West Oaks Mall (Houston, Texas)

West Oaks Mall is a regional shopping mall located in the Alief area of the west side of Houston, Texas, USA, that opened in 1984.^[2] West Oaks Mall offers a community shopping experience to residents and businesspeople alike in the West Houston suburban community and Energy Corridor. West Oaks is easily accessible from its location at the corner of Highway 6 and Westheimer Road, just minutes away from Katy, Sugar Land, Cinco Ranch, the Energy Corridor and nestled next to the George Bush Park, a 7,800 acre green space complete with sports fields, hiking/biking/equestrian trails and a dog park.

The 1 million square foot regional boutique mall is anchored by Macy’s, Sears, Palais Royal, Dillards, Fortis College and an Edwards Theatre 14 screen multiplex, featuring a beautiful pedestrian plaza created during the recent redevelopment. West Oaks proudly hosts many community events throughout the year, including annual festivals, local charity support and family friendly activities, providing a space to not just shop but for the local community to come together.

To create the total shopping, dining and entertainment experience for guests, it is adding many of today’s favorite national retailers, local merchants and restaurants/bars.

Pacific Retail Capital Partners owns the mall as a joint venture with Square Mile Capital Management,^[3] and is managed by PRCP Management.

History

Early years (1984-1996)

West Oaks Mall has its roots in the opening of a branch of Houston-based department store chain Foley's in 1982 – two years before the mall opened. In the foyer of the north entrance to the store, on both walls, there are handprints of children on terra-cotta tiles with a plaque dated May 22, 1982. The mall itself opened in 1984 with a single-level floorplan designed in a "Mission style", and replete with earth tone interiors, numerous fountains and skylights. Originally, the mall targeted higher-end consumers on Houston's western fringes and surrounding suburban areas, with anchor tenants Foley's, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, and Mervyn's, along with over 120 inline stores, a six-screen Plitt Theatres (later Cineplex Odeon) cinema, and a food court dubbed the Fiesta Food Court. West Oaks served as a direct competitor to nearby Town & Country Mall and Memorial City Mall in Houston's Memorial area – targeting shoppers in Houston's Energy Corridor and the Greater Katy area, as well as a newer alternative for shoppers in rapidly growing Fort Bend County who otherwise would have gone to Sharpstown Mall or Westwood Mall.

In 1985, Macy's announced that it was building a fifth Houston store at West Oaks Mall, which would have been located on the mall's last remaining anchor pad directly opposite Lord & Taylor and would have opened in late 1987, a year after the flagship Houston Galleria store (now dubbed as Macy's at Sage after the 2006 merger) opened.^[1] As Houston's economy suffered in the aftermath of the 1980s oil glut, demand for upscale retail declined sharply and by the spring of 1990, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor closed their West Oaks locations,^[4] replaced respectively by Sears and JCPenney (both stores of which would fill a large gap in Greater Houston) as part of a repositioning of the mall as a mainstream middle-class suburban regional mall. ^[5] Macy's intended space at West Oaks would eventually be filled by Dillard's in 1991, making it the first such store in Houston to be built as a Dillard's (the rest having been converted from the former Joske's in 1988). By the early 1990s, West Oaks emerged as one of Houston's top performing regional malls, in large part due to the decline of Town & Country and rapid suburban growth in the aforementioned areas.

1996-2003

The mall would receive its first serious challenge in 1996 when First Colony Mall opened in nearby Sugar Land. Though First Colony's opening had done more economic damage to the Sharpstown and Westwood malls in Southwest Houston (the latter of which would close over one year later), the new mall drew away many of West Oaks' customers from rapidly growing Fort Bend County, but still continued to draw some shoppers from this area due to the presence of stores that did not have locations at the new mall including Sears and some specialty stores which did not open locations at First Colony Mall. To compete with First Colony, West Oaks underwent a renovation that removed several features including a tall clock at the intersection of the Arcade and the Dillard's/JCPenney concourse, an elevated seating area in the food court used as a smoking area, all of the mall's fountains, and the original dark brown tile in the mall's inline corridor. In July 2003, Somera Investment Partners and Coastwood Capital Group purchased the mall from an affiliate of CB Richard Ellis Investors.^[6][7] That same year, the first Alamo Drafthouse in Houston opened in the mall after Alamo Drafthouse's Austin-based owners granted the franchise location in the former Cineplex Odeon cinema.

Since 2004

In 2004, the mall was renovated into a Texas Ranch Style to compete with recent renovations at the Galleria and Memorial City Mall, as well as the impending expansion of First Colony Mall (which completed in 2006). The interior was extensively renovated, including the filling of the sunken part of the Park Court with concrete and the addition of a fireplace to the food court, and replacement of the tile from the 1996 renovation with marble, and the mall would be sold again in 2005 to Investment Properties of America, which bought the mall from the Somera/Coastwood partnership.^[8]

In 2009, Pacific Retail Capital Partners bought the mall from LNR Partners Inc. for $15 million – $87 million less than it did when it was sold four years earlier.^[9] In 2011, Regal Entertainment Group agreed to open a 14-screen Edwards Theatre as a new anchor for the mall.,^[3] replacing the Alamo Drafthouse cinema which continued to operate until the completion of construction on the Edwards Theatre, which also resulted in the demolition of much of the former Mervyn's wing.^[3]

Anchor stores

Steve & Barry's store (now demolished)

Current anchors

• Macy's (250,000 sq ft.)
• Dillard's (227,600 sq ft.)
• Sears (102,000 sq ft.)
• Edwards Theaters (60,300 sq. ft.)
• Palais Royal (26,700 sq. ft.)
• Fortis College (100,000 sq ft.)

Previous anchors

• Mervyn's (opened in 1984, closed 2005, became Steve & Barry's in 2006; 75,000 sq ft)
• Steve & Barry's (opened in 2006 replacing Mervyn's, closed in 2009; 75,000 sq ft, demolished 2011, Edwards Theaters now on original site)
• Foley's (opened in 1982, became Macy's 2006; 250,000 sq ft.)
• Saks Fifth Avenue (opened in 1984, closed in 1990, now Sears; 102,036 sq ft)
• Lord & Taylor (opened in 1984, closed in 1990, became JCPenney; 100,000 sq ft)
• JCPenney (opened in 1990 replacing Lord & Taylor, closed in 2005, currently vacant; 100,000 sq ft)

See also

• Alief, Houston
• List of shopping malls in Greater Houston

References

External links

• West Oaks Mall Official website
• Investment Properties of America Official website