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] It is located at the southwest corner of the intersection of Westheimer Road and Highway 6. Anchor stores include a Dillard's Clearance Store, Edwards Theaters, Macy's, and Sears. The mall primarily serves the Alief and Energy Corridor areas of Houston, and serves as the closest non-outlet mall to most of Houston's western suburbs including the Greater Katy and Fulshear areas. Pacific Retail Capital Partners owns the mall as a joint venture with Square Mile Capital Management,^[3] and is managed by PRCP Management and Collarmele Partners.^[3]

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. However, by this time the 1999 opening of Katy Mills (located in the Greater Katy area) and the resurgence and renovation of Memorial City Mall in 2002 (which also hastened the decline and closing of Town & Country Mall in 2004) began to significantly impact West Oaks in the long term.

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] However, West Oaks began to again experience issues with its anchors; following its Independence Day sale JCPenney announced it would close its location at the mall and that all purchases made after July 4 were final. The store's closing in late July came before a new stand-alone JCPenney opened October 7 that same year at The Grand Promenade in nearby Katy.^[9] Mervyn's would shutter its location at the mall in 2005 as the chain exited Greater Houston that year and eventually went out of business in 2008.^[10] (Steve & Barry's would fill Mervyn's old space in 2006 until the chain itself shuttered in 2009.)

Within the mall, higher-profile tenants began to leave as the aforementioned expansions and renovations at competing malls, along with the opening of the LaCenterra lifestyle development in the Cinco Ranch area of Greater Katy drew away virtually all of the mall's upper-middle income consumers – the mall's intended original clientele. Numerous specialty stores began to close their stores in the mall, including Gap and Gap Kids, American Eagle Outfitters, The Limited, Limited Too and Pacific Sunwear, as well as a Birraporetti's restaurant that had briefly reopened in November 2004 at its untouched former location that was shuttered in the mid-1990s; this location would close permanently on August 3, 2005 after originally being closed for remodeling.^[11] In July 2008, Linens 'n Things announced it would close its store at the mall (which it did on August 15, 2008) due to the "big box" housewares chain's Chapter 11 proceedings. The space would eventually be filled by Palais Royal, who previously occupied this space at the mall until it closed in 2000.

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.^[12] 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] Concerns about the mall have been raised in recent years, with impending future retail development in the Katy and Sugar Land areas and the recent success of Memorial City Mall and CityCentre (which replaced Town & Country Mall) being key factors. Before the late 2000s recession a proposed shopping center, The Grand in Katy, was viewed as the biggest potential threat to West Oaks Mall. While The Grand has since been all but cancelled by its developer Simon Property Group which also owns Katy Mills, future developments at the latter mall (which saw its sister mall in the Chicago area, Gurnee Mills recently open a full-price wing anchored by Macy's) and in the newly developed Bridgeland community could threaten West Oaks in the long term. As of 2014, many of the mall's inline tenants include non-chain stores and mall staples such as Bath & Body Works, and the Dillard's store in the mall has since been converted to a clearance center.

Anchor stores

Steve & Barry's store (now demolished)

Current anchors

• Dillard's Clearance Center (opened 1991, later converted to a clearance center; 227,600 sq ft., however only the first floor is being used.)
• Edwards Theaters 14 screens, opened 2013 (built on former Mervyn's site)
• Macy's(opened as Foley's in 1982, became Macy's 2006; 250,000 sq ft.)
• Sears (opened as 50,000 sq ft (4,600 m²). Saks Fifth Avenue in 1984, closed 1990, became Sears: The Apparel Store in 1990, became Sears department store 1998; 102,036 sq ft.)^[13]
• Vacant (opened as Lord & Taylor in 1984, closed 1990, became JCPenney, closed 2005 100,000 sq ft.)

Previous anchors

• Mervyns (opened in 1984, closed 2005, became Steve & Barry's 2006, closed in 2009; 75,000 sq ft, demolished 2011)

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