The corridors of Sunrise Mall in Corpus Christi, Texas, are lined with shuttered shops and darkened lights, but here and there are signs that it’s barely hanging on, and the occasional customer or food court patron.
Opened in 1979, the mall was once such a shining beacon of American consumerism that it was used as a location in the 1985 film The Legend of Billie Jean (probably best remembered for starring a young Christian Slater).
Financial problems started circling from the late ’80s, and the once-upscale shopping centre fell into serious decline when its owner filed for bankruptcy in 2008.
Remarkably, the main court of the shopping centre looks almost exactly as it did in the mid-’80s… except that it’s now almost deserted, the escalators no longer run, and many of the lights have been darkened.
