The Deerbrook store that Fiesta and Randalls couldn’t handle

Howdy, folks, and welcome back to HHR. Today, we’re looking at 9805 Farm to Market 1960 Bypass Rd W, Humble, TX 77338, a location with a storied history. To start with a bit of context, this store sits inside the Deerbrook development, which is a part of Humble, TX. While Humble had an early history as an oil boomtown, also being the namesake for Humble Oil, now known as Exxon, its status as a growth area was easily overpassed by Houston in the early 20th century. Development would return to the area in the 1970s when Exxon and King Ranch began developing a master-planned neighborhood named Kingwood. In the late 70s, Homart, a division of Sears, purchased a massive tract of land to establish a new mall on. This mall would be called Deerbrook and give us the shopping center we’re discussing today. The intersection of FM 1960, which was considered a possible future freeway loop around Houston, provided an excellent opportunity for retail. In the late 80s, when development had moved from the mall to this strip center, Fiesta was approached to build a store here. The chain was known for its massive locations in the city and, by this point, a few in the suburbs. Fiesta’s co-founder, O.C. Mendenhall, lived in the area, so a nice store meant to appeal to all consumers was planned. Fiesta #21 opened around 1990 with little celebration compared to other stores of this era.

The new Fiesta would open the doors for commercial development along FM 1960. Development before this had mostly centered around the Humble grid, but with new construction moving West, stores would follow. Other major construction in the area would include a combo Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club location and a Super Kmart. While the population in the area was booming, Fiesta was having problems from day one. Simply put, Fiesta struggled to operate large-scale stores in suburban areas. The company was mostly known for appealing to International shoppers, and while one could do a normal shop at a Fiesta, this was not a “target demographic.” Similar problems with the giant Hydroponic Fiesta in Wesbster would lead to the company downsizing that store. While this location was only about 90k Sqft, it was smaller than the standard 100k Sqft. locations in Mission Bend and near the Astrodome, it was still struggling. By the end of 1993, Fiesta had decided to pull the plug on this Humble location and sell the store to the only other major operator in the area, Randalls. While Randalls had been experimenting with large format stores of their own, they weren’t having much more success than Fiesta. Randalls would barely last two years here before shutting down. Their location in Kingwood, a few miles away, would allow them to absorb the left-behind shoppers, and the Deerbook store would sit vacant for the next ten years. In 2005, shortly after Safeway’s purchase of Randalls and culling of stores, the first new tenants would finally move in. The building would be subdivided between Academy and Ross. Other than the entrance and facade, all traces of the former grocery stores were removed during this time. Academy would later move out to the former Super Kmart, and Goody Goody, a liquor store, would split their space with Boot Barn.

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