A full color, front panorama of the circa-'60s SHARPSTOWN, the Bayou
City's first fully-enclosed shopping center.
Photo from www.flickr.com/photos/telwink
A westward aerial view of the mall, with Foley's in the foreground. Note
that the Sharpstown State Bank Tower was still under construction.
Photo from http://www.cah.utexas.edu/ (University of Texas at Austin)
This time, an eastward view of the same shopping hub, with Montgomery
Ward and its Auto Center at the forefront.
Photo from http://www.cah.utexas.edu/ (University of Texas at Austin)
A vintage view of the Center Court. The famous Clock of Texas, sporting
all of the flags, is seen in the distance. It revolved, played music and
presented three minute shows depicting the history of the Lonestar
State.
Photo from http://www4.uwm.edu/libraries/digilib (University of
Wisconsin- Milwaukee Libraries Digital Collections)
The office tower at the shopping center, originally housing the
Sharpstown State Bank, was completed in 1962, the year after the mall
opened.
Photo from Wikipedia / "Judah Davis"
Houston's first interior mall, in its original configuration. The complex
was anchored by just two department stores back then...and the
Foley's was much smaller before being expanded two times.
Map by "The Curator" of Mall Hall of Fame
The mall's first movie house, the '60s swanky Sharpstown Gaylynn
Cinerama, opened in May 1965. In June 1980, it hosted the world
premier of John Travolta's "Urban Cowboy".
Photo from www.topcities.com
A circa-1993 layout. This was a couple of years before anchors started
their exodus from the complex. J.C. Penney became the first, in 1998...
followed by Ward's, in 2001. Burlington Coat Factory refilled the empty
west anchor space in 2002 but the one on the north end of the mall
remained vacant. The biggest blow came in 2008, when Macy's (née
Foley's) pulled their proverbial plug.
Map by "The Curator" of Mall Hall of Fame
The main mall entrance, redone as part of the 1993 renovation. Alongwith the remodeling came a new mall moniker... SHARPSTOWN
CENTER.
Photo from www.sharpstowndistrict.com
The restyled east entrance. As a matter of note, the official name of the
shopping venue reverted back to SHARPSTOWN MALL in 2008.
Photo from www.sharpstowndistrict.com
The logo of PLAZAMERICAS, a Mexicano-motif merchandising mecca
being installed in the old SHARPSTOWN center. When fully operational,
it will serve as a community gathering place and entertainment venue.
Graphic from www.grupozocalo.com
A physical layout of Houston's PLAZAMERICAS, a renovation and
remarketing of the old SHARPSTOWN MALL.
Map by "The Curator" of Mall Hall of Fame
SHARPSTOWN MALL
Southwest Freeway / US 59 and Bellaire Boulevard
Houston, Texas
Houston's third shopping mall was a component of a large post war housing development. Sharpstown featured over three thousand housing units and was one of the nation's largest baby boom-era suburbs. At its epicenter was Houston's first fully-enclosed, climate-controlled retail center.
SHARPSTOWN MALL sat upon a seventy acre plot, 8.9 miles southwest of Houston's urban core. Like the subdivision that preceded it, the mall was developed by Houston's Frank Sharp. Its design had been entrusted to Sidney H. Morris and Associates and Claude E. Hooten, Senior.
The single-level shopping center enveloped 760,000 leasable square feet and was anchored by a 2-level (150,000 square foot) Montgomery Ward and 3-level (170,000 square foot), Houston-based Foley's. Junior anchors were a Houston-based Battelstein's department store and Florian's Sharpstown Mini-max supermarket, eventually rebranded as a Food Giant.
Originally, there were fifty-six other inline stores, including Walgreen Drug, Wyatt's Cafeteria, Leopold and Price, Florsheim Shoes, Price and Rolle, Lerner Shops, Chandler's Shoes, Margolis Shoes, Adrien's Fashions and a 45,000 square foot S.S. Kresge. In 1961, this was the largest store in the 5 and 10 chain.
The mall opened, with the typical mid-century media hooplah, September 14, 1961. Massachusetts Senator Edward Kennedy was a guest speaker at the festivities.
In order to improve access to his new shopping center, Frank Sharp donated a three hundred foot wide strip of land for the alignment of the proposed Southwest Freeway / US 59. The new expressway was extended to an exit at Bellaire Boulevard / SHARPSTOWN MALL on August 1, 1962.
On May 27, 1965, the center's first cinema opened for business. Built as a northeast parking area outparcel, the Sharpstown Gaylynn Cinerama was originally a single-screen venue. It was twinned in 1975, eventually tripled, and demolished in 1985.
Commercial competitors of SHARPSTOWN MALL were many, as Houston became substantially overmalled in the ensuing years. First in line would have been MEYERLAND PLAZA (1957) {1.9 miles southeast, in Houston}, then NORTHWEST MALL (1968) {7 miles northeast, in Houston}.
The 1970s, '80s and '90s brought WESTWOOD MALL (1975-1998) {2.6 miles southwest, in Houston}, WEST OAKS MALL {7.8 miles northwest, in Harris County}, FIRST COLONY MALL (1996) {10.1 miles southwest, in Sugarland} and, lastly, the FOUNTAINS ON THE LAKE open-air plaza (1997) {6 miles southwest, in Stafford}.
To stave off competition, the first expansion of SHARPSTOWN MALL got underway in 1979. The supermarket on the north side of the center was razed, with a 2-level (177,200 square foot) J.C. Penney taking its place. Foley's, which had been enlarged in 1971, was expanded again, into a 308,000 square foot store.
In addition, the mall, itself was refitted with an upper level of retail. The renovation was completed in 1981. The center now encompassed over one million leasable square feet, with one hundred and thirty-six inline stores. New tenants included The Gap, J. Riggings and Good Time Charley's.
The mall began to falter during the oil bust of the mid-1980s. A fifty million dollar facelift renovation was done in 1993, which added a Food Court and interior-entranced Sharpstown Center 8 multiplex. Moreover, the name of the shopping venue, now housing 1,344,300 leasable square feet, was officially changed to SHARPSTOWN CENTER.
However, by 2001, the mall was in foreclosure. J.C. Penney had shuttered their SHARPSTOWN CENTER store in May 1998. Bankrupt Montgomery Ward shut down completely in January 2001. The center was left with only Foley's to sustain it.
Houston's Tracy Suttles acquired the mall in November 2002. Burlington Coat Factory was recruited to fill the vacant Ward's space. The old Penney's was never retenanted. The corridors and concourses became lined with more and more mom and pop-type stores, as the national mall tenants had long since flown the coup.
Marketed as "Houston's Premier Urban Mall", the fortunes of the once-mighty shopopolis appeared even more bleak. The March 15, 2008 shuttering of Macy's (the former Foley's, rebranded in September 2006) was a major blow. Re-renamed SHARPSTOWN MALL, the center was eventually operating under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
In December 2009, a 10 million dollar reinvention and redevelopment was announced. Spearheaded by the brains behind LA GRAN PLAZA (the old FORT WORTH TOWN CENTER), the mall is being converted to a Latino-oriented shopping and entertainment venue, known as PLAZAMERICAS. Tenants are returning and the nearly-empty food court is coming back to life. Two "Mercados" will be installed. The first of these, Clarewood Mercado, is a "mall-within-a-mall" that, when fully leased, will feature a supermarket, a mini-food court, a laundromat, and several smaller stores. The mall also hosts free live entertainment on weekends, featuring salsa, mariachi, R&B , conjunto and norteno music.
Owned by Philadelphia's RAIT Financial, PLAZAMERICAS is being redeveloped by Grupo Zocalo, a subsidiary of Dallas-based Boxer Property Management.
Sources:
"Sharpstown Mall" article on Wikipedia
http://www.cinematreasures.com/
http://www.topcities.com/
http://www.sharpstowndistrict.com/
http://www.houstonfreeways.com/
Houston Architecture Info Forum / Post by "Sharpfan09"
Malls of America Blogspot / Keith Milford webmaster
Harris County, Texas property tax assessor website
"A Revival In Southwest Houston, Sharpstown Mall Gets A New Name And Life" - Carolyn Gallay / December 22, 2009
http://southernretail.blogspot.com/
