Leasing

Downtown
01/03/11 12:46pm

Books-A-Million Bailing out of Houston Pavilions

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Leasing, Malls, Openings and Closings, Retail
16 Comments

Update, 1/4: Reverse! Books-A-Million is gonna stay put.

Southeastern U.S. chain Books-A-Million has decided to close its Downtown Houston store on January 15th. The decision has left management of Houston Pavilions feeling rather put-out: Managers at the downtown mall reportedly had lowered the bookstore’s rent on the 2-story, approximately 23,000-sq.-ft. space facing the light rail line at 1201 Main St. to just $3,000 a month — in hopes the concession would prevent it from shutting down. A source insists the store “wasn’t a huge flop,” but says that the Katy Mills Mall Books-A-Million typically brought in more than 5 times the sales of the Downtown store — even though the 2 locations are about the same size.

Another factor that may have played a role in Books-A-Million’s decision to close: A pending lawsuit filed against the company after the location’s former manager reportedly kicked a man and his wheelchair-riding, apparently mentally disabled son out of the store. “At some point [the son] soiled himself and the [manager] took this as a vagrance and kicked them out. Needless to say the boy’s family were outraged,” a source tells Swamplot. The manager is no longer with the company, though reportedly for “unrelated” reasons.

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Leasing
12/28/10 12:30pm

A First Glimpse of Uchi in Houston: Leasing Lower Westheimer Retail by the Piece

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Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail
13 Comments

Here’s a first look at the not-so-distant future of Lower Westheimer, just a block east of Montrose, where sushi chef Tyson Cole and the owners of Austin’s Uchi and Uchiko restaurants plan to open a first Houston venture. The new Houston Uchi won’t be taking over the whole corner. The neighboring spaces will instead be available à la carte: The new owners are picturing as many as 3 separate businesses (one with a second floor and rooftop deck) leasing the 4,700-sq.-ft. building that used to house Caffe Den and Privé at 908 Westheimer. Also available, around the corner on Grant St.: a little 714-sq.-ft. structure with the address of 904B Westheimer. It’ll share restrooms with Uchi, which will be taking over the former Felix Mexican Restaurant space on the corner, at 904A. The left side of the Grant St. rendering above is the only view we’ve seen so far that shows any part of Uchi itself, but it contains a few clues about how Austin architect Michael Hsu (creator of the original Uchi on South Lamar as well as Houston’s Sushi Raku in Midtown) plans to transform a vintage Tex-Mex classic into something sushi-worthy. It looks like at least a few of those arched windows will stay:

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Leasing
12/17/10 3:43pm

Will Late Nite Pie Rise Again?

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Midtown, Nightlife, Openings and Closings
16 Comments

Update, 12/22: Late Nite Pie has reopened!

It looks like there’s been another shut-down at Late Nite Pie in Midtown. As first noted by the Houston Press late yesterday, the entrance to the pizza joint has been boarded up, with a stern-sounding note warning off trespassers and indicating the locks have been changed. The person listed as a contact on the note (presumably from the property’s landlord) would not comment on the situation. It may be a bit early to count Late Night out, though: Bell’s restaurant was able to start up again after a similar shuttering last year. The restaurant moved to its current location at 302 Tuam (on the corner of Baldwin) in 2008.

Photo: Aaron Carpenter

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Downtown
12/02/10 1:45pm

Successor to Scott Gertner’s Skybar Coming to Houston Pavilions

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Leasing, Nightlife, Openings and Closings
7 Comments

Skybar owner Scott Gertner has found a new space for his jazz club. It’ll be on the 3rd floor of Houston Pavilions — one block west of the House of Blues and Lucky Strike, and directly across the open-air mall from “swing space” originally planned for retail but now being leased as office space by an energy company. Scott Gertner’s Skybar, on the 10th floor of the office building at 3400 Montrose, closed over the summer, after Gertner tired of dealing with building maintenance issues left unaddressed by a new owner.

Houston Pavilions’ 3rd floor is pretty high up there, but Gertner says the new venue will drop the SkyBar name for the multi-level space (it’ll just be called Scott Gertner’s). At 13,000 sq. ft. (and a capacity of 700), it’ll be slightly larger than the old club too. He tells Chronicle reporter Joey Guerra the new interior, designed by Uptown Sushi architect Isaac Preminger, will feature 3 outdoor patios, an “arena-style” stage, and a full kitchen. Directly downstairs from the club, at the corner of Dallas and Fannin: BCBGMaxAzria and McCormick & Schmick’s, shown above.

Photo: Flickr user sabotai

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Downtown
10/26/10 6:13pm

Some Plans in Their Wrench

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Leasing, New Construction, Office Buildings, Office Space, Quicklink
2 Comments

SOME PLANS IN THEIR WRENCH And who thought a building shaped like a pipe wrench wouldn’t attract a natural-gas firm as its lead tenant? Hines announced yesterday that UK-based BG Group will move its Houston offices from the Panhandle Energy Tower where Westheimer hits Alabama in the Galleria to MainPlace, the Pickard Chilton-designed spec building still under construction at 811 Main St. Downtown. The company will take over floors 29 through 34 in the 46-story tower, but may fill up more later. And it’s changing the building’s name — no, not to Pez Tower — but to BG Group Place. KPMG put dibs on the building’s top 4 floors more than 2 years ago. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Skyscraper Page user Johnme

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Apartments
10/22/10 5:24pm

The Montrose Apartment Where Mother Passed Away, but Lingered for a While Anyway

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Avondale, Leasing, Montrose
1 Comment

The 31-year-old man who lived in unit 2 of this fourplex at 601 Fairview in Montrose apparently didn’t get out much; at the moment he’s being evaluated at the Harris County Mental Health Service Center. The body of his 66-year-old mother, Abigail Saucedo, was discovered in the apartment yesterday morning; it will soon undergo an autopsy. The wafting odor of her decomposing corpse had been noted even across the street — at the original Barnaby’s Cafe, where patio diners over the weekend couldn’t quite place that curious smell. Ultimately, a neighboring tenant found the unidentified stench too much to bear, and called the police. The tenant at No. 2, who had been living in the property for 8 months, at first told the cops that the smell was probably from a dead animal underneath the property, and that he didn’t want to let them in to check out his place because it might disturb his mother, who was not feeling well. Earlier, he’d turned away the property manager with a similar excuse — that his mother was asleep and he didn’t want to wake her.

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Johnson Space Center
10/20/10 7:18pm

The Outpost Tavern Fire: What’s the Inside Story?

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Leasing, Nightlife, Webster
3 Comments

Already removed from the Outpost Tavern near the corner of Nasa Parkway and Egret Bay Blvd. by the time it burned to a wet crisp last Friday: all the signed astronaut photos and NASA memorabilia that used to line its walls — plus electrical and gas service to the building. That the fire occurred despite the absence of those last two items “automatically makes the fire suspicious,” Webster fire chief Patrick Shipp told the Bay Area Citizen earlier this week. But when did all those items make their exits?

Late last year, proprietor Stephanie Foster announced the storied longtime JSC hangout — it was known as the U-Joint back in the moon-mission days — would be closing in January because new landowners wanted to build “something else” on the site. But a few weeks’ worth of farewell bashes had to be canceled after Foster and her husband found themselves locked out of the building on January 16th. Foster’s landlord, Walter Wright, told Houston Chronicle beer blogger Ronnie Crocker at the time that he and his brothers owned the building, the business, and its contents, and that they planned to move the former army barracks building to a strip of land they owned 100 feet of way — and reopen it as a family restaurant. Wright said he felt he needed to shutter the building immediately because of concerns that valuable NASA memorabilia were already being removed:

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Comments
09/29/10 1:20pm

Comment of the Day: You Could’ve Had a Chain Store!

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Franchises and Chain Stores, Leasing, Quicklink, Retail, Shopping Centers, Washington Ave, Washington Corridor
7 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: YOU COULD’VE HAD A CHAIN STORE! “this was a terrible gym location, and parking was going to be a battle from day one. hate to be johnny-come-suburb, but it was a better call to work a deal to redevelop the site with CVS and give them their free-standing deal with drive thru. Soma would be down the street somewhere, hopefully with easier access/parking, crew would not be under, and this property would be better served than the future it has. now the owner spent time/effort with this problem, has a built-out gym that is not usable for another gym (nightclub, here we come…for 9 months), has 3500 sf that doesn’t lease (my guess is from lack of parking/ability to pay the rent) and has a basement (???) that will never lease. all of this, and he could be on a beach right now, getting his checks in the mail from year 4 of 20 with CVS as the return addressee.” [jg, commenting on Fitness-Club Scavengers at the Washington Ave Crew] Photo of West End Shopping Center, Washington Ave at Shepherd: Aaron Carpenter

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Leasing
09/20/10 1:44pm

Last Call for Two Rows

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Openings and Closings, Retail, Rice Village, Shopping Centers
34 Comments

Having achieved the title of “Houston’s last remaining brewpub,” Rice Village’s Two Rows is now scheduled to close at the beginning of next month. General partner Rusty Loeffler tells the Chronicle‘s Ronnie Crocker (and a tipster tells us) that Weingarten Realty was asking far more than the company was willing to spend to sign a new long-term lease for the 10,000-sq.-ft. upstairs space in the Village Arcade on University at Morningside. Now ready to move into half of that space: Jason’s Deli. Loeffler says his restaurant “may look at other locations in Houston” that’ll have room for the company’s brewing equipment.

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Leasing
09/14/10 1:38pm

Is Numbers’ Number Up? “Former Nightclub” Available for Lease

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Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Nightlife
59 Comments

“Montrosians are freaking out,” writes SL, one of several readers lighting up Swamplot’s tip line with reports that the building housing Numbers has been listed for lease. A flyer making the rounds from Davis Commercial, identifying the property at 314 Westheimer as the “Former ‘Numbers’ Nightclub,” says the 9,000-sq.-ft. building, which comes with its very own 23,088-sq.-ft. “parking field,” is available at a rate of $18 per gross sq. ft. The flyer shows photos of the DJ booth and main dance floor, but doesn’t mention any allowance for buildout.

But uh . . . Numbers hasn’t announced it’s shutting down. Even the ever-polite Nancy Sarnoff is unable to parse the apparent paradox:

the operator of the 32-year-old iconic music venue says it’s not closing. And the property owner says Numbers isn’t being kicked out. . . .

Davis Commercial’s Mark Davis, the broker hired to market the space, says the owner would like to “retenant” the building if he can find the right operator.

SL notes: “They have a several upcoming shows and events still on the calendar so it might be a case of staying open til the very last minute.”

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Leasing
09/10/10 11:00am

Main St. Feng Shui Rock Gives Up the Fight; Wichita St. Sha Chi Running Wild Again

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Museum District, Office Buildings, Real Estate Marketing
4 Comments

The big rock hanging out on the Main St. sidewalk in front of the former Weldon Cafeteria building next to the Lawndale Art Center has vanished! The Houston office of architecture firm BNIM had placed the thing there this summer — in consultation with a Feng Shui master — to combat the negative energy lumbering down Wichita St. and pointed straight at the company’s first-floor studio space. Its lease up at the end of August, BNIM jumped ship to new offices in that sorta leafy mid-seventies office park at 4200 Westheimer between Highland Village and BoConcept — all under cover of the protective services provided by that real-as-life crag the company got from San Jacinto Stone:

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Leasing
09/02/10 9:58am

Houston’s Natural Gas Parks

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Northeast Houston, Parks, Quicklink
25 Comments

HOUSTON’S NATURAL GAS PARKS Isn’t it about time this city got back to basics? A company called Southern Star Exploration will soon be setting up drilling rigs outside 3 city parks and a city service center in northeast Houston. Yesterday city council approved a 3-year oil and gas lease to let the company explore possible reserves under Herman Brown Park, Maxey Park, Brock Park, and a public works facility on McCarty Rd. What’s in it for the city? $200,000 for the lease, plus a promised 25 percent of any royalties. Mayor Parker says she doesn’t want drilling rigs set up on city property, but she’ll “look for more opportunities” for horizontal or slant drilling to get at what lies beneath. [abc13] Photo of Herman Brown Park: Gulf Coast Bird Observatory

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Commercial Real Estate
08/31/10 11:54am

Bad Breakup at Bayou Place: Behind the Scenes of the Angelika Drama

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Downtown, Leasing, Openings and Closings, Retail
16 Comments

The high-stakes leasing drama that culminated in Sunday’s sudden early-morning shuttering of the Angelika Film Center at Bayou Place Downtown included some familiar plot elements: the wandering eye, the unwillingness to commit, the threats of retaliation, the uh . . . 30-day notice to terminate. Andrew Dansby and Nancy Sarnoff track the courtroom scenes:

Angelika’s landlord, Bayou Place Limited Partnership, filed suit more than a week ago claiming the cinema was threatening to remove equipment from the theater if it did not receive a new lease.

The landlord’s petition outlines a situation dating to 2007, when the theater’s first 10-year lease expired. It did not exercise an option to renew for another 10 years.

The Angelika – also called Bayou Cinemas in the petition – continued as a month-to-month tenant at reduce rent, according to the petition.

Bayou Place and the Angelika continued discussions on a new lease, even as the landlord, an affiliate of the Cordish Co., sought a tenant that would enter into a long-term lease for a cinema.

But during a meeting, according to the petition, a principal of Bayou Cinemas threatened to remove equipment if the parties couldn’t reach a deal. Based on the initial lease agreement, the property belongs to the landlord, the petition claims.

The theater’s lawyer has filed a general denial of the allegations in the suit.

And oh, the broken promises: Angelika says the company had received official notice ending its month-to-month tenancy as of September 18th; Bayou Place’s general manager says Angelika changed its mind about committing to something longer term. How will it all end?

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Attractions
08/30/10 12:30pm

Angelika Theater Update: Who’s on Deck?

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Downtown, Leasing, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
15 Comments

ANGELIKA THEATER UPDATE: WHO’S ON DECK? From a statement issued this morning by Gary Rhodes, Bayou Place Limited Partnership’s general manager: “The Angelika Film Center had a terrific run at Bayou Place over the past 13 years. We had hoped that they would stay longer but unfortunately, after saying they would commit, Angelika changed its mind. It is amazing to think how far downtown Houston has evolved since Bayou Place first opened and helped spark the rebirth of downtown. . . . We will be upgrading Angelika with an operator of the highest quality and we will be making the announcement shortly.” [MyFox Houston; previously on Swamplot]

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Comments
08/18/10 3:10pm

Comment of the Day: Graduating Valhalla

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Institutional Buildings, Leasing, Nightlife, Quicklink, Rice University
4 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GRADUATING VALHALLA “The Rice Thresher reported in 2009 that the administration was considering raising Valhalla’s rent by almost 250%. [Update: The actual proposed increase turned out to be 30 percent, taking into account existing fees; see comment below —Ed.] Since the staff is all-volunteer, the rent increase would be passed along in the price of beer, which is one of the main reasons to go to Valhalla of course. (The other being that Rice is the largest outdoor drinking area in Houston.) So even if the administration isn’t planning on taking Valhalla down all at once, it could be done in by a slow strangulation of rising costs.” [Katk, commenting on Rice Taking KTRU Off the Airwaves, Handing Over Humble Transmitter to KUHF]

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