09/26/13 4:15pm

The next Dunkin’ Donuts in Houston will be in Humble. Though this newest one, to open next Tuesday at 18315 West Lake Houston Pkwy., will have the all-important drive-thru window, it will also include some room for those who need to stay a bit longer: The standalone in Orleans Square will have 2 conference rooms geared up with projection equipment, each of which could hold about 20 people, give or take.

Additionally, Prime Property reports that there will be one more Dunkin’ Donuts to open in the area before the end of the year and as many as 60 in the next 5 years.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

09/09/13 11:00am

That slow-to-develop retail district on the old prison farm in Sugar Land, rehabilitated into The Crossing at Telfair, appears to be locking up a new occupant. This sign, says the reader who snapped the photo, recently popped up behind the Whataburger and the H-E-B on Hwy. 6, just to the north along University Blvd. of the site where that new 6,500-seat performance hall is planned to be built. No opening date for the Austin Tex-Mex chain has been announced, though the Sugar Land Sun reports that the place should be good to go by the end of the year.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

06/17/13 3:00pm

Here come more billboard double entendres: The Baytown Sun reports that Buc-ee’s is building a big ’un on the I-10 feeder and John Martin Rd. later this year. And, apparently, the proposed 60,000-sq.-ft. convenience store, gas station, and jerky trafficker will get top billing: Part of the deal — a Chapter 380 Agreement — involves a waived height restriction for the store’s beaver beacon, so Buc-ee’s can raise one 100 ft. into the air. In return, Baytown will get a bit of room to put its own name up there too. (This will be the first time, the Sun reports, that Buc-ee’s will share its sign.) The store’s planned for about 18 acres on the southwest corner of John Martin Rd. and I-10 near the San Jacinto Mall. The Sun reports that it’s expected to open in 2014.

Photo of Lake Jackson Buc-ee’s: Judy Baxter [license]

06/07/13 10:00am

It would seem that McDonald’s has resolved the steely staring contest between these 2 signs from 2 different eras, having gone ahead and ushered out the old restaurant here on Elgin and Cullen near the U of H campus to put up a brand-new one, a regional rep from the company confirms. No renderings of the next generation are available yet, but the rep says that it should be open in time for the fall semester.

Photo: Allyn West

06/06/13 3:00pm

FLESHING OUT WILLOWBROOK’S DINING OPTIONS Rivals in that niche sports-and-cleavage market Twin Peaks and Hooters will have a bit more competition starting today, reports Eater Houston, and this from the only restaurant that’s legally allowed to call itself a “breastaurant:” Bikinis Sports Bar and Grill — which in April trademarked the term — opened its first location last month in The Woodlands; this new one will be at the former Burger Girl at 17117 Tomball Pkwy. near the Willowbrook Mall. And what, you might wonder, sets Bikinis apart? It might be the food: “In addition to traditional American bar-and-grill fare and cocktails and microbrews,” reports the Houston Business Journal, “Bikinis offers its Big Bucking Burger. Customers can win a T-shirt if they finish the $24.95 five-pound burger on their own.” [Eater Houston; Houston Chronicle; Houston Business Journal] Photo: Bikinis Sports Bar and Grill

06/04/13 10:30am

Dunkin’ Donuts announced yesterday where it’ll be sprinkling 4 new stores across Houston. This rendering shows the standalone planned for 18315 W. Lake Houston Pkwy. in Humble. There’ll also be a location inside IAH’s Terminal E, one at 4130 Fairmont Pkwy. in Pasadena, and another, as suspected, at the renovated former Arby’s at 2330 S. Shepherd and Fairview. Last month, the chain opened the first of a reported 24 stores planned for the Houston area at 10705 Westheimer in Westchase.

Rendering: Rogue Architects via Houston Business Journal

02/20/13 4:15pm

OFFICE MONOPOLY Note: Story has been updated. Houston Business Journal reports that Office Max and Office Depot are combining into one global office force to be reckoned with. The $1.17-billion, all-stock deal between the two big-box paper pushers is expected to create a single company — with less overhead and less overlap, too, you’d think — that’s worth $18 billion. Also, the Houston Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reports that developer Ed Wulfe says that “9 or 10 of the 40 Office Depots and 19 Office Maxes in greater Houston are close enough to each other that one will have to close.” One of those, pictured here, is located in the strip center at Richmond and Kirby. [Houston Business Journal; Prime Property] Photo: Panoramio user Wolfgang Houston

08/13/12 11:55am

GAMESTOP’S APPLE-POLISHING STRATEGY Strip-center mainstay GameStop has a new strategy to keep itself from going the way of video-game cartridges: changing its business in the direction of another strip-center mainstay: the mobile phone store. The company began a program of buying used iPhones last fall; it’s now ready to remake itself as a leading reseller of used Apple gadgets. Company employees are working on coming up to speed on repairing Android devices as well. Seventy-one of the Texas chain’s 6,600 locations are in the greater Houston area. Sixty stores around the country have already begun selling prepaid wireless plans; an analyst suggests selling phone plans to go with used phones could become a big new business for the chain. [SF Chronicle] Photo of GameStop Outlet at Westheimer and Hwy. 6: Dr. Mario Kart

08/06/12 2:49pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU’LL REMEMBER THE CHICKEN “All of you are completely missing the forest for the trees. What we have witnessed in the last week is one of the most brilliant marketing campaigns in the U.S. A restaurant chain that is pretty much concentrated in one corner of the U.S. has obtain national notoriety. Chik-fil-a the company already has and will continue to have a non-discrimination policy in regards to sexual orientation (i.e. they don’t discriminate against homosexuality). The president of the company being interviewed and making the statements that started all this was a calculated move. Chik-fil-a knew there would be a backlash and big support along with controversy. For all those anti-chik-fil-a posts in the social media, Chik-fil-a thanks you. Any publicity is good publicity. Because of these events (which the majority will forget in a couple of months), the name chik-fil-a will stick in a vast new audience that never heard of the chain. And all this will little marketing dollars spent. This is playing right into Chik-fil-a’s planned expansion across the U.S. Again, Chik-fil-a thanks all hate filled posts in the social media world. You just helped get it’s name out while knowing the masses won’t remember the controversy.” [kjb434, commenting on Headlines: Finding Ribs at Park Memorial; More Business for Chick-fil-A]

06/26/12 12:48pm

WHERE THE ALDIS ARE GOING, SO FAR Only about a month after announcing plans to pepper the Houston market with 30 Aldi discount supermarkets over the next 3 years — with a third of them up and running by next spring, the Trader Joe’s cousin has already bought 2 properties to go with the already announced location just outside Oak Park Trails in Katy: 2.8 acres at Fairmont Parkway and Watters Road in Pasadena, and 2.5 acres at Hwy. 6 and West Bellfort in Sugar Land. [Real Estate Bisnow; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Aldi in Ohio: Deerfield Construction

06/26/12 12:18pm

CAMERA STORES CRYING WOLF Didn’t the country’s biggest retail camera chain already declare bankruptcy and close a bunch of its Wolf Camera and Ritz Camera stores in Houston? Yeah, but that was back in 2009; now the successor company is going down that path again, a couple years after bouncing out of bankruptcy protection. In a news release, the company’s restructuring officer makes it all sound like part of a pretty picture: “To achieve our strategic vision of a super-store chain offering unique value-added services . . . it became necessary to implement this vision through a Chapter 11 filing.” Ritz Camera & Image, which has its headquarters in Maryland, is “evaluating which of its 265 stores to close, including at least three stores in the Houston area.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]] Photo of Rice Village store: Wolf Camera

06/25/12 11:36pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: A DEDICATED FAN’S SPRING BURGER REPORT Carl’s Jr is about to open another factory of deliciousness in Spring, TX, corner of hwy 249 and Louetta Rd. built from the ground up, it started about two months ago, and just last week they hung the signs, no word on when it opens. I’ve submitted pictures to Swamplot, they might publish them soon.” [Sweetmocha, commenting on Burger Chains Ready Attack on Houston: Carl’s Jr., Smashburger, Five Guys] Photo: Sweetmocha

06/07/12 11:26am

HOUSTON PINKBERRY NO. 3: ACROSS FROM CENTRAL MARKET On the occasion of the opening of the Houston area’s second Pinkberry (in the Woodlands Mall, tomorrow), the frozen-yogurt franchisor is announcing its first inside-the-loop location: next to Walgreens, across the street from Central Market in the retail building formerly occupied by Village Kids and Janie and Jack — at 3838 Westheimer. The first area Pinkberry (pictured at right) opened last year off the Gulf Fwy. in Webster. Photo: Tone N.

05/16/12 2:03pm

TRADER JOE’S LESS-LOVED COUSIN MOVING INTO HOUSTON IN A BIG WAY Aldi isn’t exactly Trader Joe’s without the hype, but the 2 grocery chains are owned by sister companies from Germany. (Aldi Nord operates 1,200 stores in the U.S., mostly in the eastern half; Trader Joe’s is owned by Aldi Süd) Both of them specialize in private-label products. And they’ll be traveling in some of the same circles too: While Trader Joe’s is opening a measly 3 stores in the Houston area this year, its bigger and cheaper cousin has just announced a much grander Houston-opening gambit (after plans for a store outside Katy’s Oak Park Trails subdivision were met by protests from some neighbors earlier this year). The company now says it plans to invest $100 million to open 30 new Aldi stores in the Houston area over the next 3 years. And at least 10 of them should be open by next spring. There are already 37 Aldis in Texas, mostly near Dallas and Fort Worth. [Instant News Katy; PR Newswire] Photo: Garth Schweizer

05/01/12 9:24am

BLAST BEGINS TOTAL HOUSTON TAKEOVER OF BALLY TOTAL FITNESS Today’s the day all 18 remaining Texas locations of Bally Total Fitness — including 9 in Houston — are scheduled to switch over to control by their new owner, Blast! Fitness. Before it bought 39 clubs in 9 states from the struggling chain in a deal announced earlier this month, Blast was an operator of only 15 gyms in 4 northern states. Last year, Bally sold 171 clubs nationwide to LA Fitness, but held onto all of its Houston locations. Blast says it’ll honor all Bally memberships; transferred Bally members will also still be able to work out in the 60 remaining Bally clubs in other states. [Club Industry] Photo of Bally Total Fitness at 9801 Katy Fwy.: MetroNational