Here is one of the newest Houston area indoor malls. Opened in March of 1996, this super regional mall serves the Southwest side of Houston. Anchors of the mall are Macys (previously Foley's), Dillard's Womens store, Dillard's Mens store (previously Mervyn's), JCPenney, and Dick's Sporting Goods. The mall has undergone 2 expansions adding an outdoor shopping/dining corridor, and again in 2016 adding the Dick's Sporting Goods anchor to the food court.
First Colony Mall has been a booming mall ever since opening, and 3 nearby malls have suffered as the retail in Sugarland has expanded. Westwood was the first one to fall, closing in 1998. Sharpstown was the next to fall into dead mall status prior to the renovation and conversion to PlazAmericas Mall way back when this blog was started. West Oaks was hit with the double whammy of both First Colony and Katy Mills opening in the last half of the 1990's. West Oaks has fallen into dead mall status over the last 5 years despite a plan to rejuvenate the mall with a new state of the art Edwards Cinema.
The Dillard's Mens store pictured here was originally a Mervyn's.
Dillard's Womens store
The outdoor mall extension.
Macy's/Foley's
JCPenney
Now for the inside of the mall. Despite the bland colors throughout the mall, the ceiling here really stands out. We entered the mall at Macy's.
The mall has a strange shape, the main concourse from Macy's to the Dillard's Womens store is shaped almost like the letter C.
Now we head out to the outdoor addition which features a Barnes and Noble with several other retailers and restaurants.
As you can see there is not a lot of shade out here. The outdoor outlet malls in the Houston area and the Baybrook Mall outdoor corridors do a much better job of providing shade. Houston weather is hostile most of the time alternating from blistering heat to monsoon rains, and even the occasional deep freeze. There are a good bit of vacancies out here so you would think that they would want this area to be as comfortable as possible.
Barnes and Noble has a little more shade than the rest of the retailers on the strip.
This astroturf area once had some water features and a pond. The pond had fallen into disrepair and was taken out in favor of this area. A nice touch, but once again not enough shade for the Summer months.
I am so glad we documented this property when the weather was nice.
Back to the interior mall we go.
Food court area.
The Dick's Sporting Goods addition.
A lot of natural lighting in the center of the food court.
Now we are heading towards the Dillard's locations.
Dillard's Mens store
I really like the ceiling designs here.
Dillard's Womens store
A few more center court shots here.
And we conclude the tour back where we started at the entrance to Macy's.
More to come, stay tuned.
First Colony Mall is probably the one existing Houston mall which I don't have a lot of personal experience with. I think I did visit the mall right around the time it first opened, but I don't remember much from that visit. Thus, it's nice to see these extensive photos of the place.
ReplyDeleteThe mall looks pretty nice. In some ways, it's not as fancy as the mall that this mall will get compared to the most, The Woodlands Mall. That said, I do like the carpeted corridors. That's an unusual touch in the Houston area. I'm not a fan of outdoor mall areas, especially ones which do not provide adequate protection from Houston's weather, but I suppose this is the new trend with malls.
For years, I considered First Colony Mall to be an inferior mall to other Houston malls and generally unfit for my shopping needs since it didn't have either a Sears or a Montgomery Ward. Now that no Houston malls have those stores, I suppose First Colony Mall is at least equal to everyone else in that regard. I really wonder why Sears never opened a store at First Colony Mall. My understanding is that Hines intended for the mall to be quite upscale, like what West Oaks Mall was originally envisioned as being, and so perhaps Sears was never invited to build a location at the mall. It's also possible that Sears felt their West Oaks and Westwood stores were sufficient for the area, but Foley's opened at First Colony Mall and kept their West Oaks and Sharpstown stores (in fact, the latter was once thought to be moving to Westwood Mall around the time that First Colony Mall opened), so I don't know if that's sufficient justification for there not being a Sears at First Colony Mall.
I do suspect that if Lampert never got involved with Sears, Sears would have opened a Sears Grand store in Ft. Bend County somewhere and that might have worked better for them than being at the mall. I guess we'll never know if that would have happened though, unfortunately.
First Colony is a decent mall for what it is. Even though the property is listed as over a million square feet, it doesn't feel that large. The corridors towards Macy's and Dillard's feel somewhat claustrophobic especially with the kiosks. Willowbrook is about the same size as this mall, but feels much more open and interesting.
DeleteI think Sears management made the right decision not to open at First Colony. Their nearby stores at West Oaks and Westwood were doing well at the time. We can even argue that Westwood was still a very good store all the way until the end. West Oaks was still fairly new at this point and Sugarland is a relatively expensive place to do business. I also think that the Sears store in The Woodlands Mall didn't meet the expectations of the company, which may have kept them away from Sugarland which has a lot of similarities to The Woodlands. It was kind of strange that Mervyn's was a part of this mall at the opening, it just seemed out of place.
It is sad that we never got to see a Sears Grand in the area. I think there was a market for those stores once Kmart left the area. We will never know, but I think this area will eventually get another discount store competitor.
I’m kind of surprised that this mall didn’t open with a Sears.
ReplyDeleteThe nearby Westwood, Memorial City, and West Oaks malls had Sears stores when this mall opened. Westwood was still a very busy Sears store, so a new store at an expensive site in Sugarland was probably not in their best interest. Westwood was still a good performing store for years after the mall closed. West Oaks was a fairly new Sears in the mid 1990's and just a few miles down the road.
DeleteFirst Colony and West Oaks were both my "childhood malls". When you were killing time, or wanted to hang out with friends you would go to First Colony, it was fun to walk around and had tons of different stores that appealed to high school aged children. West Oaks on the other hand was for buying things, all the stores there seemed to be a bit cheaper, and you had a more difficult time just "bumming around".
ReplyDeleteDid First Colony have an arcade back in those days? I remember West Oaks having an arcade until just before the Western renovation in the early 2000's. Thanks for sharing your experiences with us at those malls.
DeleteI recently took photos to provide an update on West Oaks, if you haven't been there in a while you may be in for a shock.