Sunrise Mall is an enclosed

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 ...

Brownsville, Texas Brownsville () is a city in Cameron County in the U.S. state of Texas. It is on the western Gulf Coast in South Texas, adjacent to the border with Matamoros, Mexico. The city covers , and has a population of 186,738 as of the 2020 census. It ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. It was opened in 1979, only five years after the town's other mall,

Amigoland Mall Amigoland Mall ("Amigo" means "friend" in Spanish) was an enclosed shopping mall located in Brownsville, Texas. The former mall, which now houses a tech center, is now called the Brownsville ITEC Center. The mall, developed by Melvin Simon & As ...

. Sunrise Mall features more than 100 stores, including three

anchor store In retail, an "anchor tenant", sometimes called an "anchor store", "draw tenant", or "key tenant", is a considerably larger tenant in a shopping mall, often a department store or retail chain. They are typically located at the ends of malls. Wit ...

Dick's Sporting Goods Dick's Sporting Goods, Inc. (stylized as "DICK'S Sporting Goods") is an American sporting goods retail company, based in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania. The company was established by Richard "Dick" Stack in 1948, and has approximately 854 stores an ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

, as well as a

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 ...

and a

Cinemark Cinemark Holdings, Inc. (stylized as CineMark from 1998 to 2022 and CINEMARK since 2022) is an American movie theater chain that started operations in 1984 and since then it has operated theaters with hundreds of locations throughout the America ...

movie theater. The mall is managed by CBL & Associates.

History

Sunrise Mall opened in 1979 on the north side of Brownsville, on the northeastern corner of

Interstate 69E Interstate 69E (I-69E) is a north–south freeway running through South Texas. Once complete, the freeway will begin in Brownsville and head northward before terminating near Victoria as both I-69W and I-69E merge into I-69 toward Housto ...

U.S. Route 77 U.S. Route 77 (US 77) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway which extends for in the central United States. As of 2005, Its southern terminus is in Brownsville, Texas, at Veteran's International Bridge on the Mexican border, whe ...

U.S. Route 83 U.S. Route 83 (US 83) is a major north–south United States Numbered Highway that extends in the central United States. Only four other north–south routes are longer: US 1, US 41, US 59, and US 87, while US ...

and Ruben M. Torres, Sr. Blvd. A strip mall called Sunrise Commons later opened behind the mall as well. The mall remained largely unchanged until 1999, when

purchased the mall in association with the MG Herring Group, relocating its Kmart anchor store to the Sunrise Commons and opening a new Dillard's store in July 2000, where Kmart had been. As a result, the Dillard's in

, an older mall nearby, was closed. JCPenney also moved from Amigoland Mall in 2000, and that mall was subsequently converted to a college in 2003. Also in 2000, a

was added to Sunrise Mall. Three years later, Dillard's sold its share of the mall (except for the Dillard's anchor) to

CBL & Associates Properties CBL Properties (previously CBL & Associates, Inc., then CBL & Associates Properties, Inc.) is an American real estate investment trust that invests in shopping centers, primarily in the Southeastern and Midwestern United States. The company is or ...

Linens 'n Things Linens 'n Things was a Clifton, New Jersey-based big-box retailer specializing in home textiles, housewares, and decorative home accessories. The chain operated 571 stores in 47 U.S. states and six Canadian provinces, and had 7,300 employees as of ...

was also added in 2005, but closed in 2008 as part of the chain's bankruptcy. The mall received an additional anchor store, Dick's Sporting Goods in 2015, along with renovations in floor tile, signs and restrooms. It added an H&M store in 2016, making it the first mall south of San Antonio to feature this store. In June of 2022, the mall is planned to have a Main Event open in place of the previous Sears anchor. It would be the second Main Event to open south of San Antonio. Interior of Sunrise Mall

References

{{CBL Properties CBL Properties Shopping malls established in 1979 Shopping malls in Texas Buildings and structures in Brownsville, Texas Tourist attractions in Cameron County, Texas 1979 establishments in Texas