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Friday, March 21, 2008

San Felipe Condominiums: Two New Towers in Memorial

Landscape Plan, San Felipe Condominiums Towers, Houston

This landscape plan from the Boymelgreen website is our first glimpse of the two condo towers the company is planning for 5.5 acres on the southwest corner of the intersection of San Felipe and a short segment of Woodway — just west of Voss, on the Right Bank of Buffalo Bayou. And this morning the Houston Business Journal has more to report:

New York City-based Boymelgreen Developers is developing the project for landowner Azorim, a publicly traded company in Israel of which Boymelgreen owns 64 percent. . . . The unnamed project will consist of two buildings with 28 residential floors each and an 18,000-square-foot fitness center and spa. The project will have a total of 237 condos starting at $1 million each. Units will be an average size of 2,500 square feet.

The architect is Ziegler Cooper. Boymelgreen’s website refers to the project as the San Felipe Condominiums. (And it reports a building that’s 14 condos smaller.)

Jennifer Dawson’s report in the HBJ says that sales won’t start until the fall, after a sales center — which will later “be converted into a spa, restaurant or office building” — is built on the site of the former Dolce & Freddo next door.

Below the fold: That 1960s office-and-shopping center on the site won’t go quietly!

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Tuesday, March 18, 2008

Cullen’s Upscale: The Big Green Restaurant in Clear Lake

Rendering of Cullen’s Upscale American Grille on Space Center Blvd., Houston

A restaurant scheduled to open today just beyond Beltway 8’s southeastern elbow is the first “Certified Green Restaurant” in Houston approved by the Green Restaurant Association. Cullen’s Upscale American Grille completed 17 of the GRA’s environmental guidelines.

The grille’s proprietor is first-time restaurant owner Kevin Munz, who previously built a chain of 13 Houston-area pawn shops. He sold the Mr. Money Pawn shops to Cash America International in 2006. Two years before that, he bought 92.8 acres of undeveloped land at the eastern edge of Ellington Field and began planning Clearpoint Crossing, a series of strips along the west side of newly extended Space Center Blvd., featuring retail/lease space, a professional-office park, and a multifamily residential project.

Cullen’s is intended to be Clearpoint Crossing’s main attraction: a 37,000-sq.-ft. Las Vegas-style eatery with seven private dining rooms — including one built of glass and suspended over the main dining area — a ballroom, space for outdoor dining, and seating for 700 diners. Customers will have their choice of china: Wedgwood, Versace, or “the Titanic.” Munz spoke to the Houston Chronicle’s David Kaplan about his plans for Cullen’s last year:

“I’ve been all over the U.S. and looked at restaurants. It’s the best of a bunch of different concepts and putting them into one, Munz said. “It’s the same thing I did with pawnshops.”

Munz told the South Belt-Ellington Leader he hopes to attract customers driving from as far northeast as Baytown and as far south as Galveston to his green restaurant, saying he “wouldn’t have done this in town.”

Munz expects the Clearpoint Crossing’s land value to “go up the day I open the restaurant,” he told Kaplan. That would be today!

After the jump, a plan of the whole Clearpoint Crossing development. Plus, a few of the restaurant’s green features!

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Tuesday, March 11, 2008

High Street: Under Way

Rendering of Building in Trademark Properties’ Proposed High Street Development

The square footages appear to have adjusted a bit since our last report, but Trademark Properties says it has its financing, and that High Street is a go. From a report in Globe St.:

The Fort Worth-based Trademark Property Co. and Coventry [Real Estate Advisors Ltd. of New York City] are redeveloping a seven-acre site of the former Central Ford dealership at 4410 Westheimer Rd. In turn, the JV signed a partnership pact with Indianapolis-based Kosene & Kosene Development Co. for the residential component of High Street. The redevelopment will have 233 apartments atop 100,000 sf of retail and 80,000 sf of office in a separate structure. The foundation’s been poured for the office building, with residential and retail to go vertical in 60 to 90 days.

After the jump, another pretty picture!

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Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Storefront Ad: Midtown Full Frontal Oddity

Storefront Ad for Red Bull Art of Can Competition and Exhibition on Elgin St., Midtown, Houston

Here’s one advantage if you’re one of the not-so-large number of retail centers in Houston that doesn’t have a parking lot in front: If business ain’t so hot, you can always sell the highly visible adspace on your facade!

A reader sends in this photo of an ad for Red Bull’s Art of Can competition on the streetfront of a retail center on Elgin, across from the Calais apartments in Midtown. The Maple Leaf Pub is two doors down.

Is this the future of retail real estate? Sure, we’ve all seen ads painted onto the sides of old buildings and the giant window stickers on David’s Bridal storefronts, but doesn’t this go a bit . . . beyond that? Think of the possibilities: Stores . . . with ads covering their entire fronts, advertising . . . other stores. Or anything.

Forget billboards, graffiti, and wheatpaste posters. When this new market really kicks in, we’ll see Houston for its revenue-generating possibilities: We’ve got acres and acres of exploitable advertising space.

Tyvek Housewrap was only the beginning.

What comes after Tuscan-themed shopping centers? Billboard-themed shopping centers!

After the jump: a second photo, so you can get your Red Bull straight.

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Thursday, February 21, 2008

Uptown Whole Foods: Still on Track, Apparently

View of Proposed New Galleria Whole Foods at Blvd Place at Former Eatzi’s Site

It may not count as confirmation exactly, but we now at least have repetition — from two separate sources — that the new Whole Foods Market our readers have been worrying about will in fact be coming to the Galleria area.

The first source is the Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff, who — after interviewing Boulevard Place developer Ed Wulfe — states that a new Whole Foods will be the anchor of Wulfe & Co.’s new mixed-use development on Post Oak Blvd. . . . though it won’t open until 2010.

The second source is . . . a little unusual. We’ll tell you about it in our next an upcoming post.

Update, 2/26/08: That second source.

Boulevard Place Whole Foods image: DMJM H&N

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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Hoa Binh: The Lasting Legacy of the Original Strip Mall

Hoa Binh Center at 2830 Travis, Midtown, Houston

Wielding a copy of Stephen Fox’s Houston Architectural Guide, transit buff Christof Spieler writes in to report that the vacant and graffiti-laden Hoa Binh Center in Midtown — targeted by Camden Property Trust for a new apartment complex — has an important story behind it. He quotes from Fox’s writeup of the shopping center, which was built in 1923:

What distinguishes this building is that it was the prototype of the 20th century American suburban shopping center: it introduced the concept of off-street parking, toward which the grocery store itself was oriented.

Spieler adds:

In other words, Camden may be about to tear down the world’s first strip mall. Now that’s a historic building.

And it’s certainly worth at least a nice plaque somewhere on those new apartments going up on the site!

But before all you preservationist types get up in arms about the impending demolition of the mother of all strip malls, keep in mind that an equally important part of this structure’s history and legacy will almost certainly be preserved, cherished, and celebrated. Sure, the building will probably end up in a pile of rubble off Loop 610. But all those historic off-street parking spaces? They’ll be moved into a nice new garage at the Camden Travis, where residents of the new apartments and their guests will be able to enjoy them for generations to come.

After the jump: Spieler spills more Hoa Binh history!

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Monday, February 18, 2008

Maybe Somebody Did Give Up

Hoa Binh Center, Travis and Tuam, Houston

For years, Camden Property Trust has been talking about a giant mixed-use project the company is planning for the “superblock” bounded by Main, Anita, McGowen, and Travis in Midtown. And the Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff reported this weekend that Camden is ready to go ahead with its Midtown development.

Except the new Camden project isn’t on the vacant superblock. And it won’t be mixed use. It’s a four-story, 253-unit, $45 million apartment complex called the Camden Travis, planned for the site of the former Hoa Binh supermarket building, the dilapidated and heavily tagged vaguely-moderne-looking shopping center one block to the west, at 2830 Travis.

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Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Is Whole Foods Coming to Boulevard Place . . . or Not?

View of Proposed New Galleria Whole Foods at Blvd Place at Former Eatzi’s Site

Uptown residents have had a lot of fun speculating about just how enormous and feature-filled the new Galleria Whole Foods flagship store on Post Oak Blvd. will be. The Whole Foods website lists it at a massive 78,000 sq. ft. — though the page it’s on hasn’t been updated since last October.

But now from our mailbox comes this gushing report:

Rumors have been circulating for the last week that Whole Foods has pulled out of Ed Wulfe’s BLVD Place development on Post Oak Blvd. The owners of a prominent jewelry store across Post Oak Blvd. have been telling people that the deal fell through.

Is this just shopping-center trash talk? Or has something changed? Our informant provides more Boulevard Place and Whole Foods FUD:

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Monday, February 4, 2008

How High Will Little Bunny Fly?

Fly High Little Bunny, 3120 S. Shepherd, Houston

A short item in the Houston Business Journal is encouraging rumors of a new highrise on Shepherd, one block south of the Alabama Theater Bookstop.

That’s the current location of jewelry store Fly High Little Bunny, along with the Jamail Real Estate office shown in this photo sent in by a Swamplot reader. The property includes two houses in back.

But the new development could stretch all the way to W. Alabama. A poster on HAIF claims the same buyer is also purchasing the shopping center on the north side of the block, which contains Ruchi’s Taqueria and Roeders Pub, and is planning highrise apartments and a parking garage, with retail space on the ground floor.

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Thursday, January 17, 2008

River Oaks District Development Reaches Advanced Watercolor Stage

Watercolor of Proposed River Oaks District Mixed Use Development Planned for Westheimer by OliverMcMillan

With new bold, rich watercolor renderings now posted to its website, OliverMcMillan shows its mixed-use proposal for Westheimer is serious. The River Oaks District won’t be in River Oaks exactly, but it would mark a serious upgrade for this portion of Westheimer just inside the Loop, on a portion of the site of the Westcreek Apartments.

What’s planned here: 300,000 square feet of retail space, 300 fancy apartments, 250,000 square feet of office space, plus two hotels — rumored to be a W and a Le Meridien. The W Hotel will house 150 condos on its top floors.

After the jump: those shiny watercolors, plus plans and an aerial view!

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Thursday, January 10, 2008

And Now, Some Gentle Words of Encouragement for Midtown Redevelopment

Hoa Binh Center, Travis and Tuam, Houston

Hey, whaddya say we just knock this baby down and put up a strip center?

Another parting shot of the former Hoa Binh Center at Travis and Tuam — plus more from Midtown’s most . . . vocal booster — after the jump.

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Thursday, December 13, 2007

Heights Village: Parking Lots Are the New Main Street!

Heights Village Parking Lot on Yale St., Houston Heights

Looks like a lot of pedestrian action going on in these marketing drawings for Orr Commercial’s new Heights Village, a five-acre restaurant, retail, office, and “upscale housing” development slated for the current site of the Sons of Hermann hall just south of I-10, between Heights Blvd. and Yale St. and an adjacent parcel abutting railroad tracks to the south.

Why, with all those people in the drawings walking to and fro, it looks like this development will have all the charm of a small old-town Main Street . . . or at the very least all the charm of an old small town that decided to build a multi-level parking garage, but still turned its Main Street into a parking lot anyway, just to hedge its bets.

After the jump: more parking-lot pedestrians!

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Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Fig. Leaves: Miraculous Advanced LipoDissolve Works on Retail Locations Too!

Collage of Diagrams from fig. Medical Body Shaping Website Showing How Advanced LipoDissolve Is Supposed To Work

Swamplot’s many readers eager to return to Houston-area Fig. Medical Body Shaping clinics for continuing fat-reducing injections will be saddened to learn that the national chain has abruptly shut down and discontinued all operations. A note on the fig.com website indicates the company will likely be seeking bankruptcy protection.

There are three local Fig. clinics: in Sugar Land at 59 and Highway 6, next to Panera Bread; next to Jamba Juice at the Summit Plaza by Lakewood Church; and at the Portofino Shopping Center across I-45 from the Woodlands. (Yes, that’s the same Portofino Shopping Center that was home to the statue-genitalia controversy a few years back — which was ultimately solved with . . . a fig leaf.) All three Houston-area Fig. locations had been open only since April.

Okay, whose inside joke was it to locate all three fat-reduction clinics in shopping centers on feeder roads?

What happened to Fig. that would cause it to shut down so suddenly? (Reader caution: suggestive uh . . . medical detail below.)

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Monday, December 10, 2007

CompUSA Boxes Available Soon

Empty Willowbrook CompUSA store

Looking for a couple strategic locations on Westheimer for Big Box stores . . . say one near the Galleria, the other near Kirkwood? You’re in luck: CompUSA is toast.

Turnaround firm Gordon Brothers Group has acquired computer manufacturer CompUSA for an undisclosed amount. As part of the deal, Boston-based Gordon Brothers is closing all 103 CompUSA stores, which will remain open through the holiday season.

Sound familiar? CompUSA shut down 176 locations nationwide this past February, including stores in Sugar Land, Baybrook, Willowbrook, and another on FM 1960.

Photo of empty Willowbrook CompUSA: Ailona Gellert

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Friday, December 7, 2007

They’re Otto Here

Otto’s Bar B Que and Hamburgers on Memorial Dr., Houston

The owners of Otto’s Bar B Que and Hamburgers — a Houston institution since the early days of air conditioning — are retiring, closing up shop, tearing down their building at 5502 Memorial Dr., and putting it and the shopping center they own next door (including Biba’s Greek Pizza) up for sale, reports Allison Wollam in the Houston Business Journal:

Word of the end of Otto’s has already been circulating among customers, many of whom Sofka says are saddened to hear about the impending closure.

“If those people like it so much, where have they been?” she asks. “Why don’t they frequent our restaurant more? We still have our faithful that come in three times a week, but other than that, we’re stressing out each and every day to pay our bills.”

Maybe folks stopped coming by because there’s no chance they’ll run into Marvin Zindler there anymore? Anyway, it’s likely June and Marcus Sofka won’t have to stress about their bills for too much longer:

Real estate sources predict the land will sell for a minimum of $150 per square foot and say the highest and best use for the land would be a high-rise residential tower.

The Otto’ses in Sugar Land and Downtown are franchised, and will not be affected, reports Wollam, who also leaves us with this strange — but quintessentially Houstonish — image:

Another franchised Otto’s is scheduled to open next year in Chase Tower, and Sofka says the barbecue pits behind the original restaurant will be moved to the new Chase Tower location.

Photo: Flickr users Bob & Lorraine Kelly

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Going Up in Midtown: The Calais’s New Neighbor

Construction at Intersection of Elgin and Louisiana, Midtown

A reader who frequents Midtown sends photos showing the progress of the new building at 3201 Louisiana, along with comments.

Took this from near the corner of Elgin and Milam. Steel’s all up, and then some. 24 Hour Fitness is supposed to be moving into the top floor. The parking garage [in the foreground] was already there but was shuttered for a long time, has been painted and dressed up. Will be great to have an actual new three-story building with retail in midtown, instead of the usual strip centers and drug stores.

After the jump, plans and fancy renderings of the finished building, plus: our correspondent gets snarky!

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