Sep 14
Frank Sharp celebrated the opening of Sharpstown Center, Houston’s first enclosed air-conditional mall, on this day in 1961 with a crowd of 8,000 and a speech by Ted Kennedy, the brother of the then-president.
Sharp, who also developed the surrounding southwest Houston residential community named for him, lured department stores Foley’s and Battelstein’s to the 65-acre site along the new Southwest Freeway at Bellaire Boulevard. It was the first time that the two well-known Houston stores had opened outside the Loop.
That was 63 years ago, and the mall has undergone signiticant changes, including a successful rebranding as PlazAmericas 15 years ago to appeal to the Latino population, which now make up 65% of the Sharpstown community, according to the Houston Planning and Development Department.
The Sharpstown neighborhood was just a few years old and mostly white when the shopping center opened with more than 40 stores including variety store Kresge and Wyatt’s Cefeteria. A second lever with a food court was added in 1980. But even a $50 million makeover in 1993 wasn’t enough to stop a decline that began in the late 1980s.
Competition from First Colon y Mall in Sugar Land dealt a blow when it opened in 1996. Sharpstown’s JCPenney closed in 1998, followed by Montgomery Ward in 2001. The Macy’s store, the successor to Foley’s, left in 2008.
A Burlington department store has replaced Montgomery Ward, and Clarewood Supermercado occupies the former JCPenney. The onetime Macy’s, under separate ownership from the mall, is a growing mix of a food court, a kids playground and individual retailers including a Western-wear store and jewelers selling bejeweled grillz that are worn on teeth.
In total, there are more than 200 retailers in the center.
On a recent Sunday, the mall was filled with families shopping for sneakers and quinceañera gowns, children carrying balloon animals, and others learning to dance on a stage inside the center’s food court with a bilingual instructor.
“It’s a unique mall where you find a family experience,” said Veronica Galvan, marketing manager for PlazAmericas, noting that there are events with things like arts and crafts projects, face painting, musicians and clowns every weekend. “Families here feel really welcome. You have shopping, fun and food in the same place.”
Esmeralda Uribe enjoyed the dance show while eating flautas and pupusas with her sister and two young children.
“We bring them so they can actually eat and enjoy the music,” Uribe said. “There’s a lot of choices of food as well.”
Jason Baker, principal of Houston-based Baker Katz commercial real estate firm, which acquired the main building excluding the anchors about five years ago, said the center has been adding stores — even as many retailers have abandoned malls after COVID.
“It never has shown more leasing momentum than it has right now,” Baker said.
The mall’s occupancy now exceeds 80%, up from about 60% when Baker Katz took it over, he said. Among the newer stores are Francesca’s, a Houston-based boutique with stores nationwide, and Show Palace, a family-owned athletic shoe and apparel retailer founded in San Jose, Calif.
The number of shoppers has climbed to 3 million annually from 1.6 million five years ago, Baker said.
Some stores, such as Shining Jewelry, start in a kiosk then open full stores as business grows, Baker said. Others have built a business in PlazAmericas then expanded to other cities.
Entrepreneur Patricia Cohen chose PlazAmericas for her Mega Mangos business five years ago and expanded with Mega Dogs, also in the mall. Her mango store now has locations in Dallas and Fort Worth.
Cohen’s carved mango snacks or hot dogs can be ordered with popular flavors from Latin America, she said, adding, “PlazAmericas feels like welcome home.”