Here is a compilation of visits to Memorial City Mall. Memorial City Mall is one of the oldest operating malls in the Houston area opening in 1966, but you would never guess this by looking at the mall. The entire mall has been extensively renovated over the years and has many of the popular stores you will find at the top malls in the country. The mall is listed as having 1.7 million square feet of retail space which is the second largest mall in the Houston area. Memorial City Mall is one of the strongest retail centers in the Houston area and well worth a visit. The expansion and renovation of Memorial City Mall in the early 2000's cemented the status of the mall. Nearby malls such as Town and Country, Westwood, Sharpstown, West Oaks, and Northwest were forced to either change their business model or close entirely after the Memorial City expansion. The Galleria expansion, the opening of First Colony and Katy Mills also contributed to the demise of the older West and Southwest Houston Malls as well.
This directory photo is a bit dated, the current anchors are Target, JCPenney, Macy's, and Dillard's. Sears closed in November 2018 and has yet to be replaced after being demolished. There are several sit down restaurants attached to the mall as well.
November 2019 early morning visit. Best time to take photos of the mall just before most of the retailers opened for the day. This mall gets busy everyday, so don't let these photos fool you.
Target was originally a two-story Montgomery Ward.
One of the additions to the mall in the mid 2000's, the ice rink court. Mervyn's was an anchor in this part of the mall until the store closed. The Mervyn's building was picked apart with parts of the structure remaining until the rest of the lot was filled. The fireplace wasn't on, but runs during mall business hours.
With the Mervyn's building gone now, it is hard to tell exactly how it was situated here. The ice rink, outdoor field, and sit down restaurants you will see next are roughly where the anchor sat.
The views here are really nice. In addition to the skyscraper background, the side facing the mall has a large screen that is used for movie nights.
Pictured here is the large screen just to the right of the Christmas tree. This is an artificial grass field that is open year round.
The ice rink.
The main corridor leading to the food court.
For some reason my photo roll jumped to the former Sears wing. A fish feeding tank for the kids.
The play area, which was in the center court with the original mall renovation.
Before the Sears building was demolished, we photographed this short-lived playground business using the front of the old store.
A look through the glass into the playground.
Looking down the former Sears corridor.
The old school clock near the food court.
The central food court area.
Back to the next corridor. This part of the mall was also heavily modified in the early 2000's remodel of the property.
Standout ceiling above the Starbucks.
The quiet JCPenney corridor. This store was originally a Lord and Taylor so it is more fancy than your average JCPenney store.
The Dillard's court. This is probably the best part of the mall to visit during the Christmas Season.
This store was a former Sharper Image.
The 2019 directory.
The Macy's which opened as a replacement Foley's. Currently the Toys R Us in here is the larger flagship store.
In front of the Target anchor these two odd hallways which were once lined with stores remain. Even though these hallways were renovated, they still have the feel of the older mall.
Now let's take a look outside around the mall.
The former Sears building.
January 2021, post Sears demolition.
June 2023
The old Sears slab is still pretty much the same. This part of the mall has some recent vacancies so it needs revitalization. There are plans to turn the former Sears site into an outdoor retail/residential area. The former Town and Country Mall site did well with this type of redevelopment so we will see if it works here as well.
Parts of the mall have been repainted and updated with new seating, plants, and colors. I really like the updated look, hopefully the rest of the mall gets this update. So far only the main corridor from the ice rink to the food court has the update.
More to come!. Sorry about the slow pace of new content, the blog is not dead yet!
Those are some great photos of Memorial City Mall, thanks for documenting the mall! I have to admit that I have not been back to MCM since the Sears closed. The mall took an unfortunate turn towards being less interesting when Sears and RadioShack closed. Granted, it is hard to fault the mall for either of those two losses. The mall is still one of the most interesting Houston malls though thanks in part due to the added variety of the Target store. Target sells a lot of stuff which most malls just don't have these days. That is probably the neatest aspect of MCM, but the mall also becomes massively busy as well which is something I try to avoid these days.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I liked the 'old' MCM more than the current one. The layout of the current MCM is a bit strange and I've never gotten quite used to the look of it, but it is Houston's 2nd most fancy mall I would say. The Galleria is still the unquestioned king, but after that, I think MCM is the most fancy mall in town. The development of the city around it has really made MCM feel like The Galleria in some ways...for better or for worse. I reckon The Woodlands Mall would be the next most fancy mall.
One of the great thing about this mall back in the day is that it had a very large Sears and also a pretty large Montgomery Ward that also had a Phar-Mor on the side of it. Although the Phar-Mor didn't connect to the interior part of the mall, it was at the mall and so it had some of the variety that Target brings today. The 'old' MCM was also one of the last Houston malls to have a Walgreens in it and it also had a Piccadilly Cafeteria. There was also a neat local computer store called The Floppy Wizard that I think eventually moved down Gessner Rd. and may still be in business.
Have you ever seen this video from the time the mall was renovated from the early 2000s? Even if you have seen it, it is worth checking out again. The interesting part is the revelation that the Target was intended to be a Target Greatland store. This video is oddly obscure. Link: https://vimeo.com/19572682
I saw your comment in the other reply about MCM now having dark blue and hunter green in it now. Wow, I don't know what to think about that! I think it looks pretty nice, but those colors, especially hunter green, are highly associated with the 1990s. The mall is risking people believing this mall is stuck in the 1990s even though that part of the mall didn't really exist in the 1990s...at least not in the way it exists now. Heck, who knows, maybe 1990s colors are becoming trendy again. If so, watch out for the return of Barney purple!
I'm glad to hear that the blog is not dead yet! I'm also glad to see the updates we do get and this is a very nice post. I know you've been planning this MCM post for quite some time so I'm glad to see it.
I had a bit of time today to update the blog and posted the 2021 Lufkin Mall and Kmart update. With the recent news of the final Kmart in NJ closing, I wanted to update the blog with something Kmart related. Now there will only be 1 full sized Kmart in New York and the mini-Kmart in Miami in the continental US. It is so strange how we got here, but the chain is still dragging along. Sears is doing slightly better with 11 stores left in the continental US, but wow this decline has really been unprecedented.
DeleteIt is really something how MC Mall went from declining in the 80's and 90's to the second-best mall in the area behind the Galleria in just a few short years. They extensively renovated the mall at the best time to take advantage of the beginning of the decline of several nearby malls. Memorial City does have a few vacancies at the moment, but nothing that would hurt the mall. Even the Galleria has some vacancies as well, it is just how malls are doing in 2023. I can see a future where only 6 malls exist in the city with this mall being one of the last one standing. The Galleria, Baybrook, First Colony, Katy Mills, The Woodlands, and Memorial City. I fear Willowbrook, Deerbrook, PlazAmericas, and Almeda will decline to the point of no return in the next 5-10 years. Each of these malls has an underlying issue that could cause the mall to begin to decline significantly. The Downtown Park Shops Mall is pretty much all food, medical, and office options now, so I don't count that mall as a retail outlet anymore. Greenspoint, Macroplaza, and West Oaks are pretty much done for so they can't be included at this time unless something major changes.
I wonder if the entire mall will be repainted and getting updated seating areas. This corridor certainly looks a lot different than the rest of the mall now. Thinking about how Katy Mills went from bold to bland colors, this mall is going from bland to bold colors. After several years of no major mall renovations, many malls in the area have had recent renovations starting with Almeda Mall.
Thanks for the update about the New Jersey Kmart, I actually had not heard the news about that one closing. I can't say I'm surprised though. I heard that someone from Sears in Puerto Rico or one of the Caribbean territories made a statement that they were going to open two Sears stores in old Sears locations in California and Washington state and have items sold on a consignment basis ala Fry's Electronics in their last few years. This just seems like another Fast Eddie ploy to try to make it look like Sears is relevant again and I'm not getting too excited about it because who knows if those two planned stores will even happen. Maybe some of the old Houston Sears locations will re-open for another bad attempt at things. It really is surprising that anything Sears and Kmart are still around in 2023.
DeleteMemorial City's redevelopment of sorts in the early 2000s was a smashing success. The mall did well to take advantage of the failures of West Oaks and Town & County and position themselves as a great beneficiary of the growth along I-10 on the west side of town. I think having a general retailer like Target has helped drive traffic as well. Modern malls just don't have the variety that a store like Target brings or that Sears brought in better days.
I think the six malls you list are really solid and will be around for years to come as solid retail centers. I think I would add Willowbrook Mall to that list. Maybe that's just because it is 'my' mall, but I've been to it a couple times this year on weekends and it was absolutely packed both times to the point that it was hard to find a parking spot and the food court tables were basically at near 100% capacity. While some of the new Grand Parkway retail near Tomball will challenge Willowbrook a little bit, it is still a pretty big retail hub in the area and Sam's Club and Costco kind of anchor that area as being a retail hub. The Willowbrook Costco might become less busy when the Grand Parkway Tomball Costco opens, but I suspect there is enough traffic to spread around for both stores to be profitable.
Willowbrook does have some challenges though and the reputation of FM 1960 is not what it once was to the determent of Willowbrook and Deerbrook Malls. If Macy's and JCPenney are still around in a decade, I'd expect Willowbrook to hang in there as a relevant mall. If the anchors start to close, I think Willowbrook will have some big problems. Granted, they won't be the only mall in that position, but we'll see. Malls, even successful ones, are going to have to redevelop their spaces for non-traditional retail use if they want to stay relevant because I'm sure we have not seen the last department store failure and so anchors will need to be redeveloped into modern traffic drivers.
I try to keep track of the Sears and Kmart store news a least once a week. We are now down to a meager 17 stores total. I wonder if those Sears stores you mentioned will reopen. The US mainland stores that remain have been downsized significantly so it would not be a surprise if the reopened stores were just a small shop with consignment items.
DeleteI forgot to ask ion the previous comment how was everything else with your Portland trip? I have seen a lot of negative news on Portland over the past few years.
Willowbrook is one of the malls that could go either way. They have strong competition from all over the place and recent high-profile crimes have hurt the reputation of the area. On the other hand, the mall has some of the most sought-after retailers such as Nordstom Rack, Zara, Dillard's, and two Macy's stores. I can also see Macy's downsizing back to one location and the Sears vacancy dragging down that side of the mall. So it is a toss-up I guess. I can see the Grand Parkway developments draining the life out of the older shopping centers like the inner-city malls were drained by the Beltway 8 and beyond developments. Deerbrook is the most endangered by the Grand Parkway developments IMO. I think that one more anchor leaving Deerbrook would more than start a huge decline at the mall if that happens. Willowbrook would also get a boost if Deerbrook declines since it is not too far away. I think Willowbrook needs a little bit more to keep the future secure.