Sadly I didn't experience West Oaks Mall for myself before its closure, but I wanted to give writing a short history about it a run. Yes, I know Historic Houston Retail has written about this one before and is longer, but this one covers a few different things without going over the same territory.
There were two things that set West Oaks Mall apart from its competition. The first being that it was the only regional mall in Houston that wasn't on a freeway (Pasadena Town Square wasn't on the same level as other Houston malls) and was the only mall to have a Saks Fifth Avenue, other than Saks Fifth Avenue Center, of course.
The mall featured Foley's (which opened two years earlier in 1982 and was their design with a large center area with escalators and elevators, though only Greenspoint Mall and San Jacinto Mall had a similar design locally), Lord & Taylor, Saks Fifth Avenue (a small two-story store opened in August 1983, only about 75,000 square feet), and Mervyn's, a new entrant in the Houston department store rolls but one that didn't match the other decidedly upscale stores. Palais Royal also served as a junior anchor, as well as a movie theater (West Oaks 7) and spaces for two more department stores. With an "old Mexico" styled interior and a large food court, West Oaks seemed to be destined for success...
...but due to the oil glut and subsequent economic crash, West Oaks Mall lost a lot of cachet and a planned fifth department store, Macy's, was scrapped. In April 1990, Lord & Taylor announced it would close by the end of the month, leaving just The Galleria location (their stores at Greenspoint Mall and Memorial City Mall had closed the previous year) and was replaced by a J.C. Penney by year-end. Just a week after Lord & Taylor made their announcement, Saks Fifth Avenue announced they would close as well. While losing half of its anchors in such a short time would be a death blow, not only did J.C. Penney open as scheduled but the Saks would be replaced by a prototype Sears store that only sold clothing. (Despite looking significantly nicer than typical Sears stores at the time, it didn't exactly excite investors, nor did Sears promise more of the same). Things continued to look up for the downscaled West Oaks when Dillard's signed on as the fifth department store in January 1991, opening a brand-new store in October 1991. It was the first store that Dillard's opened in Houston that wasn't a converted Joske's. Despite the loss of the nicer department stores, West Oaks remained a solid mall to the western suburbs of Houston. It is at this point I have to share with you an early 1994 directory of West Oaks Mall featuring their five department stores—Sears Apparel, JCPenney, Dillard's, Foley's, and Mervyn's originally printed in the Houston Chronicle.
Birraporetti's (which at one time featured half a dozen locations in Houston) would be the only full-service restaurant that the mall would ever have. It opened in 1984 with the mall and closed in the mid-1990s (and briefly reopened in the mid-2000s in the same spot after being abandoned for about a decade). Also note the presence of Two Pesos, much like what Town & Country Mall had. This was the last Two Pesos in operation (it closed that year), though by that time it was Taco Cabana in all but name.
The 1990s were good to West Oaks Mall. It may have lost its nicer anchors but was doing fine otherwise. Its nearest competition, Memorial City Mall and Town & Country Mall were cannibalizing each other being too close, and beyond that, there was Westwood Mall and Sharpstown Center, also in competition but in considerably worse shape. The crowning achievement to West Oaks Mall came in 1996 when Sears built a physical expansion to their store to convert Sears Apparel to a regular (full) Sears store at 100,000 square feet. With the conversion completed, Sears did throw a grand opening event, but it was the last full-line Sears store built in Houston (if you didn't count Pasadena Town Square, which relocated to the mall).
That was precisely when the trouble started. The year 1996 was when First Colony Mall opened in Sugar Land. It had the same anchors West Oaks did (minus Sears) but was on Southwest Freeway. Its better location (and likely better store conditions), along with more favorable demographics drew shoppers from the area, permanently putting the troubled malls further up Southwest Freeway, Westwood Mall (Dillard's and Sears) and Sharpstown Center (Montgomery Ward, JCPenney, and Foley's) into a tailspin. In 1999, Katy Mills opened up to the west, and while it didn't compete directly with West Oaks Mall, the exciting anchor stores and outlet malls still put the hurt on West Oaks Mall. Meanwhile, to the northeast, Memorial City Mall defeated its rival Town & Country Mall and did a massive expansion, emerging as a large mall with six anchors (Sears, Target, Lord & Taylor, Foley's, Dillard's, and Mervyn's). All of these adversely affected West Oaks Mall. The first casualty to the mall would be Palais Royal, which moved out in 2001 but was quickly replaced with Linens 'n Things. To stem the bleeding and compete a bit better with its competition, the mall was completely redone in a "Texas Ranch" style in 2004 which unfortunately did little to stem the decline of shoppers. The only real new thing was that Austin-based Alamo Drafthouse took over and renovated the movie theater, which helped retain at least the theater's popularity.
With the First Colony Mall store doing well and a new store at Memorial City Mall planned for 2006, JCPenney relocated out of the mall to Katy in 2005. The same year Mervyn's closed ahead of the other Houston stores (allegedly to make room for Steve & Barry's University Sportswear, which replaced it). Steve & Barry's of course went bankrupt in 2009 (same time as Linens 'n Things), and shortly after the whole wing was demolished for a "lifestyle center" wing anchored by Regal Edwards West Oaks Mall Stadium 14. The mall went more and more downhill. In 2010 (before the new theater opened) Dillard's (which again, had stores at First Colony and Memorial City) downgraded to a one-story Dillard's Clearance Center and I believe that Macy's (converted from Foley's in 2006) would also downgrade their store to a clearance center, at least a de facto one. Palais Royal did reopen in 2011 in their old spot, but by this time everything was looking more and more ragged by the year. A location of Fortis College moved into the former JCPenney (I don't think they opened any mall access). Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill replaced Alamo Drafthouse in 2013 but closed within a few years (don't worry West Oaks Mall, it's not just you), with Electric Cowboy taking its place several years later (2022) but also closing within a few months.
Macy's, Sears, and Dillard's Clearance Center soldiered on. However, Macy's, like JCPenney and Dillard's before it had two better stores to the north and south, and closed in 2017, getting replaced in 2018 with "The Outlet at West Oaks", a locally-owned retailer (same family that purchased the mall) that sold discounted apparel and other goods. Sears didn't have a First Colony Mall store, but the Memorial City and First Colony stores went under that year from its parent company bankruptcy. A few years later, Palais Royal would close as well for good (parent company Stage Stores' bankruptcy) and be replaced with Crazy Boss. The new movie theater closed in fall 2022 and in summer 2023 the whole mall was said to be shuttered though was quickly refuted by mall management, citing access to a few in-line tenants, even though parts of the mall are sealed off.
Either way, the prognosis is grim.
