of the corridor is taken up by the JCPenney annex and Bealls. 

Retro Bath and Body Works. Sadly, this store left the mall a few months ago.

The amazing center court with a clean and running water fountain. Hopefully this will remain intact when the Academy is added onto the mall.

RAC dressing company was in the former Bealls space. EntertainMART is now located here as of February 2025. To see the old location in a former Hastings store click here. The old EntertainMART building is set to be demolished for new businesses.

The Belk half of the mall is the quietest. Just a handful of businesses left down here. If I had to guess, this is where the Academy will go. As I researched this article, this appears to be the case as the businesses in this side of the mall have all closed.

This Belk store like the Nacogdoches Texas location is located in a former Kmart space.

The retro Arcade was at the mall entrance next to Belk. We will see the inside of the arcade in a bit.

Maurice's was one of the few stores left near Belk. It has since closed.

The retro arcade was still going. This picture looks more like the 1980's than 2024. Sadly, the arcade left the mall in October as what appears to be a clearing out of the Belk corridor. It looks like they will reopen at some point in a new location, but they auctioned off a lot of what was here. 

More photos of the mall as we wrap up the tour.

Elevate Pure Foods was a small healthy snack and drink shop. It looks like they have since left the mall and are looking for a new location. On their Instagram they mention an upcoming demolition of their mall location. Seems like the Academy will go up on this side of the mall 

A very retro Claire's storefront that has since closed.

The next three photos are on the side of the mall where the Academy will presumably be built. If they cut off this half of the mall form Academy, hopefully they will still keep the JCPenney corridor open.

Real trees planted in the mall! A rare sight in 2024.

More shots of the exterior to finish up this post.

Nighttime shots.

I hope you enjoyed this mall revisit. While it is sad to hear about the demise of yet another small-town mall in Texas, at least we got to see it and document it before it changed forever. While new businesses are always good for a city, this redevelopment has displaced some local businesses. Hopefully everyone affected will come back stronger than before.

 

University Mall/University Plaza Update 2021

Before we get started with our 2021 visit, here are some newer photos generously sent in by our friend Philip Hudman from 2022.

Inside of the former Aladdin's Castle arcade.

Here is the exterior of the Aladdin's Castle, pre-renovations from my visit in July 2020.

Now for my 2021 visit, things have certainly changed.

The JCPenney corridor has mostly been cut off from access by this new wall. The remaining storefronts facing East are still intact, but now they can only be accessed through this small hallway. The mall is listed at 191,356 Square feet of retail space on Loopnet, but I believe this is without the anchor spaces listed.

The JCPenney entrance in 2011.

A door separating the old mall corridor from the small hallway was open, so we had to peek inside.

Bath and Body Works storefront.

Looking towards the JCPenney entrance.

Nail salon and Foot Locker spaces.

2011 Comparison of the above section of the mall.

One of the most glaring things is that the remainder of the neon has been pulled.

Here is what the front of the Bath and Body Works looked like in 2020.

Hard to tell without the storefronts, but the above photo is close to where this was taken in 2020.

Here is the small hallway that leads to the center hallway with the East facing stores still intact.

View from 2011 visit.

One of the stores is now a martial arts facility.

The sandwich shop is still in business, but it was closed on our Sunday visit.

The same sandwich shop in 2020. The corridor in the middle is now sealed off.

You can also see this storefront in the above picture next to the Sandwich shop.

Now for the center hallway which has changed greatly since our last visit.

The former Gordon's was open to walk into as well.

And another small portion of the old corridor is found. This is across from the sandwich shop.

This spot is so strange. I guess they walled it off like this to make another future store space along the remodeled center corridor.

Taken from almost the same spot in 2011. The trash can is probably the same on in both photos. You can also see the right side of the Gordon's in both photos.

The former checkout counter at Gordon's.

The vault is wide open.

Back out into the remodeled center corridor, we see the former entrance to Bealls. This is the current entrance to the sandwich shop with tables inside for dining.

A look down the renovated corridor, Aladdin's Castle was on the right side.

The same corridor in 2020.

The doors that lead into the JCPenney corridor hallway.

The center court skylights, no more neon though!

2011 view of the same skylight. The entire corridor leading to Belk shown here is completely gone. The stores with exterior entrances have taken over that space.

Here is the small mall corridor leading to JCPenney. The wall separates the front facing storefronts. The sandwich shop has their old signage still intact.

JCPenney is peeking out at the end of the hallway. JCPenney is now Ollie's and does not open up into the old mall.

A USDA office has taken up space in one of the former storefronts as well.

Not much to see here.

The weird coin-op games and candy machines. The mall restrooms remain open.

Even though we were the only people inside of the mall, the doors we open to walk in. This hallway is about the only part of the property that has not been renovated yet.

The Fairy Nails that was previously inside of the mall relocated to this space.

The main entrance to the mall.

The front of the mall near Ollie's has been heavily modified to showcase the newly separated store spaces for future tenants.

The Belk side of the mall is fully leased.

The main entrance before the new logo was put up.

Now for some shots of the newly created exterior storefronts looking through the new glass doors. The larger Foot Locker space was divided in half as show here. This space was used for a gym that appears to have moved to the back section of the mall. Maybe they will move back up front once the renovations are completed.

The old Fairy Nails space.

The long closed off space next to the JCPenney mall entrance.

A random back-room janitors closet looking area. This was also visible from the new entryway glass.

More to come, stay tuned!