GARLAND — Christened by a man worth $100 billion, the original Hypermart has long since fallen into the hands of the area's most destitute.

Without a new purpose, the 226,000-square-foot retail behemoth has remained closed to the public for a decade. Its new history is one of vagrancy, seen through broken glass, crude graffiti and the like.

That history will get cleared later this month when the empty Hypermart building faces the wrecking ball.

The homeless who found their way in are scattering. Crews have been active in recent days preparing for the demolition, and on Monday, the place was vacant except for city officials and their visitors. Left behind are clothing, stuffed animals, food and pop boxes, an empty bag of dog food, a few shopping carts, some pillows, a couple of games even — many of the same things found at Hypermart in its heyday.

1 / 2 2 / 2

In the Hypermart, with more than a dozen sub-businesses under the same roof as a traditional Walmart, drug store and grocery store, Garland in 1987 had the newest wonder of the world instead of a shopping mall.

"It was quite a thing in its time," said Jack May of Garland.

Because their city had missed out on the shopping mall boom of the 1970s and early 1980s, Garland residents were loyal to the K-Mart, Target and Walmart approach. Walmart kept building bigger and bigger, then partnered with the parent company of Tom Thumb and Page Drug to create the largest retail outlet under a single roof.

1 / 4The current state of the former Hypermart in Garland. The superstore opened in December 1987 and has been vacant retail space since May 2008. Plans are for it to be demolished in the coming weeks.(Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer) 2 / 4Garland city officials walked around the former Hypermart on Monday to check on the progress of getting the building ready for demolition.(Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer) 3 / 4Shattered glass remains in one of the doors at the former Hypermart in Garland.(Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer) 4 / 4Trash and a overturned shopping cart can be found in one of the boarded-up entrances at the former Hypermart in Garland. The superstore opened in December 1987 and has been vacant for years.(Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer)

A legendary welcome

Sam Walton himself, founder of a retail empire, came to 3159 S. Garland Ave. for the groundbreaking. As it does for many dignitaries, the city presented Walton with a Garland-made cowboy hat.

"He looked over at his handlers and said 'Can we sell these at the store?'" May recalled. "He was the consummate retail salesman."

Everything Walmart touched turned to gold in those days, and with 40,000 customers a day pouring in from a two-hour radius, Hypermart debuted as another chapter in the corporate success story. Company officials projected sales as high as $150 million the first year.

1 / 2A film drop sign that dates the building is seen in the former Hypermart in Garland on Monday. The superstore opened in December 1987 and has been vacant as a retail site since May 2008.(Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer) 2 / 2The imprint of a sign remains above the shopping cart area at the former Hypermart in Garland.(Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer)

"I remember being super-excited," said Diane Fields-Redish of Garland. "The first set of tires that I purchased on my own was purchased from there. And the very last swing set that I ever purchased came from Hypermart."

Sara George lived within a mile of Hypermart and found the onsite arcade a way to bond with her teen daughter.

"We didn't have any trouble finding a place to park our bikes," said George, who now lives in Dallas. "It was close by and had everything you could want. I had good memories of it."

Where Walmart missed was with the grocery clientele. The megastore was a checklist destination, but few seemed willing to tread through 1,600 parking spaces and 5 acres of aisles on a regular basis. In time, the Hypermart pilot failed, and only a handful were ever built.

Within two years, in an effort to reduce debt, the grocery partner sold its interest to Walmart. By April 1990, the stores in Garland and Arlington celebrated reopenings as Wal-Mart Hypermart USA. They were later rebranded as Supercenters.

Reduced to a shell

In mid-2008, Walmart reduced the Garland building to a shell when it reopened a new supercenter with about a third of the space about a mile away.

With that new store came a deed restriction on the Hypermart property. Nothing that would directly compete with Wal-Mart would be allowed there. Neighbors didn't want self-storage, the redevelopment idea most often pitched to the City Council.

1 / 3A film drop sign dates the vacant building to a previous era in the former Hypermart in Garland.(Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer) 2 / 3Light fixtures are lined up a long a wall in the former Hypermart in Garland. The superstore opened in December 1987 but has been vacant as a retail site since May 2008.(Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer) 3 / 3Ginny Holliday, director of facilities management for the city of Garland, is framed by a light fixture inside the former Hypermart in Garland.(Ron Baselice / Staff Photographer)

The city purchased the 24 acres in October to "bank" the land in hopes it would become a key to redevelopment at Garland's entryway. Demolition is a condition of the $6.3 million agreement, and the owner — listed as Best Center Garland, LLC — is responsible for clearing the site. No date has been announced, but city officials anticipate demolition will happen in the next couple of weeks.

At 30-plus years old, the foundation is without cracks and there are no signs of cave-in from the roof or walls. Glass is scattered across the wide-open floor space.

"When they closed the doors, I was actually sad," Fields-Reddish said. "But what saddens me more was the fact that there was this huge building in a seemingly OK location that no one took advantage of."

Almost no one. Where there were pockets, there were occupants. City officials called one closet "the condo" because shelves were being utilized, the bedding and pillow on the floor were a cut above what other inhabitants had, and the space offered privacy.

In the large produce corner on the west wall of the Hypermart, the signs of an encampment are ankle-deep. Two other pockets, each about 400 to 600 square feet, show where dozens of others stayed — at least until the city's purchase.