Here is a West Oaks Mall update. There is not much to report on, but the mall is dying at a fast pace.
June 2019 visit.
A lot of signage remains in this area, but half of the stores are gone.
In 2019, two food court tenants were still open. Just wait and see how many are left in 2021.
The food court was a ghost town.
If the redevelopment of the mall panned out, this corridor would have been lively.
Ceiling damage
Nobody's home!
Cobwebs and dust.
The design of this mall is so nice, it is sad that so many businesses have closed here.
Finish Line is finished!
Also gone!
Champs still toughing it out.
Crazy Boss is the newest anchor taking over the former Palais Royal/Linens and Things/Palais Royal again space.
Not much left in this court either.
Both Bath and Body Works and Victoria's Secret left between my 2019 and 2021 visits to the mall.
This section of the mall was still in decent shape in 2019. Most spaces were filled.
Once you cross over towards the former Macy's the mall dies out again.
The former Sears space had this The Arcade signage, but no signs of redevelopment.
Nice try, but this would not be a great place for a pop-up shop.
The former Macy's is now a closeout retailer called The Outlet.
Looking back towards the mall corridor from The Outlet entrance.
March 2021 Visit
As you can see the sign on Highway 6 looks really bad. Sears and Applebee's were just turned around with Tutti Frutti the only business still active.
One of the bright spots at the mall. This is where I enter the mall on this visit.
The former Sears still awaits redevelopment.
The Crazy Boss mall court. Looks about the same as in 2019.
We can see the Victoria's Secret on the right is gone.
The Uniform Store was dark as well, not sure if it was closed for the day or permanently.
Same story with this store, closed for the day or permanently.
Let's go look at the former Sears.
Lights are on, but nobody is home.
No signs of redevelopment at all.
The mall still looks really clean though.
Closed permanently or for the day? I really could not tell.
The Jewelry Center was still going, one of the few places open at 6pm on a weekday.
With the mostly vacant corridor, the lighting looks really dim in the evening.
This is one of the strangest things I have seen inside of a mall so far. Fear, trust, and envy and one of the mannequins' mouths taped shut. With how empty, dark, and silent as the mall was, this very creepy to see.
Not sure if the lighting was dimmed or just not enough for the nearly empty former Macy's corridor.
In front of the anchor the lighting is better.
The Outlet keeps different hours than the mall and closes early.
The dark blue hue of the evening looks really awesome in the skylights.
As you can see to the far right, the Foot Locker that was here in 2019 is also gone.
Bath and Body Works recently left this newer location as well. I believe the location was remodeled less than 5 years before.
Back to the Crazy Boss court. Even the long-tenured Smoothie place is gone. Deerbrook Mall still has a location if you miss those drinks 😀.
Champs was like an oasis in the dead mall.
The furniture store was locked and chained up.
It appears that some of the retailers still left close earlier than the mall hours.
I am not even sure that Dillard's opens their mall entrance anymore.
A few businesses still left near the food court.
Another store out of the few that were open at around 6pm.
The old Hot Topic in the food court.
Only one food court restaurant left in 2021. As of 2022, there are none left, and the mall entrance has been gated off. I really like the setup at this food court despite the lack of food outlets.
About half of the space in the food court was used by retailers. I wonder if the whole area was filled with restaurants when the mall opened.
The fireplace used to be a nice touch, now it sits unused.
The former Mervyn's corridor which was mostly demolished.
This partial section of the mall has a few businesses.
The Tutti Frutti cafe is still open with an exterior entrance but closed early on this day.
I never saw this open.
One of the vintage wall photos was left on a food court booth.
All of the stores listed here are gone.
Now for some close-ups of the various stores and food court spots.
Now this section of the mall is gated off.
A closed food court stall painted with an image of what could have been.
Hilarious, there was no problem following these guidelines here. I would have to really look around for another person in this mall.
I was surprised to see the Pepsi machines stocked up.
As we get closer to 7pm Champs is closing up. 7pm was the official time for the mall to close for the evening.
Damn, now I need to find another way out of the mall. The store was still open but closed off their mall entrance at 7pm.
A few more photos in the mall as I have to go back to the food court to leave. The ceiling with water damage update in 2021. I photographed this in 2019 with damage.
A last shot of the food court.
Not sure if this place ever opened.
Such a sad sight. At least the door was open to leave.
A close-up of the Dillard's sign as I walk to my vehicle.
I hope you enjoyed this somewhat recent update of West Oaks. More to come.
Only a nutty Bavarian, or nutty anyone, would open a new shop at West Oaks Mall given how it has become a haven for social distancing! Some of those signs promoting 'new' stores are approaching the Nikki and Gloria postcard at the Mall of the Mainland level hilarity, but they aren't quite there yet, lol. It's really a shame that this mall is as dead as it is because it looks nice. This is not the usual dilapidated dead mall ala Greenspoint Mall or even Macroplaza Mall where the physical structure isn't bad, but it is also clear the mall has seen better days.
ReplyDeleteThis mall has more going on in it than Macroplaza, but otherwise, it's very much a dead mall. Hopefully this mall can have some kind of Mall of the Mainland like redevelopment so this property doesn't just sit and rot. Unlike Macroplaza, I think this spot could have some kind of non-retail focused redevelopment, but it's going to take someone with vision and a willingness to invest to make it happen.
I think I was going to reply to your comment about Kmart's website in the other post, but I forgot so I will put it here. It's hard to believe that stuff is on the Kmart website, wow. I suspect Lampert just does not have enough staff to keep things running smoothly. Kmart has very little of their own inventory on their site. Sears has a little bit more, mostly tools and appliances, but I suspect most of it is just liquidation inventory that hasn't sold yet. You might be able to find some tools worth buying at Sears Online, but I'm not sure if I'd trust the website to work correctly given what's going on over at the Kmart site.
This is one of the fastest downfalls of a mall that I have witnessed. The mall went from a promising future to dead within just a few short years. The losses of Sears and Palais Royal could not have been prevented, but the loss of Macy's was the fatal blow to this mall. This is the last Dillard's clearance center in the area, but Dillard's has shut a bunch of clearance stores in the last few years. Crazy Boss could move into a vacant shopping center box as well which would pretty much seal the fate of this mall. A tear down might be the only way to save the property from abandonment. The movie theater was the only bright spot, but with the bankruptcy of Regal Cinemas it is now closed. Pretty much everything that could go wrong with a mall redevelopment happened here.
DeleteWith the lack of stores, I was not surprised to see the Kmart inventory lacking online. The fact that the weird adult items were prominently featured was shocking. Is this some strange part of Fast Eddie's attempt to reinvent the company? Either way it doesn't seem like anyone cares anymore, they probably don't even have anyone in charge of the online site anymore. With the corporate office downsizing and mostly liquidating, I wonder how many people are left to run the company.
I've always felt like the beginning of the end for West Oaks was the loss of Macy's. What hurt a lot of malls over the country was the Macy's buyout of Foley's and other regional department store chains in 2006. If the Macy's buyout never happened, Foley's would most likely still be opened in most of the locations that Macy's closed over the past 16 years. I still think West Oaks Mall would still be struggling even if the Macy's/Foley's never closed, I just don't think it would be as bad as it is today.
ReplyDeleteAnother issue that doesn't help West Oaks is that the area around the mall is still thriving, so stores like Foot Locker and Bath and Body Works have moved outside the mall for business.
Lastly, the Covid lock downs really sped up the death process for dying malls. At this point it's too late to do anything with West Oaks Mall in terms of it being a traditional mall. The only store worth going to West Oaks is the Dillard's clearance center, and they could easily move from the mall since there are a lot of vacant Sears stores across the city now.
I did not realize that the Edwards Cinema had closed until doing this article. That part of the mall never materialized how they anticipated. The loss of Sears wasn't a big blow to the mall because Sears didn't really drive a lot of traffic anymore. The Macy's was a very good store with prime visibility off of Highway 6 and Westheimer. I also believe that a lot of the Foley's locations that Macy's closed would still be open today. The PlazAmerica's Foley's was one of the top performers in the company just a few years before Macy's closed the location. I doubt that the store fell off that fast. The location just did not fit in with the Macy's portfolio. I have a feeling that the Almeda Macy's is on their list of stores to close that have not yet closed. Burlington leaving Almeda may be their out.
DeleteI didn't know that these retailers relocated outside of the mall. The timing of the downfall of West Oaks hit right just before the time of Covid lockdowns. The loss of three anchors all at once and the lack of strong replacements really hurt the mall. This mall and Macroplaza in Pasadena may close in the near future, I just don't see how they stay open at this point. After those close, Almeda will be one to watch depending on how the Burington loss affects the mall. Greenspoint is still there somehow, but there is enough life left that it could continue to limp along. Deerbrook is the next one after those, we will see how it does in the next 5 years.