The Commons At Greenspoint

[IronTiger]

 

A while back I did some posts from 1989 microfilms, including Children's Palace.

 

Today's post is on The Commons at Greenspoint, a shopping center built to complement Greenspoint Mall. Of course, by the time it was built, Greenspoint was already in decline and ended up lasting less than 10 years as its major anchors soon folded after completion. I got a 1990-91 directory (not mine to keep, just to look at) to try to get some of the tenants here. Unfortunately, I can't match them up to the picture above nor could find the address of Phar-Mor, which was also at the center. Here we go...the directory.

 

12001 - Media Play (likely former Phar-Mor, see below)

12009 - Suzannes Shops

12025 - Office Depot

12031 - Sportstown (this was once a pretty major sporting goods store in the early 1990s in the Houston area...I wonder what happened to them)

12061 - Highland Superstore (went bankrupt in 1992 and closed all stores by the end of 1993)

12075 - Cloth World (opened 10,000 square foot store in 1990)

12145 - Houston Photolab (this is probably one of the smaller stores)

12159 - Hit or Miss (another small store, this was similar to T.J. Maxx and owned by the same company, but smaller)

12167 - Sound Warehouse

12175 - Marshalls

12181 - Pier One Imports (this is almost certainly that green-roofed building, Pier One stores in the early 1990s/late 1980s were built like that)

12231 - Marcos Mexican Restaurant

12245 - Children's Palace (closed in 1992)

 

Phar-Mor was also in the center but I was unable to get a number for it. The center is gated off today but some of the addresses are still there, the building at the north end is 12095 as per Street View. Numbers in bold were other addresses collected from the newspaper.

 

This newspaper snippet may help figure out what was what based on sizes of the building.

 

Anchor tenants include Phar-Mor drugs at 51,000 square feet, Sportstown at 50,000 square feet, Children's Palace at 36,000 square feet, Highland Appliance at 27,000 square feet, Marshall s Department Store at 27,000 square feet, Office Depot at 24,000 square feet and Sound Warehouse at 12,000 square feet. The center will be on 22 acres on I-45 and Beltway 8. Total project cost is $22 million.

 

Other bits:

- Clothestime was here (clothing store), it closed in 1995

- By 1996, Media Play was closed along with other Houston locations ( Almeda Square, Memorial City Mall, Meyer Park Center, Presidio Square and Westchase Center.)

- There was also a store here called Computer City.

- When the center was sold in 1998 to be a telecommunications center, Office Depot was still there.

 

Phar-Mor was probably at the southwest corner, as it is the largest and would make sense if it's 12001...Media Play had similar square footage as it (45k-66k) and wasn't listed in the original plan.
 

[mkultra25]

5 hours ago, IronTiger said:

12031 - Sportstown (this was once a pretty major sporting goods store in the early 1990s in the Houston area...I wonder what happened to them)

 

Sportstown went bankrupt, and the leases on most of their stores wound up being acquired by the Sports Authority and Oshman's:

 

http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/1995/07/31/Sponsorships-Advertising-Marketing/SPORTSTOWN-SALE-COMPLETE-SPORTS-AUTHORITY-GAINS-7-STORES.aspx

 

Despite having grown up in the area, most of my memories of The Commons are from when it was a telecom center. Enron Broadband's Houston POP was located there, and I had occasion to visit it a couple of times. It was a nice facility that had lots of room for future growth, none of which came to pass as a result of the well-known unpleasant events that occurred less than a year after the buildout was completed. 

[SpaceGhost]

I remember that Enron location! It's sign stayed up a bit post bankruptcy, and IIRC the office itself may have stayed open slightly longer than the rest of the company? Not sure though.

 

I found an interesting article, which is very long but goes into detail about why Greeenspoint failed.

 

I copied the section directly relevant to this article.

 

Quote

Another less obvious feature of Greenspoint's landscape is its capacity to host high-tech companies. In addition to its proximity to HL&P's main power pipeline, Greenspoint is home to the convergence of major fiber-optic conduits from Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and New Orleans.

Formerly a retail space, the new Greenspoint Technology Center at Beltway 8 and I-45 is now an Internet/telecommunications switching site and home to tech companies such as Enron Broadband, Splitrock and Level 3 Communications.

"We didn't plan that," says Drake of Greenspoint's underground resources. "But we we're the beneficiary. There's a terrific amount of redundancy here in terms of electrical power and fiber optic cable, which makes this area very attractive to industries that rely on those assets."

 

 

As well, the center wasn't fully redeveloped until around 2012 or so. So if you check out Streetview you can see old buildings!

[intencity77]

23 hours ago, IronTiger said:

Phar-Mor was probably at the southwest corner, as it is the largest and would make sense if it's 12001...Media Play had similar square footage as it (45k-66k) and wasn't listed in the original pla

 

Level 3 Communications took the former Phar-Mor space which was located in the middle of the center. I believe the southwest corner anchor was Sportstown. 

[Firebird65]

Yes, the PharMor was the big stand-alone building in the southwest corner. It was a pretty big store. I remember Media Play, but I can't remember if I went to that one at Greenspoint Commons or the one in Westchase, as I've lived in both areas.I thought Media Play was pretty cool. Since it didn't last long, I guess I was about the only one.

 

I also liked Marco's Mexican Restaurant. Sure, there were some great and actually better places along Fulton (Doneraki's) and Navigation (Ninfa's), but we had to drive to those. But Marco's was close and one of the first chain places (not saying the only, but one of the first) that helped get lots of ordinary Houstonians interested in other Mexican food besides the ever-present Tex-Mex combo dinner (enchilada/tamale/taco). Nothing wrong with the combo. Don't get me wrong. 

 

Now the first time I was introduced to something other than the combo plate was in 1980 during the Astros/Phillies playoff series. My family took some visitors to a Mexican restaurant on I-45 at FM 1960. I believe it is called Ixtapa now. It might well have been a Ninfa's in 1980, but I'm not sure. It was definitely different than Monterrey House. LOL! 

[mkultra25]

20 hours ago, SpaceGhost said:

I remember that Enron location! It's sign stayed up a bit post bankruptcy, and IIRC the office itself may have stayed open slightly longer than the rest of the company? Not sure though.

 

The network was shut down several months after the bankruptcy filing, but there were a handful of employees that were retained for some time afterward to assist with administrative tasks and asset sales associated with the bankruptcy proceedings. Not sure how long the Greenspoint facility was actually occupied, as there were at least a couple of other facilities (NOC and leased space at a data center) that Enron Broadband had in addition to offices at 1400 Smith.