Northwest Mall, along with its Northwest 4 Theatres, located on the northeast side of the property, opened to the public in October 1968. The movie theater was operated by AMC. AMC Northwest 4 was one of the first multi-screen theatres built in Houston. Upon opening, the mall featured anchors
JCPenney, who owned their two-story building and surrounding parking lot with auto center, and
Foley's, who also owned their own two-story building, surrounding parking lot, and automotive center, with the remainder of the property being owned by the mall itself. This resulted in the land being owned by three separate parties. Other original occupants in the mall include
Piccadilly Cafeteria,
Palais Royal,
Lane Bryant, Lerner Shops, Susie's, Battelstein's, Farrell's Ice Cream Parlour, Gordon's Jewellers, and
Thom McAn shoes. On July 11, 2000, after liquidating the inventory of the store, JCPenney closed their Northwest Mall location. The building remained vacant until Carolyn Thompson's Antique Center moved into the long-vacant space in 2012, a result of the antique center losing its own long-time home on Old Katy Road as a result of a widening expansion to Interstate 610. SRO sports bar, which had relocated to Northwest Mall in the summer of 2001, announced its closing Feb. 2013. SRO was replaced with La Chapa sports bar, which closed in 2018, shortly after the mall itself. SRO had replaced the back half of the former F. W. Woolworth's junior anchor spot. The mall entrance to Woolworth's was transformed into an independent film theater. In 2006, the mall was about 64% occupied. During that year
Glimcher Realty Trust put the mall up for sale, along with the
Almeda Mall. With the closure, only Carolyn Thompson's Antique Center, Palais Royal, La Chapa sports bar, and the Post Oak Club remained open at Northwest. All mall entrances were closed and boarded. After the 2017 closing, the only business operating at the mall was the Antique Center in the former JCPenney. Its mall entrance no longer exists, having been walled off shortly before Northwest's closure, with only the lower ground floor open to the general public. On December 31, 2021, Carolyn Thompson's Antique Center closed, leaving the mall vacant. Northwest Mall has been named the preferred site to demolish and develop the acreage into the south terminus hub for the eventual high-speed rail line between Houston and Dallas. ==Hurricane Ike==