COMMENT OF THE DAY: BOOKSTOP FULL STOP “A few comments from a reliable source who actually knows a few things about River Oaks SC and Alabama Theater. 1. Barnes and Noble owns Bookstop. They are closing it to move to the new location at ROSC. 2. Weingarten has no intent of demolishing the Alabama Theater. They have been marketing the space for re-use. They intend to restore the facade when a new tenant signs on. 3. The new portion of ROSC was designed by Altoon + Porter (of the Fashion Show flying saucer mall in Vegas fame) out of Los Angeles. Weingarten did not want the usual EIFS crap that the Houston architects do. 4. Weingarten’s long term interest in ROSC is to achieve the highest and best use for this property. They want to bring a higher density to the center that they feel is appropriate for its location. 5. Before the crash last fall they were working on a plan to improve the walk-a-bility of the ROSC through landscaping and art. I believe the project is on hold right now. Its interesting how everyone is in favor of density (less driving and more walking) except when it affects something in your backyard. If you don’t like the scale of the building or the lack of protection of historic structures in the city, call the mayor and the planning department. Disclosure: I do not work for Weingarten and don’t always agree with their decisions, but thought that this info would be useful. Flame on everyone!” [mt, commenting on Coming Soon to the River Oaks Shopping Center]
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Commercial Real Estate
Armed with a camera, two enterprising Swamplot readers set out to document the retail carnage along South Shepherd, between 59 and the Shepherd Curve:
The sheer number of businesses that have disappeared along Shepherd in 4 months has been stupefying. This is with a large, new, empty Weingarten development at one end …and the chronically empty Shepherd Plaza at the other. Hell, we have gone from 4 Starbucks to 3!!
That’s a 25 percent reduction in mocha lattes alone. How about in some of the other sectors?
Granted, there have been some new businesses, a Hallmark store, a dance studio, and something seems to have filled the lingerie place at Welch and Shepherd, but the vacancy rate now stands at 22%!!! We counted 172 retail “units†and found 37 of them to be empty. As recently as February, I remember only about a dozen vacancies.
What are the sights?
Writing in the River Oaks Examiner, Cynthia Lescalleet has a few updates on the River Oaks Shopping Center. Here’s what Swamplot has pieced together:
- That well-trafficked space across the atrium from The Gap on the south side of West Gray will soon have a new tenant. Yes, this is the spot previously occupied by clothing retailer Harold Powell (whose parent company, Harold’s Stores, declared bankruptcy in November). Before that, it was occupied by M. King Interiors (which skipped out in the night a few years earlier, according to reports), before that Mesa Restaurant (ditto), and apparently way before that a restaurant called XIT. A new 6,200-sq.-ft. Mutual of Omaha Bank will be moving into the space soon.
- Meanwhile, across the street, Barnes & Noble will be opening in its brand hulking new building around October 1st.
What else?
What’s all that heavy equipment doing on the former Sonoma battleground in the Rice Village? Is the project back from the dead?
No. The West University Examiner‘s Michael Reed reports that the fenced-in site of the sacrificed commercial building along Bolsover between Kelvin and Morningside is being used as a staging area for the portion of the Kirby Dr. reconstruction project that stretches between Quenby and Bissonnet. And:
Public Works Department spokesman Alvin Wright said the agreement to use the land was entered into by the Kirby project contractor and Lamesa [Properties], not the city of Houston.
What about those other big ideas for using the liberated land?
Additionally, the Examiner has learned negotiations between the property owner and a residential civic group are under way to make another portion of the property a community garden.
- Sonoma area becomes staging site [West University Examiner]
- What’s Next for That Parked Bolsover Sonoma Block [Swamplot]
Photo of former Sonoma site from Dunstan Rd.: West University Examiner
The Lone Star College System’s $42.2 million purchase price for that chunk of the former Compaq campus it closed on last month turns out to be $100 million less than the amount it had offered to Hewlett-Packard for the property a year earlier, reports Wall Street Journal reporter Maura Webber Sadovi. A few more tidbits from her report on the second-largest office purchase in the U.S. so far this year (The auction of Boston’s 1.8 million-sq.-ft. Hancock Tower for $660 million in March was the biggest):
The $35-a-square-foot price Lone Star paid was below the $57 average paid for the few suburban Houston office properties sold in the first quarter of 2009 and a deep discount to the $145 per-square-foot suburban average in the year-earlier first quarter, according to Real Capital Analytics, a New York-based real-estate-research firm.
Expect to see administrators of the Lone Star College System (known until recently as the North Harris Montgomery Community College System) lounging around in some of the executive furniture HP threw into the deal at the last minute as well. How did they strike this bargain?
What’s a struggling mall to do these days? How about turning off the air conditioning . . . and hosting a comic-book convention! Robert W. Boyd reports from the scene:
Despite a great location [on Highway 6 between Westheimer and Richmond] and not bad interior, West Oaks Mall is plagued with vacancies. And unlike malls like Memorial City Mall, West Oaks is not able to hide the gaps. . . .
West Oaks needed to occupy its empty stores (even if temporarily), or at least cover them up. And it needed to get people in the mall who could at least potentially patronize the remaining stores. So that’s where Comicpalooza came in.
HEWLETT PACKARD GOES TO SCHOOL The purchase by the Lone Star College System (formerly the North Harris Montgomery Community College System) of the “core” of the former HP, former Compaq Computer campus at 249 and Louetta is now a done deal, chancellor Richard Carpenter reports: “The purchase includes approximately 1.2 million square feet of buildings as well as parking garages and other support infrastructure. This facility will serve multiple purposes for our system as we continue to grow and expand; however the center piece of the campus will be a new University Center to serve north Harris County that is expected to include at least eight university partners. In addition to the University Center, the campus will also house an instructional satellite center, Corporate College conference and training facilities, LSCS office space, as well as room for new program development and expansion.” [Swamplot inbox; previously on Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WILSHIRE VILLAGE PAYMENT DUE “I forgot to mention that with regard to the loan Dilick took out to pay for taxes on the property four years ago, sources have reported that the bank set a deadline of early April 2009 for him to take steps toward paying back that loan. In demolishing the apartments and selling the land, Dilick would be able to pay back the loan and make a profit as well. . . . As to the comment, ‘This is private property. The owner should be able to do with it as he sees fit,’ the problem is that Jay Cohen, who inherited the property from his parents, still holds 80 percent ownership. Sadly, he was duped or forced by circumstance into signing over managing control to Dilick. . . .” [dredger, commenting on Comment of the Day: Grand Unified Wilshire Village Conspiracy Theory]
COMPAQ TO HP TO COLLEGE The Lone Star College System — formerly known as North Harris Montgomery Community College System — appears to be the mystery buyer for those 8 empty office buildings in the former Hewlett-Packard, former-Compaq campus at 249 and Louetta. Or at least a few of them: “The property would be used for educational purposes, but the size of the acquisition is still being determined, said Steve Lestarjette, associate vice chancellor of public affairs for Lone Star College. HP declined comment Thursday.” [Houston Chronicle]
ANOTHER BUYER FOR HP PARTS Somebody’s interested in those 8 empty office buildings on the former Compaq Computer campus off 249 and Louetta: “A little more than a year after Hewlett-Packard Co. put its 103-acre office campus on the sales block, the computer company is working with a buyer to finalize a sales agreement. Sources involved with the deal tell GlobeSt.com that following months of negotiations, the 2-million-square-foot office campus could be under contract within the next few weeks to a local buyer.” [Globe St.]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: FORMER WEST OAKS MALL OWNER TO RETIRE IN NEW HOME “[Edward H. Okun] has been in jail since he was arrested by the Feds March 17, 2008. This week he was convicted in a Richmond, Va. Federal Court of 23 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, bulk cash smuggling and perjury the maximum sentence for which is 400 years so ‘Fast Eddie’ will die in a federal prison. All those charges related to his having ‘borrowed’ $126 million in 1031 exchange funds he was holding in escrow for 350 clients across the country. His cohorts and co-conspirators had previously pleaded guilty 10 years (Lara Coleman) and 5 years (David Field and Richard Simring) — all former employees (CCO, CFO and Counsel to) IPofA, Okun’s supposed real estate investment company. His defense tried to describe him as a business man with a plan that failed. West Oaks Mall would be just one example of Okun’s brilliant investment acumen. More indictments likely to follow.” [E. H. Callanan, commenting on JCPenney at West Oaks Mall: To the Bank]
TAKING A BITE OUT OF WHOLE FOODS That new Whole Foods Market coming to Post Oak Blvd. in the Galleria may not end up being quite the giant originally envisioned, says Nancy Sarnoff: “Developer Ed Wulfe, who’s building the BLVD Place mixed-use project where the Whole Foods will go, recently said the parties are working on amending the lease to reduce the size of the store, originally planned for 80,000 square feet. Put in context, the Kirby Whole Foods is about 40,000 square feet and Central Market is about 75,000 square feet. An 80,000-square-foot store would have been on par with the company’s flagship market in Austin, where customers can eat at mini-restaurants, chose from hundreds of varieties of beer, cheeses and a seafood counter that smokes, slices and fries to order. In a related move, Whole Foods recently announced that it was keeping its store on Woodway and Voss open. The plan was to close it when the Post Oak store opened. [Houston Chronicle; previously in Swamplot]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHITE OAK DECO STRIP “Per HAIF, the tower rendering on this sign has been replaced by a rendering of a renovated version of the current retail center.” [ArlingtonSt, commenting on White Oak Tower: It Was All Just a Bad Drawing]
Here’s a surprise: a construction permit for a new 23-story Chinatown Asiatown condominium tower was issued yesterday for Park 8 Place. Remember Park8? That’s the freeway feeder megastrip project planned for just across Brays Bayou from Arthur Storey Park, along Beltway 8 south of Bellaire Blvd. The one that called itself “The Land of Oz.”
The entire development was supposed to include three 20-something-story residential towers, a hospital, two 2-story retail-and-office strips, and a couple of parking garages — all in a quaint freeway-and-park-side setting. A foundation was poured for the first condo building last year, but Park 8 CEO David Wu put the project on hold after he was unable to secure financing. So the construction crane came down.
Over at Eating Our Words, Katharine Shilcutt has posted photos of the now-vacant longtime home of Las Alamedas Restaurant. As noted in this featured comment from a Swamplot reader, the restaurant packed up and rolled away late last month, after long-extended lease negotiations failed. Restaurant owner Jorge Sneider told the Houston Business Journal the building’s new landlords were demanding a significant rent increase.
