Fidelis Puts Massive Houston Shopping Center on the Market

Fidelis Realty Partners has listed the Meyerland Plaza shopping center near Houston.

The nearly 1 million-square-foot complex is located in Meyerland, the center of the city’s vibrant Jewish community, situated just outside the West Loop off Beechnut Street.

Originally built in the late 1950s, Meyerland Plaza was the Bayou City’s second enclosed regional shopping mall. Local commercial real estate firm Wulfe & Company bought the dilapidated mid-century relic in for $16 million, and by 1995 it had converted it into a retail power center, adding 250,000 square feet to its original 655,000-square-foot buildout before selling it to Atlanta real estate firm Ronus three years later.

Fidelis, in collaboration with BlackRock, bought it for $165 million in 2013 and landed H-E-B as a tenant in 2020. According to the Harris County Appraisal District, Meyerland Plaza has an estimated taxable value of $155 million, across its various tracts, as of January.

It sits on 59 acres and boasts big-box anchors JCPenney, Target, Ross, Dick’s Sporting Goods, Five Below and Marshalls. Other tenants include Bank of America and a branch of Kelsey Seybold Clinic as well as Starbucks, Chick-fil-A and Jo-Ann’s Fabrics. Its 75 tenants make it a one-stop destination for Meyerland residents.

However, the iconic shopping center also boasts a higher-than-average vacancy rate, according to the JLL Capital Markets listing. About 100,000 square feet of space is available, roughly 10 percent, while the citywide retail average vacancy rate is 5 percent. Retail has remained stable in Houston, maintaining a 4.8 percent vacancy rate for five consecutive quarters, according to JLL.

Brokers Ryan West, Chris Gerard, Erin Lazarus and Colby Mueck are the listing agents.

Fidelis, based in Houston, currently holds over 20 million square feet of commercial space across the United States. In April, the company acquired a 1.5 million-square-foot portfolio of shopping centers across Illinois, Wisconsin, Texas and other central states. Attempts to reach Fidelis and JLL Capital Markets were unsuccessful.