Category: Texas

Corpus Christi, the largest city in South Texas, is home to 285,000 people with over 430,000 in the metro area.  Home to HEB grocery stores, the Whataburger fast food chain, Corpus Christi is also the 8th largest deep sea port in the U.S.  The following submission is from reader “Jonah Norason” and his experience with Sunrise Mall, one of Corpus Christi’s two adjacent malls:

“I have a special connection with this mall. It was my first dead mall experience. Owned by Tom Morris, the slumlord of Six Flags Mall, Sunrise Mall is another story of why moving very close to an existing mall is generally a bad idea.

“From what I could tell, the mall started out as pretty upscale, virtually right next to Padre Staples Mall. The opening tenants in 1981 included Sears (which predated the mall by six years),Frost Brothers, Joske’s, and a pre-existing HEB(I’m pretty sure H-E-B did not open into the concourse). Many existing tenants at Padre Staples, such as Foot Locker and GNC, opened new locations at Sunrise rather than moving. The mall was popular at first, even starring in the 80s movie The Legend of Billie Jean(you can see the comparison here.

“But all that would slowly come to an end. Sunrise Mall’s upscale feel dropped off pretty quickly during the ‘80s. It became more discount oriented. Joske’s did not convert to Dillard’s, since there was already one at Padre Staples, so it closed was replaced with Montgomery Ward. Frost Brothers gave way to Burlington Coat Factory. H-E-B closed and became Stein Mart (which has an interior entrance, I’m pretty sure of). Mervyn’s was added as a sixth anchor. Still, over the period of the next decade, demographic shifts, the generally bad local economy, and competition from Padre Staples slowly squeezed the life out of Sunrise. Wards closed in December 2000. From what I can tell, Sunrise Mall’s prosperity (or what was left of it) went from bad to worse around 2004-2006. This was judging by the outdated mall directory that we’ll get to (it still had Mervyn’s).

“The mall was thoroughly uninviting. Partially obscured by uninviting parking garages, untamed shrubbery, and an outdated sign, it was surely to be a treat. Inside the mall, I was overjoyed as it had all the trademarks of a “dead mall”. Escalators shut off. Sections converted to office space. Wooden facades. Dead fronts. Nontraditional tenants. Neon. I love neon, it made me sad because it seemed like there used to be more neon in my local mall that disappeared over the years. There was a Montgomery Ward, which was still mostly intact. The directory, made somewhere between 2000 and 2006, showed that at one time, it was slightly better, but based on the bizarre things listed, like “Girls Rock” and other miscellany, it was obviously proceeding to the dark side.

“The food court was interesting. A dark corner of the mall, it almost was if the whole food court was subterranean. A Wendy’s was getting good business, but the majority of the food court tenants were dark. I didn’t pay attention, but there was a shell of a Chick-fil-A within those corridors. Other food court stands included one “Orange Creations” (guess what that used to be!) and “Anna Ice Cream & Deli”.

“What was more impressive, though, was the full-size sails. I liked them, they were a nice touch, but pretty depressing at the same time. There was also a dollar theater, but it was only four screens and the movies showing at the time were pretty sub-par at best.

“And that’s when we left. The mall is currently anchored by Burlington Coat Factory, Stein Mart, Sears, and a brand-new “HomeSource by Wilcox Furniture” in the former Wards store. However, not all is well. The mall faced foreclosure in April to be auctioned on May 6th but May 6th came and went without a buyer. Good, I suppose.

“I took these photos in summer 2007, actually before the Cherry Hill Mall pictures I took.”

Thanks for the submission, Jonah!   I also visited Sunrise Mall, in April 2007.  I found it and its more successful neighbor mall, Padre Staples Mall, to be a curious set.  Considering these two malls are the only two for Corpus Christi, the pair together don’t even really add up to what I’d expect in a market this size.  Padre Staples, Sunset’s more “successful” neighbor, was (as of 2007) pretty dated as well.  In fact, I’d even expect another mall to serve a different part of town, considering the population here. 

My pictures:

More of Jonah’s photos:

Longtime reader/commenter Jonah Norason of Two Way Roads sent us this detailed history of The Galleria in Houston, Texas, that we had to share with you. I haven’t been down to this one myself (though Prangeway has), but after looking at these photos I’m pretty tempted to try and get down to the Lone Star State sooner rather than later. Thusfar, the only place in Texas I’ve even been to is Amarillo! Anyway, thanks to Jonah for all the great swag–the remainder of the words and photos on this post are his.

“The Galleria is THE largest mall in Texas and 7th largest in the United States. It’s a massive beast buried in the heart of Uptown Houston. There is so much about this mall, it’s hard to know where to start. Inspired by Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, The Galleria opened in 1970 as a three-level mall with an ice rink, a hotel, an office building, and a Neiman Marcus. Up until this time, ice rinks in malls were not uncommon, but a mall centered around an ice rink was unheard of. This was the first. During this time, competition included but was not limited to: Sharpstown Mall, Memorial City Mall, and Gulfgate Center.

“But the Galleria expanded. Around 1977, the Galleria was expanded with an expansion entitled Galleria II. Galleria II featured upscale San Antonio retailer Frost Brothers and Lord & Taylor.

“Marshall Field’s was added in 1979, adding a fourth anchor to the mall. Then, in 1986, a third addition was added, entitled Galleria III. Galleria III was interesting because it did not connect to the main mall concourse (you had to cut through Marshall Field’s to get to it) and added one anchor: Macy’s. This was a real Macy’s store, one that was actually opened by the original R.H. Macy company (as opposed to Federated). Today, that’s the only “real” Macy’s left in Houston.

“In 1996, Marshall Field’s pulled out of the Texas market. This was not the only Texas mall affected, it included Town & Country Mall as well. In the Galleria, the store was replaced by Saks Fifth Avenue.

“In March 2003, the fourth addition to the Galleria was finished and the mall embarked on yet another renovation. This was Galleria IV. It featured a very upscale Foley’s and Nordstrom. The Foley’s addition was somewhat ironic, as Foley’s had been a Houston-based department store for years and it had also seemingly been in talks with the Galleria forever to make it happen.

“But change was on the way. In 2005, Lord & Taylor pulled out of the Texas market for good and closed their store. Furthermore, in 2006, a tragic incident happened. The Houston-based Foley’s was folded into Macy’s corporate and the Foley’s stores, which included not only the vast presence it had in Dallas and Houston, but the entire Texas area, as well as areas in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Louisiana, to become simply “Macy’s”. At the Galleria, this caused the older, original Macy’s to be redubbed “Macy’s at Sage”, referring to the street it was facing.

“The former Lord & Taylor was partially demolished and redeveloped into a stunning addition featuring upscale stores and restaurants. This included a two-story Borders store. This addition has been informally named “Galleria V”, but it’s not a true addition since the other Gallerias did not replace anything and were entirely new wings with new anchors.

“The Galleria really was a truly unique urban structure, as shown in these postcards from Malls of America: here and here (note the Florsheim in the upper left corner, we’ll get to that later).

“To really understand the unique layout of the mall, you’d have to look at Simon’s official map that they made for the Galleria or this Google Maps photo. In other words, there’s four distinct sections of the mall, as illustrated by these pictures taken in March 2008.

“The centerpiece of the Galleria, Galleria I is a dumbbell-shaped wing that is three levels (two levels plus a “rink level”) and features the posh Neiman Marcus at one end. In addition, the complex features Westin Oaks Hotel and Post Oak Tower.

“Galleria II is the center portion of the mall. The floor plan resembles a cross. The north end goes toward the former Lord & Taylor area, the east side points toward Galleria I, and the south end either goes outside (1st level) or goes across a skywalk to Galleria III. There’s three levels in this section, and the third level (that goes above the 2nd level, it does not connect with the Rink Level) is carpeted and has banks and whatnot. The cool part about this section of the mall is the Westin Galleria Hotel rooms overlook the mall. I took a few photos inside Borders and the former Lord & Taylor space. Note the modern Florsheim!

“The west end goes into Saks Fifth Avenue and Galleria III. Galleria III is bizarre, because there’s no contiguous way to get from the main mall in the main building to Galleria III without going outside or walking through Saks. Galleria III is a plus-shaped wing with a few more shops and Macy’s at Sage. I really like this wing, because of its low traffic, strange layout, vacancies, and neon!

“The south end of the “cross” at Galleria II connects to the boomerang-shaped Galleria IV, which was dedicated in early 2003. This wing features Macy’s (the former Foley’s) and Nordstrom.

“Finally, the exteriors of the building, which include the detached Dillard’s across the street. Dillard’s isn’t connected to the Galleria and is not considered an anchor. Most of these pictures were from March 2008, but a few of them are from summer 2003.

San Antonio might be known better for its Latin flavors, the Alamo and its neighboring historic tourist-laden Riverwalk area of downtown, but few tourists venture beyond the riverboats and history and delve into the rest of the city.  Why?  Well, unless you’re a local or in one of the various military installations around the area, there isn’t really that much to do.  Except for us retail buffs, of course.  San Antonio is possibly one of the most over-malled metros in the entire country, and its numerous vacant or recently imploded shopping malls speak to this. 

San Antonio is typical of Texas cities, and of Sun Belt cities in general in its growth patterns.  Unfettered growth, often with little to no zoning regulations has run rampant for several decades and suburban sprawl exists just about everywhere.  In fact, San Antonio has become the second largest city in Texas and seventh largest in the country; however, due to the fact that the city has few suburbs, it is only 30th in metropolitan area rankings. Because of the unfettered growth in the latter half of the 20th century, a lot of retail strips were constructed.  One of the most prolific of these is the I-410 belt around the city, but others exist along the other freeways and major thoroughfares.  Several of the city’s malls were also constructed along this beltway, including the Crossroads of San Antonio, located on the northwest side of the city near the intersection of I-10 and I-410 along Fredericksburg Road. 

Crossroads opened in the 1960s as Wonderland Mall and quickly became a super-regional destination for the entire area.  From what we can tell, the mall chugged along and was fairly successful for quite a few years.  However, as fickle as the retail market is, San Antonians shifted their shopping preferences to other centers, specifically the two which surround Crossroads on both sides of I-410.  Located within five minutes on either side, both Ingram Park Mall and North Star Mall have retained shoppers’ fancy in recent years, the latter being San Antonio’s most successful retail destination for some time now. 

Crossroads is also unique in that it has been profiled since 1986 by the Urban Land Institute in a case study concerning the center’s economic viability over time.  The mall changed dramatically starting in the late 1980s due to swirling competition from better-positioned malls and continued to evolve into what it is today: a value-oriented mall.  As is typical with the downfall and conversion of enclosed super-regionals to value-oriented or obsolete malls, the puzzle pieces don’t seem to fit right.  This was definitely the case here, as while much of the mall has remained viable through off-price and local merchants and anchor stores (ie. Burlington Coat Factory, Hobby Lobby, Stein Mart), good portions of the mall remain vacant today.  Take a look at the study, it also indicates the competition from other malls inspired the center to renovate and expand in 1987 before succumbing to the competition in 1991 and shifting focus to being an off-price destination.  Today the mall exists as such, complementing to the malls on either side of it in its value niche.  But for how long?  In 2005 plans were announced to refurbish the center and reposition it to be more inviting to customers.  Can we say comfy couches and carpeting? 

In terms of decor, Crossroads is currently looking rather aged except for the 1987 expansion featuring the food court and its own wing, which looks very much like it doesn’t belong with the rest of the earth-toned features occupying the rest of the mall.  Its two levels are set up rather interestingly in order to fit into a rather tight footprint between Fredericksburg Road and I-10, yet the mall is still rather large at 700,000 square feet. 

Take a look at the pictures we snapped in April 2007.  Tell us more and let us know the detailed history of the mall, including your own personal stories.

Baytown, Texas is a large working-class suburb of about 70,000 people about 20 miles east of Houston. Baytown’s location on Galveston Bay has positioned it for industrial growth throughout the last few decades, mostly in oil and steel. Baytown is home to one 1.2 million square foot mall located at I-10 and Garth Road.

Opened in 1981, San Jacinto Mall is one of two major malls for the area east of Houston, the other being Pasadena Town Square in Pasadena. Both malls have recently fallen victim to the problems ranging from outdated to competition from other Houston-area malls. As a result, vacancy rate at San Jacinto Mall has skyrocketed and, despite several plans for renovation, the mall looks today largely as it did when it opened in 1981.

When it opened, San Jacinto Mall was a modern showplace containing 175 stores and an impressively themed two-level food court and entertainment area in the middle of the mall. The design of San Jacinto Mall is much like two overlapping “L”, with a square in the middle bounded by some of the anchors and the food court. In the 1980s, anchor stores included Service Merchandise, Mervyn’s, JCPenney, Sears, Beall’s, Palais Royal, Foley’s, and Montgomery Ward. Critics balked at such a large center, arguing that Baytown was not large enough to support such a development. And in the end they were right, but more on that in a bit.

The decor is what makes San Jacinto Mall an incredible relic. In today’s modern retailing world, shiny marble-like tiles, whitewashed walls, and frequent kiosks complement bright lights, soft edges and pewter fixtures, while sections of comfy chairs and area rugs are surrounded by unassuming planters. This is a stark contrast to mall decor of the 1970s and early 1980s, where earthen tones, woods, dark tiles, fountains and trees helped to create an artificial ‘inside’ world to woo shoppers away from the actual outside world of the downtowns the malls helped replace. In creating the inside mall space to mirror nature and the outside world, developers sought to give shoppers a similar, yet fake, environment for their escapist activities. They don’t do this today, giving shoppers a pristine environment to escape into the hedonistic world of shopping, actually favoring a balance toward capitalism instead of aesthetics in giving up the fountains and trees to provide kiosks in order to maximize profit.

I view this shift as mostly negative. Early mall developers such as Victor Gruen sought to provide awe-inspiring enclosed environments for the activity of shopping, giving rise to amazingly complex worlds complete with spectacular fountains, conversation pits, sculpture gardens, center stages, and even bird cages. These older centers provided more than a vapid utility, they were community-building places, significant in their own rite as more than just places to go and spend a buck. Sure, that was the reason you were there, but they felt less soulless. San Jacinto Mall has received little more than a few coats of paint during the past quarter century, and the decor is like stepping into a time machine back to this era. The wooden facades of the former Service Merchandise and former Walgreens complement the dark floors and instead of a few small ceramic planters, there are entire garden areas, some with full-sized trees. The high ceilings have a row of giant windows on one side, allowing a constant flow of natural light into the enclosed space, while the other side is curiously flanked with a continuous, arched mural of the daytime sky. Along the sky mural are humorous curiosities painted in, such as puffy clouds, jets with long contrails and even a roving gang of UFO ships, Space Invaders style. Mirrors and fountains are also not in short supply here.

Speaking of Atari, the food court and entertainment area near the middle of the mall is also worth noting. Between the first and second levels here, the ceiling has an early-80s latticework design made with slender metal beams, and the food court’s sign looks like it belongs on the cover for an early 80s video game. This area is the only two-level area of the mall outside the anchor stores, and the entertainment area on top features a full-sized carousel, playground and a few benches but oddly little else occupies the second level.

Today, San Jacinto Mall is like several malls in the Houston area with an abundance of stores near the central pivot points of the mall and a contrast of abandonment on the far wings. Anchor woes came in 2001 as Montgomery Ward and Service Merchandise closed amid the shutting of those chains; Bealls also closed the same year. In 2006, Mervyns departed the mall as they left the Houston area entirely. So, as you can see, the loss of anchors is mostly not the mall’s fault, but the loss of indoor stores is. Baytown is not large enough to support this development, and articles we’ve found suggest Baytowners (Baytownies? Whatever.) shop at the more successful Houston-area malls like the Houston Galleria and even clear across the metro area 50 miles away at Katy Mills. The mall today houses about 60 stores, and a popular cinema. At only one-third capacity, many of these stores are near the middle of the mall, and several wings are almost completely dead. Most notably, the Mervyn’s/Service Merchandise corridor and the Macy’s/Palais Royal corridor are faltering.

As a result of these problems, you can bet changes are in the works for San Jacinto Mall. The former Montgomery Ward wing, which was possibly the worst-off for the longest time, has now been closed and will soon be demolished. In its place, a “lifestyle” wing will be built, with little details released yet. If it doesn’t pump some vigor back into the mall, you can surely bet that large portions if not entire mall will be abandoned in few more years.

Our exclusive pictures of San Jacinto Mall were taken in April 2007. Add some of your own stories or comments about this truly interesting relic.

Food court area:

Outdoor shots:

More indoor shots:

Pharr is a city in the Rio Grande Valley region of far southern Texas, a 70-mile string of cities between Mission in the west and Brownsville in the east, roughly paralleling US 83 along the Mexican border.  The region is one of the fastest growing in the nation, with a current population of over 1 million and a projected estimate of 1.3 million a decade from now.  This explosive growth is due, in part, to the presence of the border with Mexico.  An estimated 2 million people live on the Mexican side of the border, and when combined with the U.S. side the regional population is comparable with that of Texas’ larger cities, like San Antonio.  The region is also growing due to tourism from both Mexican nationals, snowbirds, and more recently eco-tourism.

As mentioned, a large percentage of the tourism in the Rio Valley of Texas comes from Mexican nationals, and much of that is for shopping.  Even though NAFTA has made American-made products widely available on the Mexican side of the border, many of the large malls on the American side as well as other retail outlets are packed with autos sporting Mexican license plates, from Distrito Federal (Mexico City) to the most often seen Nuevo Leon (Monterrey) and Tamaulipas (the Mexican side of the border here).

Generally, however, these tourists and locals are shopping at super-regional malls catering to this cross-border region – malls like Sunrise Mall in Brownsville and La Plaza Mall in McAllen.  As with other regions of the country, there are several centers which have fallen by the wayside.  

El Centro Mall in Pharr is one of these.  Located at the intersection of Central Ave and U.S. 83 in Pharr near the border with McAllen, El Centro was once the destination mall for the entire Valley and neighboring Mexico as well.  However, with competition emerging in the 1980s from the massive behemoth La Plaza Mall just down the road in McAllen, both tourist and local dollars alike fled El Centro.  So too did the anchors, with Sam’s Club and Montgomery Ward leaving and being replaced with Rehoboth Joy Dollar (former Sam’s), a Grand Central Station indoor entertainment facility, a Convergys call center, and a roster of mid-range stores, many of them local.  The only anchor to weather the economic changes at the mall has been Bealls, a store which seems to never update its facade despite the success of the mall it occupies. 

The decor of the 350,000 square-foot El Centro Mall harkens back to the 70s and 80s, with several stores sporting fronts which are a couple decades out of date.  In addition, the lighting inside the mall is relatively poor and the ceilings are rather low.  At least the Easter Bunny was there.  He had some pretty cool digs too in the way of a tattered, brown la-z-boy from days-gone-by, but we digress.

Today, the future of El Centro Mall is in question.  As of December 2006, the city of Pharr met with Houston-based owners Levcor Inc. to discuss the mall’s future, and impress upon the new owners their desire for renovation.  The city would like the renovation to return the center to its retail roots, and kick the indoor entertainment facility as well as the call center out of the mix.  The call center and entertainment facility have no plans to leave, however, and both have leases through at least 2009.  In addition, Levcor recently purchased 10 acres to the north of the mall with plans for chain restaurants and other retail outlot activity. 

Clearly, despite the downfall of the mall itself, the area is still growing by leaps and bounds and continued economic viability of the area seems likely.  However, the mall itself will probably fall victim to redevelopment and be ultimately torn down. At any rate, the mall has been preserved here in visual form; pictures were taken in April 2007.  As always, feel free to complete the story of El Centro through your personal anecdotes and a more thorough history than what we’ve already found.

The Houston, Texas metropolitan area is both massive and diverse.  In terms of population, at over 5 million people, it’s in the top 10 in the United States.  In spatial extent, the Houston area stretches over 60 miles from Katy in the west to Baytown in the east, and over 100 miles from Conroe in the north to Galveston in the south.  Everything’s bigger in Texas, it seems. 

In terms of retail destinations, the Houston area has many ancillary or neighborhood malls with varying degrees of success, several successful super-regional malls and one dominant mega-regional, The Galleria, which draws from a local as well as visitor base.    

For our purposes, we’ll start at the bottom.  Mall of the Mainland is the Houston area’s southernmost mall, located at I-45, TX 1764, and Mall of the Mainland Parkway.  It opened in the mid-1990s, functionally replacing the failed Galvez Mall in Galveston which closed in 1996. 

Mall of the Mainland’s location plays an important role in its success, or rather lack thereof.  It is the southernmost of 4 shopping malls on the 50-mile stretch of I-45 between downtown Houston and Galveston, which lies on the Gulf of Mexico.  Mall of the Mainland is the first mall along this route coming from the south, approximately 10 miles north of Galveston and less than 10 miles south of the immensely successful super-regional Baybrook Mall in far southeast Houston.  Due to this positioning, the mall really only serves Galveston, Texas City, La Marque, Santa Fe, and the immediate area.  Anyone to the north would go to the more popular Baybrook Mall, and it’s also pretty obvious that people from the area around Mall of the Mainland go up to Baybrook and the rest of Houston to shop, because Mall of the Mainland is suffering.

The design of Mall of the Mainland is a basic dumbbell connecting Sears and Dillards with a long corridor in between.  Along the corridor are Macy’s, Palais Royal, and a 12-screen movie theatre with a food court near the middle of the mall. Unfortunately, however, the interior of the mall is only about 20 percent occupied and has never enjoyed more than a 75 percent occupancy.  JCPenney also operated at the mall but closed in 2006, favoring a location up the road at Baybrook Mall.   

The majority of stores in the mall are located near the middle of the corridor by the food court and movie theatres, with a dearth in the radial wings.  In fact, many of the stores are boarded up with temporary plaster while they decide what to do next.  Rather humorously, some of the plasterboard features advertisements for the mall such as “Where shopping’s a vacation!” and others which caught my eye.  Reading like a postcard between two ladies, Nikki and Gloria, who clearly share delusional shopping values, the text emphatically promotes the mall being ‘in the middle of everything’ and having ‘so much to do’ – even promoting mini-concerts and car shows.  Hmmm.  We’ll have to take their opinions with a grain of salt, judging by the relatively spartan shopping amenities.  At the opposite wing of the mall near Dillard’s, fake stores were actually painted onto the plasterboard to give the appearance of actual tenants.  Now, this has to be a bit tongue-in-cheek, and for that we love Mall of the Mainland.  Of the rather cartoon-like faux stores featured are a bike shop, camera store, and a sailing supply shop. We hope that the fake stores aren’t confusing any shoppers, most notably Nikki and Gloria who seem to think there’s so much to see and do here.  We’re guessing they might not get out much.

Jokes aside, the mall was built too big for its britches and cannot fill all its space due to competition from the super-regional Baybrook Mall less than 10 minutes up the road, as well as a lower-income residential base in Texas City and Galveston.  The people of Galveston and Texas City alone cannot support this large a mall and those who could prefer to drive a short distance farther to shop at Baybrook and further afield.  The pictures featured here were taken in April 2007. 

Some of you may have heard about an accolade we’ve had around here that we’re pretty excited about. You see, despite being a relatively little-known blog about esoteric retail subjects, Time Magazine saw fit to name us their Person of the Year for 2006, which is quite an honor. We’re pretty psyched, even if we do have to share this highest of honors with six billion other people.

In the spirit of Time’s award–which is really about user-generated content such as this blog here–I’m going to hand the reins over to one of our readers for this post. John Espiau sent us these photos and this history of the Almeda Mall in Houston, which seems to be dying a rapid death these days:

Almeda mall opened in 1966 with Foley’s and JCPenney’s as anchors. Almeda mall boasts 807,000 sq feet of retail space.

The Almeda Mall was recently put up for sale along with its twin Northwest mall on the other side of Houston. In 2005 Almeda mall had JCPenney’s, Foley’s, Palais Royal, Anna’s Linens, Steve and Barry’s sportsware, and Ross as anchors along with a 95% occupancy.

This mall has a very outdated look and has not been renovated in a while. One look at the retro 70’s style Piccadilly Cafeteria brings a sense of nostalgia not normally seen in modern malls. In 2006 JCPenney’s started a going out of business sale to move to Pasadena, just 5 years ago this location was ranked first in Houston area sales. Foley’s converted to Macy’s and only changed the stores signs and not much else. WalMart opened up a new location just down the street and the retail space around the supercenter is exploding with growth. Circuit City moved from its location near the mall, Hancock Fabrics closed, Office Depot closed, Payless moved, K-Mart closed, and Best Buy has announced it will move in the next year as well leaving only Target (Outdated as well) and LaCanasita electronics behind. Traffic inside the mall has decreased since the WalMart opened and now some of the stores inside are leaving as well. This mall is on a prime location with excellent visibility from I-45 and a huge population base to draw from. The new owners of the property (Glimcher Realty Trust) should tear the mall down and turn it into a big box power center with Macy’s, Ross, Palais Royal, and Super Target as anchors. This mall is a trip back in time so go see it before it goes just like its former neighboring mall Gulfgate.

I’m not sure I agree with John that it should be de-malled, but heck, I rarely think anything should be de-malled. I haven’t been, so I can’t offer much commentary on the place to go along with what John has to say–so if you’ve been around to the Almeda Mall, pipe up! What’s it like? And, what does it look like INSIDE? I found the below (relatively unhelpful) pictures from this outdated leasing PDF, and there are some more on the current Glimcher PDF, but that’s all I have to go on.