Here is another blog post that was found in the blog archives. This is a combination of multiple PlazAmericas Mall visits from 2019-2022. I will provide a 2025 text update at the bottom.
April 2019 The downsizing of Burlington.
Inside of the former MacFrugals next to the Burlington. This building is an extension of the Montgomery Ward anchor and may have been part of the store in the past.
At this time Burlington was downsizing to the first level. Only the bathrooms on the second floor were open.
The gates were closed and eventually the second-floor entrance to Burlington was walled off as you will see below.
June 2020 visit- 7 weeks after covid restrictions on businesses was lifted.
These photos were taken early on a Saturday, when the mall is usually busy. As you can see, a lot of people were still staying home. Some businesses were running on limited hours as well. It was difficult to figure out which businesses were still open. Thankfully, this drop off in business was temporary.
Latino City (former JCPenney and Clairewood Mercado)
The upper hallway near Latino City.
The center court would normally be super busy, but not on this day.
Now just remember as we continue to photograph the mall, this was early in the day just a few weeks after reopening from the Covid restrictions. With the exception of discount retailers and grocery stores, barely anyone was out at the malls. It wasn't until around August that traffic began returning to normal at retailers.
This visit was similar to the visits before the mall was rebranded as PlazAmericas Mall and brought back to life.
The corridor leading to the second floor of the former Macy's.
The food court mural.
Now for the food court.
Normally, this area would be packed on a Saturday.
As you can see below, the old restaurant space below was once again occupied.
A great way to redevelop an odd store space. The Events Center that has since opened.
The retro neon Thirsty's.
The Houston Trade Center redevelopment of the former Macy's took several years.
Here we get a sneak peek inside through a hole in the construction covering.
Back to the mall.
Crazy Boss
As you can see, very few stores were open. Some of the open stores were restricting the amount of people allowed in the store.
Melrose is one of the junior anchors. It took over space that was part of the jewelry center.
365 by Image took over the former Palais Royal junior anchor spot.
GameOn is an obvious rip-off of the Gamestop logo. It is a good retro game store though. Lots of old school games and consoles are available.
Super Nova Furniture took over the former Finger Furniture junior anchor.
At Burlington the entrance was locked off from the mall temporarily.
The forgotten VW Bug, locked up in an old restaurant space.
Now we enter El Mercado where we see more of the same. Most of the businesses were closed temporarily.
A lone business open in this section of El Mercado.
This stage will be unused for quite some time.
The Chapel was open.
Across the hallway, Super Nova Furniture expanded into the former Champs Space.
Going up to the second floor, we see the former Payless.
As surprising as my visit to Deerbrook Mall was in May 2020, this one was eye-opening. Weeks after Covid restrictions were lifted in Texas, malls had not returned to anything close to normal. On a day that was normally busy, most businesses were still closed, and foot traffic was very light. It really started to sink in that we were in for a scary economic future. There was a lot of uncertainty at that time about health, finances, job security, and the future. Scary times in 2020!
Da Shop
The second floor of El Mercado was more of the same. Only one business open that I could find.
One of the cool things they added up here is this indoor soccer field.
The lone open business in the back of El Mercado.
Since the second level of El Mercado has struggled to retain businesses, a lot of space has been opened up for other uses. The soccer field, more seating for the eateries up here. One of the mistakes is that they did not add a direct way up or down inside of El Mercado. You have to walk into the mall to go up on an escalator then walk down on stairs. Or just walk up and down the stairs. Since Burlington closed off their second floor, it really cut off the traffic to this part of the mall.
The stage and lounge.
One more look at the soccer field that was closed off at the time of this visit.
Now let's head back out into the main mall.
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This space has since reopened as a very nice Shoe Palace.
Looking at the center court.
The old Frame-It store front.
Let's check out Latino City inside of the former JCPenney. As you can already tell, the store spaces have been upgraded with wood. New flooring was also in place, covering up the old JCPenney flooring.
I am glad that I took these photos of the escalators. These were removed and replaced with stairs a couple of years ago. I guess the escalators were too costly to keep running.
The store spaces look so much better now after the renovations.
Sadly, as we continue our trek through the market, we see that businesses are closed left and right. Very few places were open.
The food court here was empty despite having 3 restaurants open.
The hallway from the food court to the Clairewood Mercado entrance.
The business variety in here is great. Just about anything you are looking for is here.
Grocery store, food court, dollar store, jewelry, salons, nightclub, clothes, shoes, boots, stereo equipment, retro videogames, toys, tattoo parlors, and washeteria.
Back out into the mall, we are in the center court once again.
The jewelry center corridor that leads to the jewelry center tower.
The former Montgomery Ward auto center in the mall parking lot has been turned into a retail center.
The mall with the Jewelry Center tower.
June 2021 visit.
Business is slowly picking back up to normal.
Foley's labelscar near the food court entrance.
The Houston Trade Center opened up not too long after these photos were taken.
A preview of what was to come. The store spaces inside here are very clean and better looking than the gates in the Mercado.
The second floor still needed work, but it has since opened.
One of the new bar/restaurants at the entrance of the food court.
The cinema reopened with new releases in Spanish. In 2025 the cinema has 4.1 stars on Google.
Yeah, I think they may need to rethink the name of that store Forever 2020 is not what anyone would want.
El Mercado is still going strong on both levels. The second level has some vacancies in the back corner, but the mall corridor on this side is filled up.
This space behind the Houston Trade Center is still sitting vacant and has become an eyesore.
Now for a few peeks outside of the mall.
The parking lot second level. Things are a bit busier up here since the Houston Trade Center opened.
Obvious Foley's labelscar.
Crazy Boss has since expanded into the store space in the left side of this photo.
A better look at the same store space from above.
August 2022
We start inside of the former Macy's space that is now the Houston Trade Center. I found this old Foley's sign at one of the entrances.
Now for the space itself. Much like the former JCPenney, the space has been extensively renovated with store spaces for small businesses.
One of the entrances. The old school look is still intact here.
Old Foley's design on the glass.
New store spaces, new flooring, new paint.
At some of the intersections, there is some greenery and benches.
The main hallway that leads to the mall corridor looks especially fancy. The flooring is nicer, and the store spaces are upgraded.
Here is the comparison.
Main corridor.
Side corridor.
As you can see the side corridors are simpler.
A look inside of some of the businesses.
Another entrance, but it doesn't have the old school look of the first entrance we saw.
There was a crowd here with a small amine and collectors show going on.
The main hallway has a lot of jewelry stores and kiosks.
It is hard to believe this space was a former department store. They really changed the look of this area.
This area is now the staircase leading to the upper and basement levels of the store. In the basement level a church currently operates. On the second floor, there are more businesses like what we see here on the main level. Yes, there is a basement level here which is strange thing in Houston.
A Houston themed barber shop.
The mall entrance. We saw the progress of this area from the other side, now we get to see how nice things look.
This part of the mall was rejuvenated with the opening of the Houston Trade Center.
The second floor was getting close to opening up at this point.
Looking into the second floor which was still under construction and has since opened up for business. Things look so much better from what we saw before with the stripped down interior.
Hopefully these roof leaks were addressed.
One of the storefronts near the food court was being showcased to be rented out.
The second floor near the Houston Trade Center has been a struggle to fill. The food court is angled away from this side of the mall and draws your attention away from this small corridor. The surprising part is that Bath and Body Works has yet to return to the mall. Bath and Body Works closed during the tail end of the Sharpstown era as you can tell by the retro storefront on the left.
In the other side of the mall, the VW Bug that was part of the remodel and rebranding of the mall was still sitting here. A lot of vehicles were set up throughout the mall for kids to explore and pretend to drive.
The hallway near Burlington and El Mercado has struggled to retain businesses. The short-lived restaurant space near the mall entrance is the VW Bug parking space.
The mall directory is really colorful. The stores listed on here do not include the businesses in Latino City, The Houston Trade Center, and El Mercado. There is a lot of variety in the store and restaurant mix as I mentioned before. You never know what you will find.
As of 2025 the mall is doing very well. The Houston Trade Center (former Macy's) and Latino City (former JCPenney) are both filled with a variety of retail and restaurant spaces. The mall food court is still doing great, and the weekend events at the mall are still happening. Burlington downsized to the first floor, but that was to be expected since most older Burlington stores have downsized. The mall still has pockets of empty spaces on the second floor near Burlington and the former Macy's, but the mall is doing much better than it has been in years. A new Shoe Palace opened on the second floor, the Palais Royal was replaced by 365 by Image, and there are a lot of new local businesses in the mall and the Houston Trade Center. I would recommend a visit to check this mall out for yourself.
