Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Mall of the Mainland November 2010

Mall of the Mainland in Texas City has been acquired by Boxer Properties the same company that is bringing Plazamericas Mall (formerly Sharpstown Mall) back to life. Redevelopment of this mall will be much more challenging because of the close proximity to new retail developments in nearby Dickinson and Baybrook Mall a few miles north. The mall can succeed if they can attract big box retail in the former JCPenney space and possibly a mercado, medical or office space in the former Dillard's. Since half of the anchors on one side of the mall are closed and only a small handful of stores are still open on that half of the mall; the mall can also be reduced in size to better accommodate a new development. The remaining stores can be consolidated and the wing demolished with a new mini anchor or hotel attached to the demolished wing of the mall.



Macy's



Palais Royal



Affordable Furniture (Sears is to the right of this entrance not pictured)



Movies 12



JCPenney closed in 2006



Dillard's closed in 2008 from Hurricane Ike damage.






A couple of shots of the food court; you can see the blue and pink neon lighting that is all throughout the mall; my son got into this picture.




Here are some of the closed storefronts within the mall. A Sam Goody, Dollar Store, Waldenbooks, and Zales are pictured here.






This is the inside of the JCPenney that closed here in 2006 through the mall entrance glass. A new store opened a couple of miles north around two years after this location closed.


7 comments:

  1. Nice.

    Did you see the exposed J. Riggings sign?
    Was Corn Dog 7 still there?
    Was that weird place with the inflatable piercings still there?

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  2. I did not see the J. Riggings sign this time. The Corn Dog 7 is still there but the piercing store, F.Y.I., the candy store, and Gamestop are all gone. Once you pass up the food court towards the old Dillard's only a few stores remain.

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  3. The Macy's is now going to close at the mall. Is the last remaining anchor Sears next? Sears did not announce all of the stores they are closing and with the news of Macy's leaving there is a good possibilty Sears is next.

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  4. Wow just when the news for this mall could not get any worse a tornado struck the mall today at around 1pm damaging Sears and the food court area. Apparently some parts of the mall ceiling opened up and let water inside; no one was reported injured. One news report says the mall will partially reopen soon, but will this be the end for the mall if damage is greater than initially reported? On a blog front; I took some outside photos of the Macy's store here late Saturday night on the way back from Galveston as they were preparing the store for liquidation. I will post those to a future article about the mall.
    Links to the tornado at http://www.khou.com/news/local/Tornado-strikes-Mall-of-the-Mainland-in-Texas-City-136960478.html
    http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8496325

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  5. Stick in a fork in it, it's done. JCPenney and Dillard's are gone, with Macy's pulling out. I'm thinking Sears will follow Dillard's example: Dillard's wasn't doing particularly well, so it used Hurricane Ike to its advantage and conveniently announced it wasn't going to reopen. Macy's used the same tactic on Northwest Mall to an extent, and I'm guessing that Sears will decide that this one isn't worth holding onto. It's possible that Palais Royal will decide to move into the Wal-Mart across the street (as I've seen an old Wal-Mart that was converted into a PR), except the Wal-Mart building is in terrible condition (roof partially gone).

    It's less likely the mall will get redeveloped at all. I mean, the Sears may pull out, the theater is old, and frankly, it's not visible from I-45.

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  6. The mall has fully reopened, but Sears closes at 8pm weeknights and opens later also. Macy's will be gone by March when the sale is finished. The stores that had water damage were being dried out by fans and plastic tubes that catch bacteria. The former Tilt that partially collapsed is covered up. The cinema is open but none of the restaurants were open last week during my visit. Boxer has brought new life to the PlazAmericas Mall, but they need to go in a different direction with this mall. Businesses and medical offices combined with the existing retail seems to be the best direction with the new outlet mall going up less than two miles away. Getting any new retail will be difficult for this mall with everything that has happened.

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  7. Do you think there is still hope for this mall???

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