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 647,000-square-foot (60,100 m2) mall, developed by Melvin Simon & Associates (now Simon Property Group), opened in downtown Brownsville in 1974, with Montgomery Ward, JCPenney (which also featured a JCPenney Supermarket), and Dillard's as anchors. Other early tenants included McCrory Stores, Walgreens, and a two-screen movie theater. It later gained Bealls as an additional anchor.
In 1999, both JCPenney and Dillard's relocated to nearby Sunrise Mall.[1] The loss of these stores caused declining traffic at Amigoland.[2] The bankruptcy of Montgomery Ward a year later left the older mall devoid of anchors and shortly afterward, the mall was shuttered.
In 2002, the vacant mall was converted to classrooms and a tech center for Texas Southmost College.[3]
References
- ^ "JC Penney store moves into new location at Sunrise Mall Retail: Old location closes its doors. - Brownsville Herald: Local News". Archived from the original on 2019-08-10. Retrieved 2019-08-10.
- ^ http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/comments.php?id=P12477_0_1_0_C[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Brownsville Economic Development Council". Archived from the original on 2006-02-14. Retrieved 2007-02-22.