They say a picture is worth a thousand words; maybe a thousand years from now, these pictures will be worth a few words. Right now, they hold far less value as they depict something that any Houstonian driving by has become accustomed to. A massive retail store sits on its own at a major interchange. However, it wasn’t meant to be this way. This Bass Pro Shop is the crown jewel of a multi-decade plan that wanted to put Pearland on display for commuters but has ended up leaving most unimpressed. The first seeds of the plan can be traced back to the 1980s, about 2 miles North of the Bass Pro Shop. In 1986, after some negotiation, Homart, the mall building arm of Sears, signed an agreement to build a mall at the Northwest corner of Almeda Genoa and 288. Christened the Southbrook Mall (think Willowbrook, Baybrook, etc), it would be one of a handful of *-brook Malls canceled the area. The mall would have been built adjacent to new residential development in the area, which would have provided a steady customer base along with the growing Pearland area. Ultimately, the mall and most residential development were dropped, but the seed was planted. In the 1999 Comprehensive Plan, the city of Pearland identified the need for a prominent development along 288 to “showcase” the city. This initial plan was to create an “attractive business park” including light retail and intermixed restaurants. It seems that Pearland wanted to attract a downtown company into the suburbs and use that to kick off development. However, in the 2004 master plan, this would be changed. While the business park area would not be abandoned, the areas closest to the interchange would be set aside to develop a regional mall or something similar. With this new recommendation, some of the first work on the property began.
The land had been officially proposed as a potential mall site a year prior. However, serious discussion never got beyond the exploratory phase. While major mall developers did consider the property, they all passed without giving reasons. To help hurry the process along, Pearland would rename this corner “The Spectrum.” Their intent for the land was mixed-use retail and residential in a town center style along 288 and a high-end business park to the West. With this new mandate in the master plan, Pearland now officially supports a mall at the corner of 288 and the Beltway and would need someone interested in building it. That someone would be Poag & McEwen Lifestyle Centers, the company credited with inventing the Lifestyle Center, aka outdoor mall. Poag & McEwen had been eyeing the property before The Spectrum name change, and in early 2005 debuted The Promenade Shops at Shadow Creek. Ground was broken on the center in 2006, and work quickly began on what Poag & McEwen called a “specially designed” Bass Pro anchor. However, this was not entirely the case. When the property was being planned out, Macy’s and Dillards were scouted as anchors but would end up sniped by the nearby Pearland Town Center. This lack of anchors killed plans for a traditional Lifestyle Center, and as a result, Poag & McEwen bailed from the project. The land sat vacant, attracting attention now and again, mostly proposing to complete development; nothing has ever come of it. Most recently, NewQuest picked up the property in 2022, looking to finish the job, but backed out about a month ago. As of this article, the area has been renamed “Lower Kirby,” and the business park portion now caters to medical companies and has seen much more development than the proposed mall.
