Here is a quick Northwest Mall update.
March 2022 visit.
Nothing has changed here, Foley's/Macy's still abandoned and rotting away. This anchor has been closed for almost 14 years now, can you believe that Hurricane Ike happened that long ago?
One of the faded remaining banners from the final years of the mall.
The last business in place at the mall. This is the only part of the mall that has parking lot lights, pretty sketchy spot for college students.
The main/food court entrance.
The former JCPenney/Antique Center is now closed.
Another set of banners on the former JCPenney.
Even though the Antique Center used this building, the exterior was never cleaned off or painted while they were in business.
The back entrance near the Palais Royal.
Abandoned Palais Royal with clear labelscar.
Let's take a look inside through the glass. Lots of fixtures in place.
Lights are on in the mall. You can barely see the food court and center court.
April 2022 additional photos, mall is now completely dead.
Or is it? The lights are still on inside and you can see through the plywood if you look close enough.
The last tenant, College of Healthcare professionals moved out sometime between my March visit and now.
Rumors are that the mall will be demolished in the near future for the high-speed rail station.
Wow, it is great seeing a literal peek inside the old Northwest Mall! All in all, the food court area looks mostly intact and, obviously, the lights are still on. I wonder how much security the building gets to prevent people from breaking in the way people did to the old Dixie Square Mall that The Blues Brothers was filmed in. In some ways, Northwest Mall might still be better maintained than some living but comatose Houston area malls like Macroplaza Mall and Greenspoint Mall!
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Greenspoint Mall, Mike from HHR just made a new post about it on his blog. You might want to check that out. As for Macroplaza, well, wow is all I can say. I saw your video and that place is about as dead as Mall of the Mainland was during some of my last visits there before the mall died in 2013-14. At least Mall of the Mainland had a major anchor (Sears) and a couple of minor anchors at that time. Yes, Macroplaza still has Sears Hometown, but I'm sure that isn't a big traffic draw. It's really hard to imagine Macroplaza continuing on in the state that it is in. Perhaps it draws larger audiences if they have special events, but given the complete lack of visitors in the video, it would be hard for them to have fewer visitors. The Sears Hometown could have had one or two shoppers in it total and that might be double what the rest of the mall has! It really looks like a zombie movie scene in there.
The nursing college at Northwest Mall recently moved to an old furniture store further up the road on 290. The antiques mall is a sad story. Mike has been chronicling the story of that on his blog. He talked to some business owners who were operating out of the antiques mall and it sounds like there was talk of the antiques mall relocating, but it didn't happen so the people operating out of that mall are now out in the cold so to speak. Hopefully some of them can find space at another facility like Traders Village or something. There were some neat antiques stores in there like the antiques camera store that also sold old blank audio and video cassettes.
The rumors about the mall being torn down and replaced with a high speed rail station have been circulating for years. I don't know if it'll actually happen or not. I know the local airlines are fighting to make sure the rail line does not happen. We'll see. Meanwhile, the new powercenter on 290 not far from Northwest Mall appears to be doing well. It certainly has a discount focus, but that seems to be what is popular these days.
I'm not sure if you saw Mike's recent post about the Almeda Mall Burlington, but there's a rumor going around that Burlington is moving that location to a downsized spot in the Pancho's Mexican Buffet (yep, Pancho's is still around) shopping center. With that, the old JCPenney at Almeda Mall might become vacant again. With Kohan operating that mall now, it'll likely stay vacant as well. Hopefully the rumor is false, but we'll see.
Northwest Mall did have one active security guard in a small car on both of my visits to the old mall. The security guard has a flashing yellow light on the car. I was careful to take my photos while the security guard was on the other side of the mall. Both trips were at night, so it was probably suspicious, but that was the best time to see inside of the old mall. With the mall now completely vacant, we will see what happens. The property is still wide open to drive through and walk if you are feeling really adventurous, but it will probably sit there for a while even if the rail plans go through.
DeleteAntique Malls like Thompson's have been disappearing throughout our area for some time now. The old Alco strip mall in Pasadena is one example. A Joe V's now takes up the Alco and Antique Market portion of that building. Hobby Lobby was vacant the last time I looked over there as well. West Oaks would be a good place for a new antique center/flea market after the closing of Thompsons at Almeda and the redevelopment of the former Kmart down Highway 6 which was a flea market. Traders Village is a place that it miserable to visit this time of year, it is pretty hot and packed full of people, not my cup of tea.
I haven't seen Mike's blog in a few weeks. I need to catch up and see what is going on. Besides the few trips I have made inside of Houston to Fiesta Markets and the Dallas trip, I haven't done much this year. The Macroplaza visit is easy for me since I work close to that mall. Humble also has an active Pancho's if you feel like getting a taste of 80's nostalgia. The restaurant still looks pretty much the same after all of these years in business. I hope Almeda does not lose Burlington, but Kohan is one of the worst mall landlords out there.