Katy Mills Mall mini-update November 2021

Surprise, surprise......

I had no plans on revising the Katy Mills Mall for the blog, but here we go. An evening late November 2021 visit with a surprise. 

Here is a cool link to past photos of the mall provided by a blog reader "unknown" Katy Mills Shopping Mall (archive.org)

So what is this store and why am I covering it?

Any guesses yet?

Yes here is the reveal, if you didn't already guess it. A new F.Y.E. store. As you may know F.Y.E. has been gone from the Houston area for around a decade now. The original Katy Mills store closed in 2011. This one must be brand new because there is only one review online. 

The store is a lot like the Think Geek stores that were recently closed. There is a lot of collectables, candy, tshirts, records and toys. There are some movies, CD's, audio equipment, and video games. It is really awesome to see this store come back to the Houston area.

The F.Y.E. is a couple of spaces down from the original F.Y.E. location that was here.

Now for some Katy Mills photos. Here is the mall directory. I only snapped a handful of photos of the mall itself. As you may know, the mall was renovated a couple of years ago and all of the 1990's color scheme and neon was taken out. 

This is the massive space where F.Y.E. originally had a store over a decade ago at Katy Mills. There are three entrances to this space (the other entrance is not pictured). As you can see it is now a Tilt Studio. The background of the signage is exactly the same as it was for the F.Y.E. 

Bland mall design with Christmas cheer.

The Food Pavilion. Just call it what it is, a food court!

Sun and Ski Sports, one of the original anchors.

The sitting areas are the only areas with color besides the storefronts themselves.

Bass Pro Shop another original anchor.

The look of the mall is just so bland now.

The main entrance to the mall at the food court has this awesome color changing LED  signage. This is the only mall entrance with this, the others are bland in comparison. One of the road signs also has color changing LED, but I was unable to get a picture of that sign.

All in all, Katy Mills is not much different over the years besides the bland remodel. The anchor lineup features Burlington, Sun and Ski Sports, Bass Pro Shop, AMC, Ross, Books a Million, and Marshall's. Bed Bath and Beyond, Steve and Barry's, and Circuit City have closed over the years, but the anchor lineup has been fairly stable for a 22 year old mall. 

 

Katy Mills

New photos added 8/22/2011

Katy Mills is the newest enclosed mall in the Houston metro area (opened in 1999). It is one of the largest malls in Houston, and the mall is loaded with many outlet stores as well as traditional mall stores. The mall is located in Katy a suburb 30 miles west from the center of Houston. The mall was built before most of the development in that area and was designed to be a tourist destination. Since the mall opened; the area around the mall has seen significant development. The Mills company was taken over by Simon, but the mall has seen little change since the mall opened. The mall is booming in most areas, but there are a few sections of the mall where spaces have sat empty for a while. Many of the Mills malls were built too big for their trade area which has led to these areas of empty space in several of the Mills malls including Katy. Katy Mills does not have any traditional anchors for the center and has mostly discount or big box anchors. The anchors are Outdoor World, Marshalls, Neiman Marcus Clearance, Saks off 5th Clearance, Books A Million, AMC 20, Bed Bath and Beyond, Burlington, Sun and Ski Sports, and Old Navy. Steve and Barry's and Circuit City were anchors that have since closed.

The AMC 20 anchor

Steve and Barry's Labelscar

A Circuit City "The City" location that lasted only a year.

Some night shots of the exterior of the mall.

The mall maps

The food court is the size of a football field, but currently only a handful of restaurants are open.

The FYE was one of the largest I have been to and opened under a different name. This whole section of the mall was themed for entertainment but only an arcade and cinema are left. There were several entertainment businesses in this section of the mall when it opened.

Even though the sign says FYE games; this arcade is now operated by Tilt.

The wing of the movie theater is covered in rotating pattern neon lighting; at night it looks really cool.

Another entrance

This anchor was most recently a Steve and Barrys

A few of the different designs found in the mall on the backside of the mall near Bed Bath and Beyond.

Sun & Ski Sports anchor

Burlington Coat Anchor

Outdoor world anchor

More of the designs near the Bed Bath and Beyond anchor.

This is the kind of photo that dead malls will put up over a closed store, Katy Mills is very much alive though. We are back in the entertainment section of the mall here.

More designs; this is leading towards the Rainforest Cafe.

This is the wing between Outdoor World and Sun & Ski Sports.

More from the Outdoor World Wing.

Just past the Outdoor World Wing; this is the fashion wing with most designer labels located here.

Books a Million anchor

Just past the food court where most of the designer shoe stores are.

Thanks for visiting