Mall of the Mainland

The Mall of the Mainland was a shopping mall located off the Emmett F. Lowry Expressway near Interstate 45 (Gulf Freeway) in Texas City, Texas. It was opened in 1991. The mall has 800000sqft of space. The mall is anchored by Sears, Palais Royal, and Cinemark Movies 12, and was closed in late 2014 due to declining tenancy before re-development began in 2015.HistoryThe Mall of the Mainland, developed by a joint venture of Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. and the MG Herring Group, opened in 1991. Dillard's and Sears purchased space at the mall in the 1980s. JCPenney was the third anchor circa 1989. An expansion was made to the mall with the addition of a Foley's store in 1994. The developers spent $200 per 1sqft in the development; Joelle Verbecke, a director of acquisitions at the Yari Group, said in 2002 that the $200 per square foot figure was "a hefty sum that means the developers constructed a high-quality mall." J.P. Morgan Chase Bank was the lender.Failing on the riseIn 1997 the bank took over the mall, because, as Ralph Bivins of the Houston Chronicle said in 2002, "the developer failed to make it a highly successful retail venture." A subsidiary of the bank owned the mall. Verbecke said that the bank had no interest in making significant improvements and marketing the Mall of the Mainland and that the mall "suffered from being institutionally owned."An investment group headed by Bob Yari and Kam Mateen bought the Mall of the Mainland in May 2002. The major anchor tenants, such as Dillard's, Foley's, and J.C. Penney, continued to own their own buildings within the complex, while the joint venture owned the rest of the mall and leased to restaurants and smaller stores. The group purchased 312500sqft of retail space and 32acre of land at the Mall of the Mainland, allowing the group to sell parcels to allow for the development of free-standing retailers and restaurants. Bivins said that the exact sales price had not been disclosed and that the sales price was less than the price it cost to build the mall.