Willowbrook Mall (Houston)

History

Ground for Willowbrook was broken in 1979. The mall was developed by Homart Development Company, a unit of Sears. Architectonics, Inc. of Chicago was the architect. It opened in 1981, a time of high growth for the area, with anchors Foley's, Montgomery Ward, and Sears. Joske's opened a store in 1983, along with Macy's in 1984, and JCPenney added a store in 1992, bringing the total number of anchor stores to 6.

The mall was sold to a group of investors in 1990. The mall underwent extensive remodeling in 1992.

Joske's was bought by Dillard's in 1987. After opening a larger location in 1997 that was originally occupied by Macy's, Dillard's planned to operate its original Joske's location featuring a men's department and housewares and stock the usual merchandise in the space formerly occupied by Macy's. However, Dillard's abandoned plans to operate 2 stores at the mall in 1998 and sold the original Joske's store to Lord & Taylor, which opened a 122212 sqft store later the same year. As part of May Department Stores' reconfiguration of Lord & Taylor, the store was closed in January 2004, and the location eventually became Nordstrom Rack.

Montgomery Ward closed its store in March 2001 after the company went out of business. The store was taken over by Foley's in 2003. In 2006, the two Foley's stores became Macy's.

In 2001, the mall was acquired by General Growth Properties from a pension fund managed by Lend Lease Real Estate Investments Inc. At that time the mall was "one of the most successful retail shopping malls in Houston, consistently ranking near the Houston Galleria, Memorial City Mall and Baybrook Mall as one of the area's top-grossing malls per square foot, producing sales of about $430 per square foot". Dillard's completed a renovation of its store the same year, expanding it by 50%.

In April 2015, Lush opened a store in the mall.

In October 2016, the mall added Dick's Sporting Goods. Zara also opened a location in the mall in 2016.

In 2017, Think Geek and Charlotte Russe opened stores at the mall.

On February 6, 2020, it was announced that Sears would be closing as part of a plan to close 31 stores nationwide. The store closed in April 2020. The former Sears was redeveloped into a Round1 Entertainment Center arcade which opened on December 20, 2025.

References

References

1. "Willowbrook Mall (Houston)".
2. "Willowbrook Mall". [[Brookfield Properties]].
3. (November 24, 2000). "Largest Area Shopping Centers And Malls". [[American City Business Journals]].
4. "Apr 29, 1979, page 4 - The Galveston Daily News at Newspapers.com".
5. Elder, Laura. (March 6, 1998). "Department store chains play retail roulette in Willowbrook". [[American City Business Journals]].
6. Wollam, Allison. (October 23, 2006). "Willowbrook Lord & Taylor faces wrecking ball". [[American City Business Journals]].
7. Rutledge, Tanya. (March 30, 2001). "Popular mall sells for $145 million". [[American City Business Journals]].
8. (April 14, 2015). "Lush open in Willowbrook Mall". [[Houston Chronicle]].
9. Smith, Mike D.. (November 30, 2015). "Dick's Sporting Goods expands to metro Houston with five stores". [[Houston Chronicle]].
10. Smithwick, Danica. (October 4, 2016). "DICK'S Sporting Goods to open at Willowbrook Mall in late October". [[Community Impact Newspaper]].
11. Furr, Laura. (April 12, 2016). "Zara to open latest Houston store in newly renovated mall". [[American City Business Journals]].
12. Holt, Vanessa. (July 19, 2017). "Two new stores opening at Willowbrook Mall this fall". [[Community Impact Newspaper]].
13. "Sears and Kmart store closings continue. Is your location closing in early 2020?".
14. "Analysis of Present States and Future Prospects".
15. Aguilar, Jovanna. (2025-05-13). "Round1 coming soon to Willowbrook Mall".