Macy's Greenspoint Mall closed March 26, 2017
These photos were taken on two trips in the last month of operations including the final 3 days of the sale.
(Scroll to the bottom of the post for the updates)
This is a long post, so please enjoy the trip to a very unusually designed department store. Not to take away from this post, but there are some special posts coming up in 2018 with new malls and other surprises.
Mannequins just about outnumbered shoppers in the store. A lot of fixtures and other items were for sale that were stashed on the closed off second floor of this store. You could hear the movement upstairs and see the items come down the freight elevator to the first floor sales floor.
This store is a massive store at just over 300,000 square feet of retail space. The second floor was closed off shortly after Macy's took over the store in 2006. Before the second floor was closed off, only a limited area was still open to the public. Sadly I was unable to visit the second floor despite asking a few employees if I could check out fixtures upstairs.
Tons of decent furniture was available even in the final weeks of the sale.
The carpet at the store was mostly coordinated with the department. Beige was Women's clothing, green was Men's clothing, and Red was Children's clothing.
The front sections of the store had a newer tile floor.
As this photo illustrates, the ceilings had a grid unlike any store I have ever seen.
Get your mannequins before they are gone!
A look at the open air jewelry area that shows the elevator and second floor. Blankets covered most of the second floor so you could not see up there anymore.
Elevators to the left and escalator to the right. The elevator was covered up so you could not use it.
The mall entrance to the store. As you can tell, the Macy's was much brighter than the mall corridor.
The front of the store just past the mall entrance.
The second floor is lit up for the first time in many years. An old gumball machine is visible in the store. That gumball machine was on the first floor for sale on my last visit to the store.
Second photo of the same spot, you decide what photo is better.
A few more interior images from the same trip.
Fast forward now to Friday March 24, 3 days before the store closed for good.
Lots of vintage wood paneling throughout the store.
Another mannequin party.
As you can see, I had most of the store to myself. Only 2 small sections of the store still had products for sale. The rest of the store was all fixtures.
As you can see, even during the day the store looked very dark.
State of the art security system
Why don't they make store designs like this anymore?
One of the former register counters.
This store had a ton of fixtures still left in the final days. Most of these were probably brought down from the second floor.
Mannequin chop shop.
A lonely display case.
Now for my favorite part of the store. The only part where you can somewhat see the second floor. When entering through the mall, this area showcased both levels with a nice elevator in the middle.
One last peek at the inside of the store.
Ancient items from the storage room of Macy's/Foley's on the second floor.
Foley's price tag
Foleys yellow tag
Once the Macy's signs were removed, Foleys labelscars were visible. (Lost my photos somewhere in my collection, I will add them when I find them).
A peak into the store after it closed, just before the corridor was sealed off.
A few weeks later the corridor was sealed off, but as you can see the door was open.
One last look inside from the open doorway.
Update 4/8/2018
Outdoor shots of Macy's which is already being vandalized and falling into disrepair a year after closing.
Windows are broken, exposing the inside of the store to the elements.
An excellent labelscar from the original name of the building.
Graffiti and more broken windows at the other entrance.
Greenspoint Mall was developed by the company that owned Foley's at the time, Federated. Thus, this was a special location for Foley's and it shows. It was really the only large Foley's in north Houston for a while and I remember coming to shop at that Foley's due to the large size even after the Willowbrook Mall location had opened.
ReplyDeleteWhile the store was once spectacular, it received little updates over the years and remained a 1970s time warp. The photos show some of these elements (the parquet floors, sparse lighting and ceiling grid, and the greenhouse like entrances that look kind of like Kroger stores from the time). I last went to this store a few years ago and it was very tired looking. The photos don't really show how bad the store looked during my last couple of visits. People can say what they want about Sears, but I've never seen a Sears look as run down as some of the Macy's that I've seen. Of course, most of us thought that this Macy's was not going to last much longer and indeed it wasn't.
I am glad you were able to visit and photograph this once-grand store before it closed for good. I don't have vivid memories of the downtown and Sharpstown Mall Foley's, but I do have vivid memories of this location, the Almeda Mall location before Ike, and the Northwest Mall Foley's. These were all grand stores at one time, but they're all gone now (at least Almeda still has a downsized Foley's).
As for Greenspoint Mall itself, things really seem to be in bad shape. Macy's is gone now and it looks like the Dillard's clearance center is gone as well. It no longer has any large retail anchors. Hopefully the mall will hang on, but it certainly has to be near the top of the list of the most endangered Houston malls right now.
You can tell they put a lot of work into making this store look good for the mid 1970's. They really let this store decline and it looked much older than it was. The only improvements made when Macy's took over was changing some of the signage, and closing off the second floor. The area where the housewares was at in the last few years of the store operating, was actually closed off for a long time.
DeleteI would say Greenspoint Mall is in very bad shape. The last junior anchor is a Palais Royal clearance center. The Fitness Connection and Movie theater bring life to the mall property, but most of their customers don't shop at the mall. The rest of the tenants appear to be hanging on, but without retail anchors the mall looks very dead.
I got some footage of greenspoint I shot with my father and some pictures of the outside if your interested, let me know if you want to see anything that I got and I will send it to you, it’s from about 4/17/18
ReplyDeleteI would be glad to add your photos of the mall to a future post. I am limited to only videos of less than a minute on the blog. You can send them to southernmalls@gmail.com
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