The first to sign leases in the center's rebirth are grocerH-E-B and Lowe's Home Improvement Warehouse. San Antonio-basedH-E-B will construct an 85,000-sf supermarket on the north end ofthe72-acre mall, positioned just off the Gulf Freeway near Loop 610south. Demolition work has begun.

The North Carolina-based Lowe's will construct a 165,000-sfwarehouse store on the mall's west side. The site is part of a24-acre tract of land Wulfe & Co. had purchased earlier thisyear to offer more retail sites. Wulfe is expanding the originalcenter on the west side of Woodridge to make a bigger statement anda bigger retail environment, according to Ed Wulfe, president ofthe Houston-based realty firm.

About half of Gulfgate's 31,000-sf retail pad building has beenpre-leased to smaller tenants, and Wulfe is negotiating with othertenants in businesses such as apparel, electronics, office supplyand sporting goods, to occupy the rest of the mall's 700,000sf.Gulfgate's redevelopment, estimated to cost between $50 millionto $60 million, is a joint venture between Wulfe & Co. and theCity of Houston, which had purchased Houston's first shopping mall,once the talk of the town.