River Oaks Shopping Center
The River Oaks Shopping Center is a shopping center in Neartown, Houston, adjacent to River Oaks. As of 2012 the more than 322,000-square-foot (29,900 m2) center includes one grocery store, one movie theater, 14 restaurants, and 76 stores. The center, owned by Weingarten Realty, is the third oldest shopping center of its type in the United States.
Hugh Potter, who was involved in the River Oaks Corporation and took control of it in the 1930s, had created the concept of the shopping center. Potter originally planned to place the center at the intersection of River Oaks Boulevard and Westheimer Road where St. John the Divine Church was built, but in 1930 he changed the location to where it would be ultimately built. The preliminary studies began in 1932.
Potter commissioned architects Edward Arrantz and Oliver C. Winston to create the plans for the study. Arrantz died, so he was replaced by Stanton Nunn. Winston was later hired by the Public Works Administration to be the housing division project planner. In the early northern hemisphere fall of 1936, H. G. Frost committed to financing the center. Potter asked Winston to finish the process, so Winston took one month of leave of absence from his job with the federal government. The designs, produced by the architecture firm Nunn & McGinty, were finalized in 1937. The first stores at the River Oaks Shopping Center opened in November 1937. Anna Mod, author of Building Modern Houston, wrote "The center was the subject of numerous articles" when it opened.
In 1971 Weingarten Realty bought the center. In 1975 Weingarten made its first renovation.
In 2008 area residents began complaining upon learning about a plan to install an open-air wine bar/patio for private parties.Tony Vallone, who planned to establish the wine bar/patio, later announced that the plans have been called off.
In October 2011 Weingarten completed a renovation of $1.15 million. The company planted palm trees from Florida along the curbs, and it added energy-saving lighting. In a 38-year period ending in 2012, Weingarten spent over $115 million in renovations to the River Oaks Shopping Center.
The front page of the July 22, 2006 Houston Chronicle reported there were plans to demolish parts of the River Oaks Shopping Center and to build redevelopment, including a Barnes & Noble, on the site of one portion, a building on the northeast corner of Shepherd Drive and West Gray, for redevelopment. These plans, which were unconfirmed by the newspaper, stated that the River Oaks Theatre would be demolished.
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