Houston mall walkers take note: Three of the 50 largest shopping malls in the United States are situated right in the Bayou City area.
A 2012 Directory of Major Malls compiled by Geographic Information System software- and geodatabase management applications-supplier Esri takes an aerial look at America's shopping meccas— combined, the top 50 comprise more than three and a half square miles of retail area.
With 520 stores, 50 restaurants and 4.2 million leasable square feet, the top mall on the list is, of course, the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn., which could hypothetically fit 258 prostrate Statues of Liberty within.
The mall counts three stories, 345 stores and more than 2.2 million leasable square feet, making it the biggest in Texas
But not far behind is the Houston Galleria at No. 9. The mall, which opened in 1970 and was modeled after Milan's Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II, counts three stories, 345 stores and more than 2.2 million leasable square feet, making it the biggest in Texas.
Brazos Town Center in Rosenberg, which opened in 2006, tied with two other malls for No. 30 on the list, with 1.8 million leasable square feet and 120 stores. Some might contest that it's more "shopping center" than "shopping mall," but we'll take what we can get.
Memorial City Mall clocks in at 1.7 million leasable square feet and 205 stores following a significant expansion in the early 2000s, and tied for No. 38 on the list with four others.
But Houston isn't the only metropolitan area in the Lone Star State with malls this big: Dallas' NorthPark Center took No. 19 (in a seven-way tie) and Hurst's North East Mall made the list at No. 47.
