La Palmera, originally Padre Staples Mall, is an indoor and open-air super-regional

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a North American term for a large indoor shopping center, usually anchored by department stores. The term "mall" originally meant a pedestrian promenade with shops along it (that is, the term was used to refe ...

located along the shopping corridor of South Padre Island Drive at Staples St. in

Corpus Christi, Texas Corpus Christi (; Ecclesiastical Latin: "'' Body of Christ"'') is a coastal city in the South Texas region of the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat and largest city of Nueces County, it also extends into Aransas, Kleberg, and San Patrici ...

, United States. It has over 100 mainline stores and three anchor stores

Dillard's Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC, doing business as JCPenney and often abbreviated JCP, is a midscale American department store chain operating 667 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. Departments inside JCPenney stores include Mens, Womens, Boys, Gir ...

, and

Macy's Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...

(previously

Foley's Foley's was a chain of department stores owned by May Department Stores and headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. On August 30, 2005, the division was dissolved and operation of the stores was assumed by Federated's Macy's West and Macy's ...

Mall history

In October 1968, the city issued its largest building permit for Ennis S. Joslin and Roy Smith to construct a mall on 44 acres of farmland. The mall was originally supposed to be called the Lexington Plaza Mall when it was first designed in 1965 because it was located on Lexington Boulevard, however, the owners changed the name in 1966 when Lexington Blvd was renamed South Padre Island Drive. The mall’s construction was completed in 1969. The mall was started by Roy M. Smith and Ennis Joslin. The W.M. Bevly family became part owners two years later. The mall would include a movie theater,

food court A food court (in Asia-Pacific also called food hall or hawker centre) is generally an indoor plaza or common area within a facility that is contiguous with the counters of multiple food vendors and provides a common area for self-serve dinner. I ...

carousel A carousel or carrousel (mainly North American English), merry-go-round (List of sovereign states, international), roundabout (British English), or hurdy-gurdy (an old term in Australian English, in South Australia, SA) is a type of amusement ...

, and 3 anchors. Another early tenant was Woolworth. La Palmera opened on July 30, 1970, as Padre Staples Mall and the largest retail shopping mall in the

area. Original stores included Bealls, Bill’s Shoes, Journeys, Luby’s Cafeteria,

Orange Julius Orange Julius is an American chain of fruit drink beverage stores. It has been in business since the late 1920s and is noted for a particular drink, also called an Orange Julius. The beverage is a mixture of ice, orange juice, sweetener, milk, p ...

, Texas State Optical, and

Waldenbooks Waldenbooks, operated by the Walden Book Company, Inc., was an American shopping mall-based bookstore chain, from 1995 as a subsidiary of Borders Group. The chain also ran a video game and software chain under the name Waldensoftware, as well as a ...

. One of the original restaurants was a

Chick fil A Chick-fil-A ( , a play on the American English pronunciation of " filet") is an American fast food restaurant chain which is the country's largest which specializes in chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in College Park, Georgia, Chick-fil-A oper ...

, the first to open in the state of

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

. In 1985, the mall had an expansion with Dillard’s moving to another anchor space with Palais Royal moving in the former space. Foley’s opened in a brand new 3-story anchor space. A parking garage with multiple floors was opened just next to Foley’s. In 1988, a double-decker carousel was added to the mall. In March 2007, small renovations began in the mall as just a few months later, Trademark Properties was beginning to purchase the mall. In July 2008, Padre Staples Mall was fully acquired by Trademark Property Company and was renamed La Palmera. The new owners completely renovated the mall. In early-February 2009, the carousel was removed from the mall. By July 2010, $50 million renovations were finished with a large food court, an outdoor plaza entrance, a 4,500 gallon fish tank, and a maritime-themed children’s play area.

Anchors and stores

Anchors

Dillard’s Dillard's, Inc. is an upscale American department store chain with approximately 282 stores in 29 states and headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Currently, the largest number of stores are located in Texas with 57 and Florida with 42. The ...

''(opened 1970)'' *

Foley’s Foley's was a chain of department stores owned by May Department Stores and headquartered in Downtown Houston, Texas. On August 30, 2005, the division was dissolved and operation of the stores was assumed by Federated's Macy's West and Macy's ...

''(opened 1985) (renamed

in 2006)''

Lodging and entertainment

One hotel is located just next door to La Palmera. In 2019, a permit was issued to allow construction to start on a 180–room and 4–story Home2 Suites hotel. The hotel finally opened in July 2020. La Palmera offers many community clubs including Wave Walkers and Tide Turners. Wave Walkers allows attendants to get exercise by walking around the mall. Meanwhile, Tide Turners is a club designed for children to enjoy several activities.

References

External links

A Fort Worth company buys padre staples mallTrademark Property CompanyLa Palmera Website
Shopping malls in Texas Shopping malls established in 1970 Buildings and structures in Corpus Christi, Texas Buildings and structures completed in 1970 Tourist attractions in Corpus Christi, Texas {{Texas-struct-stub