COMMENT OF THE DAY: A CITYCENTRE IN THE CITY’S CENTER WOULD’VE MADE THE GRADE “. . . The Ainbinder/Orr/San J Stone sites represent over 30 acres of land being developed with only 280 residential units going up on the old Sons of Hermann site. About the same number of apartments were demo-ed for Ainbinder’s strip mall. That means 30 plus acres of land being developed with no net increase in housing or office space in an area that should be booming with that kind of development. There are no other 30 plus acre tracts west of Downtown that have the same development potential as this site did. It may be one step forward to replace vacant land with strip malls. But it is two steps back when you consider what a City Centre style mixed use development would have done for the area. It would have generated way more in tax revenue and made property values in the immediate west end neighborhood shoot through the roof. Instead, we are getting the lowest possible tax revenue generating development that will cost six million in future tax revenues. It is like being happy when your kid gets a C minus in school. It is better than getting an F and graduating is better than dropping out. But if your kid has the potential to do A plus work, then the C minus should be a huge disappointment. Those thirty plus acres had the potential to be one of the most significant developments in Houston. Instead, it is going to be the same development that gets put in on cheap land in the burbs when a new housing development goes in. If my tax dollars are going to be thrown at wealthy developers, I want to get every dollar’s worth and will not be happy with anything other than the most productive use of the land. Developers who will not deliver that can pay their own way.” [Old School, commenting on Shops Replacing San Jacinto Stone, Just North of the South-of-the-Heights Walmart]
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West End
Here’s a parking-lot view — what you’d see from Yale St. — of a 125,000-sq.-ft. strip development planned for the site of San Jacinto Stone, immediately north of the Washington Heights Walmart going up just south of I-10. San Jacinto Stone measures its stoneyard at 4 acres; the proposed 8-acre development taking over for it appears to include a few adjacent properties to the north, including frontage along the new I-10 feeder road and White Oak Bayou.
THE WASHINGTON HEIGHTS WALMART RETAIL BUDDY LIST 
The list of stores is out. Who’ll be moving in to Ainbinder’s Washington Heights shopping strips at Yale and Koehler, across from the new Walmart in Houston’s West End? Yes, they’re all chains. And there’s a bank, a phone store, a Starbucks, and a nail salon in there, for street- er, parking-lot cred. The lineup: JP Morgan Chase, Taco Cabana, Visionworks, Sport Clips, Jersey Mike’s, Nailtime, GNC, GameStop, Corner Bakery (pictured), Starbucks, Verizon, Which Wich, and Chipotle. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: The Ainbinder Company
Driving along Yale St. under the railroad bridge that crosses it just north of Center St. in the West End yesterday, a Swamplot reader noticed workers removing the bright French colors from the retaining wall of the underpass. “This area was painted that red, white, and blue that seemed to match Walmart’s trade dress right before the deal went public,” the reader notes. But the Walmart going in just west of Yale St. is due to be clothed in earthier tones. “I wish we knew who paid for the paint job then, and who is paying for the removal now,” the reader writes.
WEST END REALITY FISH TV When Mexican TV celebrity Aquiles Chávez opened a seafood restaurant in Houston’s West End earlier this year, local English-language media may not have given it the attention a culinary star might expect. But his efforts to open La Fisheria were all the while being filmed by a crew from Colombia. Now Fox-owned Utilisima is planning to air Chávez’s northern saga as a 13-episode reality TV series, Aquiles en Houston, beginning June 10th. (The slower paced video above isn’t from the series, but contains more footage of the restaurant at 4705 Inker than the series trailer put out by the network.) [29-95; Utilisima] Video: FUHA
DRIVING THIS STRETCH OF SHEPHERD WILL NEVER BE THE SAME 
Not for a couple more shrink-swell cycles, at least. A reader heralds the coming cataclysm: “Shepherd between Memorial and I-10 has begun to experience a transfiguration ranking with the most sublime heavenly experiences in the history of mankind: Milling trucks have been scraping the ragged, churned old asphalt in preparation for a new road, a new land, a new Jerusalem! Yes — fresh, smooth, new pavement on Shepherd Drive! Hallelujah!” Photo: Rachel Dvoretzky
A reader wants to know what’s behind last week’s demo work (pictured) at the former used car lot operated by Sarco Enterprises at the northeast corner of Shepherd and Nett St., 2 blocks north of Washington Ave. Across Nett St. from the site: nightspots Nox, Diem Lounge, and Fox Hollow. “Maybe a new retail development or a new restaurant or a new club?” asks the reader. “The property is a great extension of the happenings along the Washington corridor.”
The tilt walls are already up! Those of you who’ve been eagerly awaiting the strip-center-themed revival of Yale and Heights Blvd. south of I-10: here are your signs of progress, snapped just yesterday by a Swamplot reader. No, this isn’t the new Walmart — or the Washington Heights District strip centers promised to go with them. It’s Orr Commercial‘s Heights Marketplace, a separate development facing Yale St. at Koehler — and the Walmart site across the street — beating everyone to the punch. Opening dates for Lovett Dental, Wahoo Fish Tacos, the Loan Depot, and more: next March.
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE CASE FOR BUILDING CRAP “i’m no developer, but being that this is off Yale (and not washington) across from a wal-mart it’s safe to assume they’re not going to be pulling in high-margin clients. there’s no point building a nice shopping center catered to the area if you can’t lock-in clients that can afford the rent. rent’s are already going to be well above average for houston. better to have a generic crappy strip center than a bankrupt high-end strip center. they know they’re building in the middle of a double-dipping economy in an area that certainly has high average incomes, but is still in flux none the less. better to build crap and establish a proven income stream with sensible margins before going overboard and losing money. as for the store selection, it’s certainly nothing i’d patronize but it’s an expected utilitarian lineup. we live in the internet age, what do you really expect, an amazon pick-up storefront? it’s easy to criticize, but it ain’t my money so i’m not going to call people out for doing sensible things with theirs. you can’t run a business and support employees livelihoods by taking risks for communities that may never support you in the first place.” [joel, commenting on Piggybacking on the Washington Heights Walmart: Stripalicious Yale St. Retail at Heights Marketplace]
What’s this we’re looking at? New pedestrian-friendly retail going in along Yale St., right across from Ainbinder’s Walmart-anchored center on Yale and Heights Blvd. in the West End? No, silly. That’s a ghost head-in-parked car hidden behind the artfully-placed starburst in the bottom left corner of the rendering. All those figures in front are just walking back and forth between the fish-taco joint at one end and their dentist on the other. Yes, work has already begun on this new strip center at the corner of Yale and Koehler St., called Heights Marketplace. The developer promises it’ll be finished before the end of the year, with the first stores opening next March.
If Ainbinder missed a few strip-center clichés in its Washington Heights District shopping-center plan, this Orr Commercial development, back-to-back with one of Ainbinder’s Heights Blvd.-facing strips, is here to take up the slack:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE WAY THINGS ARE GOING “So much hand-wringing over a store! Washington Avenue’s already peaking, and will be full of boarded up resturants and bars in a couple of years. The Heights will one day be covered in badly built townhomes, just like here in Rice Military. All that will remain is Wal-Mart. It’s just the way it is. Nobody or nothing can stop it.” [ricemilitaryboy, commenting on Washington Heights Walmart Companion Strip Stand-Ins: No-Names, Off-Brands, and Imports]
A reader traces the provenance of some of the store and restaurant names prominently featured in some newly released renderings meant to show off the assorted new strip-center spaces Moody Rambin Retail hopes to fill near the new Walmart off Yale at Koehler St. in the West End. And finds a few not-so-fake names mixed in with the fake ones:
“Keohler Coffee” is obviously fake, or just bad spelling. But, there is actually a “La Gra Italian Tapas” in St. Louis MO (of all places). I wonder whether they are coming to Houston? And there is a “Nono’s Bistro” on the rendering which has a logo that looks just like the logo for Nino’s Bistro in Harrisburg, PA. The most mysterious of the mystery tenants might be “Krakatoa Seafood and Game”. The logo on the rendering is just like the logo on this logo designer‘s website. But, I cannot find a restaurant anywhere that resembles the logo.
Sculptor David Adickes is almost ready to plant this giant concrete-on-steel sign on property he owns along Chester St. on the south side of I-10, just east of Patterson. You’ll be able to get your best view of it when traffic comes to a standstill on your way downtown. Just needs a few more finishing touches, like a figurine or 2 or 8 to accompany that little guitar player hanging out between the O and the U. And hey, you’re right! If the Hollywood sign were 15 feet shorter, came down from the hillside, grew an ego, and stood by the freeway, it would kinda look like this.
- Sculptor David Adickes Loves Houston [Houston Modern Luxury, via HAIF]
- Sculptor Brings a Little Hollywood to Houston [MyFox Houston]
- David Adickes coverage [Swamplot]
Photo: Imelda Bettinger [license]
Among the revelations in the packet of emails reporter Miya Shay recently received in response to a 3-month-old public-records request: City officials learned from Ainbinder Company as early as June 11th that the big-box store indicated on plans for the company’s Washington Heights shopping center in the West End would be a Walmart. Swamplot readers first heard reports of the company’s plans on July 1st. But as late as July 13th, the city development director’s deputy apparently felt it necessary to ward his boss off plans to keep the details or intentions behind the city’s infrastructure-improvement agreement with Ainbinder a secret: Tim Douglass writes development director Andy Icken, “Frankly, it’s a little too late to try and ‘sneak’ this through council. The cat is out of the bag.”
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHY THEY’RE BRINGING WALMART TO THE WEST END “I once wrote a frustrated letter to Wal-Mart’s corporate office in Arkansas begging for a better store to serve the Inner Loop than what was available on S. Post Oak and 610. It may very well have come off as begging. Had they ever followed up with me about the particular issue, I almost certainly would have begged for the store. And had they come to my door, I’d have groveled at their feet in admiration of their corporate largess and magnaminity, even.” [TheNiche, commenting on West End Walmart Development 380 Agreement Gets City Council OK]