GREENSPOINT MALL

Greenspoint Mall was once one of the premier malls in Houston, but now it's a half-empty mall serving office workers and the nearby apartment dwellers. What happened?

The Past

"The mall had a memorable fountain court which included a restaurant over the waterfall. One could walk through the waterfalls under the cafe. The corridors were lined with full size ficus trees which were decorated with thousands of miniature white lights at Christmas. The mall was designed with a "Central Park" theme. There was a statue/sculpture called "High Flyers" which was dedicated at the mall's opening in 1976 and was anchored in the sculpture court."

Learn more at DeadMalls.com.

The Foley's opened in 1976 as the third-largest store in the chain.

(picture from "davekphoto" via Flickr)

The Present

The mall is now pretty depressing. The official website mostly has second-class tenants. Although the food court continues to do well, the main mall is not doing so well. It is 50% vacant and features many second-class tenants, including a African hair braiding places, offices, bling/urbanwear shops, a school uniform shop, and a few others. The JCPenney wing is completely sealed off.

The Future?

Surprisingly, there is hope for Greenspoint as an enclosed mall. A lifestyle center add-on to Greenspoint Mall called The Renaissance at Greenspoint is finally getting off the ground after being announced three years ago. In July 2009, GlennLock Sports Bar & Grill was announced to be the first Renaissance tenant.

Credits

HoustonArchitecture.com forums helped a lot with the information for this section.