BRAZOS MALL CLOSURE RUMORS DENIED, STORE BY STORE Sure, The Limited and Waldenbooks in Lake Jackson are shutting down. But more important: All other stores at the Brazos Mall are staying open! “El Chico, a Mexican restaurant located in the mall, has had many people asking them if they are closing, said Dorian Farciert, marketing director for El Chico. The constant questions have become frustrating and a little demoralizing, especially considering the restaurant is not closing, she said. ‘We are doing really well,’ she said. ‘We have no intentions of closing.’ Farciert said she and the El Chico staff are getting tired of the rumors that the restaurant is planning to close. ‘We know we’re not closing,’ she said. . . . Rumors also have been spread that JC Penney is closing. Though a few JC Penney stores in other states might be closing, the JC Penney in Lake Jackson plans to remain open, Supervisor Chanel Nelson said. In fact, the store was just remodeled, she said. . . . Mall officials confirmed Dillard’s does not plan to close, either. Julie Bull, a spokeswoman for Dillard’s, said the corporate office has not announced any closings for Lake Jackson. . . . Sears is doing well and has no plans to close, [a Sears employee] said.” [The Facts]
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Malls
Last week Lucky Strike Lanes announced that the stalled buildout of the company’s new upscale bowling alley and lounge in Houston Pavilions would be “put on hold” — indefinitely. This time the company isn’t complaining about delayed equipment deliveries, though. It’s delayed money deliveries:
“At the moment we are seeking financing to complete the project and are having meaningful conversations with potential Houston-based partners as well as investors from elsewhere in the country,†Lucky Strike President Dolf Berle said. “We are still dedicated and committed to opening in Houston.â€
Meanwhile, this past Wednesday night HAIF poster houstonartstudent reported the quiet withdrawal of two minor — and seemingly out-of-place — retail tenants:
THE FAIRY DUST WAS REAL It’s going to be tougher for 4- to 12-year-old Houston girls to find makeover parties once the Club Libby Lu stores in the Baybrook Mall, Deerbrook Mall, Galleria, First Colony Mall, and The Woodlands Mall all close. Saks has announced it is shutting down all 88 Club Libby Lu locations nationwide by the first part of next year. “In an effort to fully comprehend just what has been lost, let us now read from Club Libby Lu’s explanation of their services. ‘At the party, girls arrive at the Club. They are all greeted by a fairy and make a wish on her fairy dust. Each girl then creates her own secret Club name. Then their Libby Dusâ„¢ comes true. After dressing up and playing games, they visit our Goodie Shop and make their own Goodie Bags. Singing and Dancing, all the girls celebrate the guest of honor.’ This is the part of the post where we’d write something to sort of wrap up, but we’re too busy laughing and have decided to quit while we’re ahead.” [Consumerist]
At the new House of Blues last night: Jay-Z. And three blocks away, Books-A-Million and a roman-numeral flagship version of Forever 21 are now open! But between them in Downtown’s brand-new mixed-use street-hovering mall? Not much going on . . . yet:
The developers of the three block long Houston Pavilions said the pavilions will be the place to go, but for now it’s mainly a lot of space.
“It’s different because you don’t have a lot of nightlife down here. But with the restaurant, the Foundations Room, and the music hall at the House of Blues, we are going to bring people to the Pavilions,” [said] Deb Eybers, President of the House of Blues.
They won’t just bring people. Tenants will also be coming to the area. But for now there are just a handful of businesses.
More are slated to come on line in December and even more in the spring. Then the complex will be at 60 percent capacity.
The complex extends from Main St. to Caroline between Dallas and Polk — only a few surface-parking-lot blocks from the Toyota Center and Discovery Green.
DELINQUENT DEBT: WEST OAKS MALL SALE! Here’s another chance to clean up some of the wreckage left by mysterious investor Edward Okun: “West Oaks Mall in Houston . . . has $81.3 million in delinquent debt attached to it in the form of commercial mortgage-backed securities. Joseph Luzinski, the federally appointed bankruptcy trustee for West Oaks Mall, said he hopes to sell the mall by year’s end, though store closures continue to hamper its value. [The mall] . . . is about 80% occupied, having lost a J.C. Penney, Linens ‘n Things and Whitehall Jewelers. The mall recently cut a deal to keep its Steve & Barry’s LLC store open amid that retailer’s bankruptcy. The special servicer for the mall’s debt, LNR Partners Inc., attempted to foreclose in September 2007, but Mr. Okun forestalled the move by putting the mall into Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection the next month. A federal grand jury indicted Mr. Okun on fraud charges last March after his 1031 Tax Group LLP, a company that helped facilitate tax-free real-estate deals for small investors, collapsed into bankruptcy and didn’t return $132 million of investors’ money.” [Wall St. Journal; previously]
An austere bit of stationery is taped to the door of Bice Ristorante in the Galleria, indicating that mall owner Simon Property Group has changed the locks until Bice comes up with $164,731.37 in rent. The letter is dated from mid-July. And somebody has finally noticed!
“Seriously, how do you fall this far behind on rent?,” asks Tasty Bits author Misha. A few pix below:
The drive-thru mall with extras known as Pearland Town Center opens this Wednesday, at the intersection of 288 and FM 518! But it’ll be so much more than just a collection of chain stores arranged neatly in a giant parking lot:
Sixty-two apartments rest on top of retail stores, giving residents a downtown feel without the hassle of daily traffic. Granite countertops complement the kitchen of each unit along with stainless-steel appliances.
The above-retail units will be available for leasing July 30 while another set of 238 freestanding residential units will be accessible in late 2009. One-bedroom apartments will lease for $1,300 per month, and two-bedroom loft apartments will lease for $1,900 per month.
75-percent of the 85-percent-leased mall will be open Wednesday, reports David Kaplan in the Chronicle.
- Pearland Town Center ready for grand opening [Brazosport Facts]
- Macy’s makes its way to Pearland [Houston Chronicle]
- New shopping mecca set to open [abc13]
- Pearland Town Center (with sound)
- Pearland’s New Drive-Thru Mall [Swamplot]
Plan of Pearland Town Center: CBL & Associates
BECKS PRIME LOCATION FOR A SPORTS BAR That space on the west side of the Memorial City Mall where the Roger Clemens Rocket Sports Grill was supposed to open . . . before all Roger Clemens memorabilia was removed from it? It’s now scheduled to open this summer as . . . the Becks Prime Sportatorium. [Houston Business Journal]
Opening in two weeks: A 15,000-square-foot generic sports bar in Memorial City Mall. Hey, wasn’t that supposed to be the Rocket Sports Grill?
Allison Wollam reports in the Houston Business Journal that Roger Clemens’s plans for a burger empire appear to have been scuttled:
. . . all traces of the seven-time Cy-Young award winner have been erased from the would-be restaurant site.
Just one month ago, construction workers were busy erecting a large red “Rocket” sign at the entrance of the restaurant, while Clemens’ baseball jerseys from the Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Houston Astros and The University of Texas Longhorns hung in the entry.
As of this week, the Clemens memorabilia had been removed. The restaurant — which is still under construction — now houses wide-screen televisions, NASCAR video games and a variety of non-Clemens’ related baseball memorabilia.
- Rocket Sports Grill strikes out after several swings and misses [Houston Business Journal]
An update on the 1031-exchange debacle surrounding the West Oaks Mall: In March, the mysterious Edward Okun — the mall’s owner — was indicted by a Virginia grand jury on charges of mail fraud, for misappropriating $132 million invested in his 1031 exchange company, 1031 Tax Group — along with bulk cash smuggling and related charges. Days later, Okun was arrested in his home on Hibiscus Island in Miami Beach.
To the 340 investors who had trusted $150 million of their 1031-exchange funds to supposedly-qualified intermediaries controlled by Okun, this was good news. But it doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll get their money back — or find a way around the huge tax liability now associated with their failed exchanges.
The 1031-exchange investors in Okun’s 1031 Tax Group had hoped to recoup some of their missing funds by raiding Okun’s other assets — including the West Oaks Mall. But the Okun-controlled companies that owned the mall declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October.
Today, the Costar Group reports that the freestanding building formerly known as JCPenney at the West Oaks Mall has been put up for sale, along with a mall in Salina, Kansas. The trustee in the bankruptcy case has hired Keen Realty, the new real estate division of KPMG Corporate Finance, to market both properties.
- Okun Assets Go on the Market [CoStar Group]
- Case History Prior to the Appointment of the Trustee [The 1031 Tax Group Bankruptcy Trustee]
- West Oaks Mall: Your Exchanges Are No Good Here [Swamplot]
Having finished with the Memorial Villages, Robert Boyd’s latest bikeride documentary takes us through the neighborhoods lining Gessner, south of I-10:
The houses here were built mostly between 1959 and 1965. The lots tend to be small compared to those in the Villages (just east of these subdivisions). In fact, if you go immediately south or west, the lots and the houses tend to be larger. This is where Memorial starts to become the more familiar kind of Houston suburb–similar houses on same-sized lots, with developers reusing floor-plans and exterior designs.
As usual, Boyd is on the lookout for anything unusual:
I had a Steve Reich album on my IPod as I rode (Sextet, Piano Phase, and Eight Lines played by the London Steve Reich Ensemble–I recommend it highly), and it occurred to me that a neighborhood like this is like a Steve Reich piece, where there is a comfortable, rhythmic sameness with tiny changes as you go along. The tiny changes wouldn’t have even caught my eye while riding through the much more heterogeneous Memorial Villages, but here they stand out.
After the jump: A few more pix of Boyd’s West Memorial picks!
Reader photos and reports from the Houston Premium Outlets opening on 290 last weekend:
I had heard somewhere that the mall was supposed to have a Southwest theme, but with all the logos plastered over the entrance towers, it looks like they might have been aiming for Early NASCAR. Aside from that, though, it’s a surprisingly nice place. Yeah, there were lots of people there, but once you get out of your car, the mall handles crowds well. It’s much nicer than a lot of Houston non-outlet malls, and a whole lot less cheesy or pretentious.
After the jump: those logo-festooned towers and more on-the-spot pix! Plus: Chicken Now: Here. Now!
If the popularity of our story earlier this week about the Houston Premium Outlets is any guide, the new outlet mall off 290 in Cypress ought to be absolutely swamped this weekend. And hey — we didn’t have much to say about it, other than to report that the mall opens today. (And no, Swamplot isn’t offering any discounts, either.)
Evidently, a lot of people want to find out about this place.
So if you do decide to brave the crowds this weekend and have a look around yourself, feel free to send us your reports, videos, or photos — so we can share them with the Googling hordes online.
Drawing of Houston Premium Outlets: Chelsea Premium Outlets
Update: On-the-spot reader reports!
Fairfield residents: You picked the right location! Just outside your neighborhood’s front gates, a huge new outlet mall is scheduled to open . . . in just two days!
What’s going to be there? The Ecko Unltd. outlet store! The Juicy Couture outlet store! The Under Armour outlet store! Jody Maroni’s Sausage Kingdom! And Chicken Now! They’re all opening this Thursday, March 27th!
Well . . . almost. As a commenter on HAIF points out, you’ll apparently have to wait for Chicken Now, which on the Houston Premium Outlets website is listed only as “opening soon.” The site indicates 100 stores in the 427,000-square-foot outdoorish highwayside complex will be ready for this weekend’s grand opening. 13 more are slated to open later.
After the jump: you’ll look askance at the plans!
Here’s what we know so far about the new 40-story hotel-and-condo tower Medistar Corporation is planning for the corner of Main St. and Dryden, between Rice’s new Collaborative Research Center and the Baylor Clinic on the west side of Main: not a whole lot.
But at 40 stories, the new building would likely be the tallest tower in the Texas Medical Center. (The new Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza is only 31.) That’s taller than those twin hypodermics, too.
A lot-line variance for the project is item number 111 before the Planning Commission this afternoon. And the request provides a few clues. Medistar wants the same 10-foot setback along Main St. that the Baylor Clinic has, so the new building can have a similar passenger dropoff and a “pedestrian friendly” entry on that side. The building’s longer axis will be perpendicular to Main. The arguments imply Medistar intends to have “ornamental decorations and balconies” on the Main St. side, and that the tower will be linked by skybridge to the Medical Center main campus across the street.
According to the Southgate Neighborhood Newsletter, the tower will include a 1200-car parking facility.
This isn’t the only new building type Medistar is planning to stir into the Medical Center mix. A block down the street, just south of the company’s Best Western Hotel at 6700 Main St., Medistar is planning a 600,000-sq.-ft. medical mall. The Houston Business Journal reported on that project late last month:
The high-rise would house offices and showrooms for companies that sell equipment, supplies and pharmaceuticals to Texas Medical Center institutions. Tenants could also include organizations working to develop new medical technologies and treatments.
- Six Thousand Six Hundred Main replat No 1 (more information available today only from pps. 76-78 of the agenda linked at the bottom of this page) [Houston Planning & Development Department]
- Southgate News (PDF) [Southgate Civic Club]
- Memorial Hermann Medical Plaza [Texas Architect]
- Medistar tests medical mall market [Houston Business Journal]
- Medistar Corporation
- St. Luke’s: We’re Selling So We Can Renovate and Demolish [Swamplot]