Five decades after its opening, the building that was once home to Memorial City Mall’s Sears location will soon be gone for good. Developers said that in its place will stand a new outdoor lifestyle and retail district within Memorial City.
Construction crews began demolishing the building at 303 Memorial City Way on the morning of Aug. 11. With passersby and construction workers looking on, an excavator tore through brick and steel, pulling the building apart. Soon, all that will remain of the building will be a pile of rubble.
Sears opened the location at Memorial City Mall in 1966, serving as an anchor tenant for nearly 55 years. But after the store closed in late 2018, the building’s owners at Houston-based MetroNational saw an opportunity.
While details of the plan have not yet been disclosed to the public, MetroNational President Jason Johnson said the company sees the 20-acre parcel as a prime location for a mixed-use development that will form a key aspect of the firm’s vision for the Memorial City campus in west Houston.
“Today is an exciting day for us, as the demolition of Sears is the first visible step to creating a new chapter for Memorial City and further evidence that our company is well positioned today and for the future,” Johnson said in a statement.
In 2019, MetroNational tapped Fort Worth-based Trademark Property Co. to develop a master plan for how the site of the former Sears store will be used.
At the time, Tommy Miller, managing director and chief investment officer at Trademark, said…