Howdy folks, and welcome back to Houston Historic Retail! Today we’re taking a video look at one of Houston’s former interesting retail setups, The Kaleidoscope Center. From 1984-2019, The Kaleidoscope Center stood at the corner of Westheimer and Blue Willow. The center was constructed in 1984 by United Savings as a new retail concept for the bustling Westchase area. At the time, some other ambitious retail concepts in the area included the Market at Westchase, and by that point established Weingarten’s Westchase Mall. During the construction of this center, United Savings would acquire a 36% share in Weingarten’s Realty. While the shopping center had a high tenancy rate for many years, it seems that after the Weingarten’s buyout, little love was given to the property. In 1993 the bank, now going by the more familiar Bank United, would auction off the property. Over the next 25 years the property would go through a litany of different owners, with Phillips 66 acquiring the shopping center sometime around 2019. The tenant’s leases were not renewed, and plans for a new Flagship Gas Station for Phillip 66 were announced on the site. This new gas station opened just about a year after the Kaleidoscope Center was demolished.
Yup, that’s it for today’s post! If you’re looking for a bit more reading, though, consider checking out the Kmart Page. It just received a full rewrite!
A landmark that told me as a kid that we were just minutes away from my grandmother’s condo, which was just southwest of the Kaleidoscope. We never did stop in, though.
No kidding! I almost wonder if they didn’t realize who owns Mi Tienda and what their reputation for direction competition is. I think the brand will take a while to build, but as long as they keep the reputation up on their private label items, they’ll have a solid base. That being said, the unnamed grocer above has recently received some flack for perceived changes to private labels, which could be significant for GFS.