CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Crews have begun demolition at Sunrise Mall, the once-beloved shopping attraction that officially closed its doors back in 2019.
For some it's a sad sight to see as those crews have begun gutting the venue to make way for new development.
While you might have seen a design floating around online, city officials want to make clear that there have been a few different concepts over time and nothing official has been submitted to the City.
Much of the mall has now been surrounded by a chain link fence. 3NEWS spotted crews inside beginning the tear down with heavy equipment sitting outside at the ready.
"Prime real estate, what it comes down to for new development, this is in the heart of everything," Michael Dice with Corpus Christi Development Services said.
Dice told 3NEWS that an out-of-state company received a demolition permit for the property a week and a half ago.
"If you remember the interior portion and it connects the anchor stores, the new owners don't own all the anchor stores. The only anchor store they owned was the Old Planet Fitness," he said.
Dice showed 3NEWS a demo plan and pointed out a large shaded area of the portions of the mall that will come down.
Sunrise was "the" mall back in the 80's and even provided the backdrop for the cult classic movie "The Legend of Billie Jean." But, over the decades the once lively venue experienced a decline that would seal its fate.
Going through a change of owners and revitalization attempts, eventually its doors were closed and chained.
In recent years it had became an eyesore plagued by vagrants and vandalism, but Dice said the mall's new owners have big plans for the property.
"We have had talks of potential development, nothing official has been submitted," he said. "In the talks they are looking at restaurant pad sites, apartments and potentially one to two hotels."
City manager Peter Zanoni said the city is also talking to the new owners about the use of economic development funds.
"To help them in their redevelopment effort that is a very highly-visible piece of property that really reflects on the city," Zanoni said.
According to the demolition plans, all anchor businesses owned by others are to remain and operational during the work.
Existing parking garages are also to remain.
The demolition permit is good for 180 days.