Greenspoint Mall is a shopping mall located in Greenspoint and in Houston, Texas, at the northeast corner of Interstate 45 and Beltway 8. It is anchored by retailers Dillard's Clearance Center and Malone's once redevelopment is complete. In 2000, the mall was among the largest five Houston-area retail developments based on net rentable area.HistoryGreenspoint Mall opened in July 1976, anchored by Sears and Houston-based Foley's, the latter of which was owned at the time by Federated Department Stores who developed the mall. The mall eventually expanded by the late 1970s to include Joske's, JCPenney, Montgomery Ward and Lord & Taylor. Revolving around a "Central Park" theme, complete with a sculpture court, Greenspoint was at one point the largest mall in Greater Houston before the Galleria's later expansions in the 1980s and 2000s. Prudential Property Co. planned a $7 million renovation in 1988.In February 1989 Greenspoint Mall was 94% occupied, making it the mall with the fourth highest percentage of occupied space in the Houston area.Greenspoint Mall's fortunes began to wane at the end of the 1980s, when the Houston economy took a hit from the collapse of the energy industry and a subsequent bottoming out of the area real estate market. Also, the openings of Willowbrook Mall to the northwest and Deerbrook Mall to the northeast ate into Greenspoint's customer base. Making matters worse, after the kidnap and murder of a sheriff's deputy in the area that culminated from an uptick in criminal activity, the Greenspoint area became notorious for its high crime rate. Houstonians began to derisively refer to the once-booming area as "Gunspoint." In 1994, the mall lost even more business after the opening of The Woodlands Mall in the burgeoning suburb of The Woodlands.
