Here is a short teaser article to see what I have been documenting behind the scenes. My apologies to the readers of this blog for my long absence since posting my 15th anniversary Sears article back in April. At the moment, I don't have enough free time for a complete post, so here is a quick look at some things until I can put together another full post.
Lufkin Atwoods in the former Kmart.
After 7 long years the Kmart space has been filled with this brand new Atwoods store. The store opened on May 15, 2024. Atwoods is a variety store that carries so many products. This renovated space is the best-case scenario for the old Kmart space. Unfortunately, this shopping center will have another large space to fill once Conn's closes in the near future.
Former electronics department.
This was the wall where the 90's images were up until the very end of the Kmart. Too bad Atwoods doesn't have an electronics department.
Hertz Tower (Capital One Tower) demolition scheduled for September 7th in the morning. While this is not a retail related story, this tower has dominated the skyline of Downtown Lake Charles for as long as I can remember. This 22-story building opened in 1983 and was heavily damaged in 2020 from Hurricane Laura, with further damage occurring from Hurricane Delta just a few weeks later. From what I can find online, the economics of fixing up the building were not there, so the decision was made to demolish the building and open up the site for future redevelopment.
Post Oak Mall former Sears now Murdoch's Ranch and Home.
Murdoch's opened on January 30, 2024. About half of the former Sears building was converted into a Conn's HomePlus store. The remainer of the building sat vacant for 5 and a half years before Murdochs opening. Now that Conn's is closing, who knows what will take their space. Murdoch's does not open up into the mall.
From my best guess, this is where the electronics department was in the former Sears.
As you can see, the former Bealls and Macy's anchor spots are still vacant. About half of the mall is doing really well, while the other half is somewhat struggling. There is also a small Entertainmart store near the Dillard's Womens store, but the selection of items is pretty small in comparison to the stores we have visited before.
Greenspoint Mall May 2024 visit.
This was one visit for the ages and possibly my last visit to the mall. As was reported late last month, the mall was originally scheduled to close on June 30th. The date was moved to July 31st per the initial news reports. A couple of days later, the news reports changed the closing date to August 31st. I will try to make another visit later this month, so if the mall is still open, we will get more photos. If not, you will not be disappointed with the coverage from the May trip.
The food court doors had been screwed shut so only 2 entrances remained open to the public. Not sure if that is actually up to fire code, but this is not the first mall I have seen something like this at before.
Per a Jimmy Jazz employee, Finish Line had been broken into a couple of weeks earlier and the decision was made to close the store immediately.
Both open mall entrances have boarded up windows with broken glass.
The former Foley's Macy's building is in very poor condition.
The crumbling Sears building with the new mixed-use development just a few feet away.
Water gushing out next to the former Dillard's/Joskes.
Closed off mall entrance near the former Dillard's/Joskes. This is probably a preview as to how the mall will look once the rest is closed off.
Redbox out of business. Even though it has been years since I rented a Redbox movie, these were a convenient option once Blockbuster closed their stores. Here are a couple of different kiosks that I photographed last month once the Chapter 7 bankruptcy of the company was announced.
Walmart Porter Texas
Randalls Flagship Champions Village.
Sadly, the store had some water leaking through the ceiling a few days after Hurricane Beryl.
Conn's HomePlus Humble Texas.
As many of my readers will know, Conn's has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and is in the early stages of a complete liquidation of the company. I will do my best to document at least one Conn's store. We didn't shop very often at Conn's, but they were one of the few companies that were moving into empty mall anchor stores. The closure of this company is hitting Texas especially hard since there are 80 stores in the state.
Round 1 North Star Mall San Antonio
You may be asking yourself, why does this matter? Well, I am proud to share the news that Deerbrook Mall is getting the first Houston area location of Round 1. It remains to be seen as to what space they will occupy, but the mall website already lists them as a tenant. Construction is scheduled to start this month with an opening date in 2025. This is currently my only photo of a Round 1 location. This company has been expanding to a lot of malls and we will finally have one here as well.
99 Cents only conversion to Ollie's Atascocita (Humble) Texas
The conversion to Ollie's for the former 99 cents only store that closed in June is well underway. In early August, we can see that the store has already received shelving and stock. The purple lines have been painted over with red paint as well. The Humble location of 99 Cents only will become a Dollar Tree (not pictured)
Looks very close to opening already, they are not wasting any time here.
The last remnant of the 99 cents only store.
One last news story, the long-delayed Taco Bueno in Humble is now open. This strip of restaurants on FM 1960 just North of the airport has been growing steadily. One of the few remaining Krispy Kreme doughnuts in the Houston area is in this strip as well. If we can only get In and Out, Bojangles, and Del Taco (please come back to Houston!) in the area as well it would be fantastic news. In and Out's expansion is very similar to what we saw with Raising Canes, NE Houston was last on their list. Now Raising Canes has 3 locations in the area with constant drive through lines and decent dine-in traffic as well.
Hope everyone enjoyed this quick look at some happenings around.
These are some great photos, I am looking forward to seeing all of these posts when you get a chance to post them! We’ll start with the biggest of the news stories, the news about Greenspoint Mall closing. I believe my last visit to Greenspoint was in 2016. The food court was still hanging on at that point, but maybe Exxon hadn’t moved out yet by then. Regardless, the mall, and the Macy’s that was still open then, were in pathetic shape even then. Sadly, with the mall having been in bad shape for around 20 years now, my last visit in 2016 reminded me more of memories of Greenspoint in bad shape rather than of Greenspoint’s glory years long before. With the closure of the Foley’s and other decay, I just didn’t see any point in going back and it is a bit surprising the mall hung on for another 8 years. It sounds like you got some great photos from there so I can’t wait to see what you might have unearthed there.
ReplyDeleteI am a little surprised that Greenspoint is supposedly closing before Macroplaza Mall does, but I’m only a little surprised. Both of those malls, along with what’s left at West Oaks, hardly constitute malls anymore. There was a recent article in the Chronicle about the current state of West Oaks. Once those three close for good, and West Oaks may already be there, I guess we don’t really have any endangered malls in the Houston area. Almeda Mall might be teetering on that status if the Macy’s closes, but hopefully that won’t happen. Given some of the promises Macy’s has made about closing stores, however, it certainly seems plausible.
I remember us discussing Conn’s many years back and whether they were biting off more than they could chew with their big expansion and if centering their business on in-house financing was a smart move. I guess we got our answer. That is unfortunate because although I don’t really like what Conn’s became with their high-pressure sales tactics and elimination of most electronics, they did end up filling parts of old Sears in a few places and it is sad to see another hardlines retailer go down. It does look like they tried to expand too fast and I’m sure their in-house financing became more of a liability once interest rates went up. As I said at HHR, we did buy a couple of things from Conn’s back in the 1990s when they had some good higher-end electronics, but that seems like quite a distant memory from Conn’s as they are now. Hopefully Best Buy can survive, they are our last hope in many ways.
I wasn’t expecting to see photos of the Champions Randall’s! That is unfortunate about the storm damage, hopefully they were able to fix that quickly. I was at that Randall’s just the day before Beryl. As for Redbox, it has been a long time since I’ve seen a crowd, or even an individual person, standing at a Redbox machine like we used to see at McDonald’s back in the late 2000s/early 2010s when it seemed like the Redbox machine was the hottest place in town. Randall’s trying to get people to buy theater gift cards instead of using Redbox is pretty funny.
Speaking of movie theaters, I believe the new Mall of the Mainland theater finally opened. I’m not optimistic about how that theater will do when the people in that area are used to that theater being a discount Cinemark, but we’ll see.
The only Round 1 I’ve personally seen was at the former Sears at Vancouver Mall which I went to last year. It looked like it was doing well so that might be a promising redevelopment option for some malls. As for Taco Bueno, I ate at the one which briefly existed on 242 in The Woodlands in the late 2000s. It wasn’t anything memorable, but maybe they’ll be more successful this time. As for Krispy Kreme, there was recent news that the owner of a Krispy Kreme in Bryan-College Station was arrested for torching his own store. I’m guessing business wasn’t going well if he had to resort to such a measure, but somehow the Humble location has managed to stay open.
As of my visit yesterday, Greenspoint Mall is indeed permanently closed. I did a full perimeter walkaround of the mall. Macy's reeks of mold and appears to have more damage from the recent hurricane. Pretty much every entrance to the mall is boarded up and chained or bolted closed.
DeleteRumors are picking up about the Almeda Macy's being on the 150-store closure list. The Pearland Town Center store is also on that list, but for now nothing is confirmed. If Macy's does close, Almeda will definitely die out. Almeda as of late 2023 reminds me of a slightly better version of Northwest just prior to Macy's closing there.
I was very surprised to hear about Conn's closing. It seemed like the chain was still in growth mode, but the purchase of Badcock Furniture had to be the final nail in their coffin. Retail Archeology put it best in his video about Conn's. Boring furniture choices and not a lot of excitement in the store. Looking online, there are not many videos about Conn's. The few that exist are of negative experiences with the chain. Maybe this will be a chance for the rent-to-own stores to expand, but a lot of the Conn's locations will be vacant for years to come.
We were coming back from an evening out back-to-school shopping and I needed a couple of items. Since all of the grocery stores close at 11pm, the trip to Randalls at 10:30pm worked out. There are a few Redboxes still working including the one next to the old Sears on Shepherd. You can only buy the remaining movies for $3.99 or $4.99 each. Now I didn't travel to see a Redbox, but I had to park at the CVS to walk and see the old Sears demolition. At this point, you can see into the Sears store pretty clearly.
Mall of the Mainland continues to re-invent itself. Do you know if anything has happened with the old Macy's building since all of the tenants either closed or moved out?
After years and years of rumors that the community college in that area, the College of the Mainland, would move some of their programs from the old La Marque VF Gulfway Outlet Mall to the Mall of the Mainland, that finally became reality a couple of years ago. I believe a sizable chunk of the old Foley's, probably the part that became the Palais Royal, is now being used by the college for the cosmetology school stuff they formerly had at the VF Outlet. I've heard that the college is also starting a culinary school at the Mall of the Mainland, but I don't know if that will be in the Foley's or in the mall's food court area.
DeleteThe World Gym that moved from the Foley's to the old Sears seems to continue to grow. The parking lot around the old Sears is often quite packed in the afternoons when I've driven by there. It is quite a stark difference from when it was actually a Sears, that's for sure.
That Pearland 'kind-of' mall has to be one of the biggest wasted opportunities in this area. I had not heard that the Macy's there might close. It would be a bit surprising if both the Pearland and Almeda Mall Macy's close since they do overlap that area a bit, but I suppose Baybrook Mall is such a strong performer that they can pick up the slack and cover the entire Southeast segment. If I lived in Pearland, I'd rather go to Baybrook and visit a real mall than that lifestyle center joke. Who thought that would be a good idea in a place with weather like we have?
Given Conn's business direction, they became quite similar to an Aaron's type operation in the 2000s and 2010s. Speaking of Aaron's, about five years ago, they spun off the finance services side of the company since it was doing a lot better than the retail and real estate side. The idea was to let the financing side work with multiple retailers since there was growth potential there. Given that, it wouldn't surprise me if Aaron's fades away as well. The era of retailers severely overcharging people with bad credit might be fading away, but hopefully those with credit issues will still be able to get financing...ideally through retailers offering more sane pricing and service. As we know, given the low quality of modern appliances and furniture, buying 20 year old used stuff cheap just doesn't work for low-income people the way it used to and so they are forced to rely on questionable financing deals on even more questionable goods.
It is kind of funny that the Mall of the Mainland is once again taking business away from the old Outlet Mall again. Mall of the Mainland has finally become the place to be that it never was as a retail mall.
DeletePearland really should have an indoor mall. The Bass Pro at 288 and the Beltway was supposed to be part of a major retail mall or lifestyle center that never happened. Southbrook was the other mall that almost happened near Pearland. I think that any hope of a mall in the area disappeared once JCPenney went into the big box shopping center around 2005. I am not sure if the Pearland Town Center has ever achieved full occupancy, it is not like the outdoor outlet malls and other town centers that have a lot of cover from the elements. It is an open streetscape and not nearly as much space for retailers along the main corridor like you would have at an indoor mall. The Macy's as of late 2022, was looking worn down inside and somewhat devoid of merchandise. The Macy's Backstage was the only part of the store that was fully stocked. Maybe they tried limiting inventory to make the store look high class in comparison to Almeda, who knows.
Inflation has hit so hard this time around that people just don't have any room for adding extra monthly bills to their expenses. Tax time purchases are still going strong, but not financing. Another thing is that a lot of such as TV's items are so cheap these days that you can replace things without resorting to financing. And yet another thing is that you can use online payment services to buy things in 4 payments easily without all of the hassle. And finally, a lot of families are in debt already. Conn's and Aaron's business model just doesn't work in this day and age.
Did not know that the Capital One Tower was going to be imploded. A loss for the LC skyline. Sad!
ReplyDeleteIt really is, you would think that they could have saved it for another use.
DeleteI do find it curious that the upcoming Ollie's store has a set of old Ross carts instead of the new Ollie's-branded carts they have been using for the past three years. They probably came from Ollie's that upgraded it's fleet.
ReplyDeleteIt is strange that they don't have the 99 cent store carts. I have been to Ollies stores that were former Toys R Us locations with different shopping carts and stores that were not former Toys R Us locations with TRU carts. It is random, just like the inventory at the stores.
DeleteThe ones that were at this former location were probably already auctioned off, another retailer picked them up, and they could be anywhere in the country. However most of the Ollies fixtures are fairly predictable (mostly common big box store fixtures).
DeleteThey got that Ollie's up and running quickly. Less than 2 months after 99 cents only closed, they were open. You are right, they had everything trucked in for a quick setup.
DeleteI had no idea Conn's was doing that bad!
ReplyDeleteSame here, this was a huge surprise. Conn's was still growing, but I suspect their recent purchase of Badcock Furniture quickly put them in a bind.
DeleteHere's a quick update, this is unofficial, but I have seen paperwork indicating that Round One is coming to Willowbrook Mall in a space owned by a TransformCo holding company so it'll likely be in part of the old Sears. I suspect that will be a similar situation as Deerbrook Mall.
ReplyDeleteI just found an article published yesterday that shows Willowbrook will get a 100,000 square foot Round one and Deerbrook will get a 24,000 square feet location. I highly suspect that the former Palais Royal will get the Round one. The former Sears is listed at 140,000 square feet. Palais Royal stores were roughly 20,000 square feet. The former Palais Royal also has an exterior entrance. It sucks that Deerbrook gets the smaller location, this side of town really needs more entertainment options for kids, teenagers, and young adults. Granted there is a Main event one exit over, but Deerbrook really needs to inject some life into the Sears side of the mall.
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