HOUSTON’S FIRST-EVER INNER LOOP WALMART OPENS NEXT WEEK 
“Hundreds of blue shopping carts area already lined up in the parking lot” of the “Washington Heights” Walmart SuperCenter at 111 Yale St. and Koehler, reports Charlotte Aguilar. When will customers start lining up? Sometime in advance of the scheduled October 26th opening. That’s 2 Fridays from today. If you’re bringing the family in an SUV or pickup, though, you might want to avoid crossing the Yale St. bridge just south of I-10. It’s now restricted to vehicles under 6,000 pounds. Walmart says it’s routing all supply trucks elsewise as well. [The Leader; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Charlotte Aguilar
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Openings and Closings
BEHIND THE GLASS AT THE DOWNTOWN STRIP HOUSE PEEP SHOW 
Peeking through darkened windows into the former Strip House steakhouse on McKinney St. in Houston Center, which abruptly shuttered over the summer, restaurant watcher Eric Sandler spies signs that workers have gone further than simply removing the strip-club-themed decorations that once lined its walls. Ladders and “other signs of construction” reveal designs on the space by the Pappas restaurant group, which Sandler reports is preparing to put a Pappas Bros. Steakhouse in its place. [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user jerry1540
A restaurant owned by family members of former Rockets star center Yao Ming has been shut out of the space it leases from the Houston Pavilions — for nonpayment of rent, according to a sign posted on the door by Midway Management. Yao Restaurant and Bar opened in the space near the corner of Dallas and Fannin — a few blocks from the Rockets’ home court at the Toyota Center — more than 2 years ago. A story in the NY Daily News earlier this year had owner Bill Wang saying business had been good since Ming’s retirement from the Rockets in 2011, but also giving a shout out to the Rockets’ latest star: “We want this place to be the home restaurant of Jeremy Lin.†A group headlined by former LA Lakers point guard Magic Johnson bought the 3-block Houston Pavilions complex out of bankruptcy earlier this year.
- Yao’s Locked Out Of Houston Pavillions [Eater Houston]
- At Yao’s place, Linsanity already on menu [NY Daily News]
- New owners hope to bring new life to Houston Pavilions [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: CityCentre Owner Buying Houston Pavilions
Photo: Wolfgang Houston
The retail tenants at the bottom of the Americana Building at 811 Dallas across Travis St. from Macy’s downtown have just about cleared out, reports a reader: Popeye’s, the Travis Food Store, and Zero’s Sandwich Shop (pictured at right) are already gone. Fast Signs has a sign up saying it’s moving soon. Subway is still open, but the reader reports hearing that its lease has been bought out. When the James Coney Island on the ground floor of the 15-story office block shut down 2 years ago after 35 years in the same location, a spokesperson complained to KHOU 11 News that the restaurant had been forced to close “because their building is falling apart, but the landlord won’t fix it.”
Photos: Boxer Property (top); Swamplot inbox (below)
Construction of the complex’s overall expansion isn’t quite finished yet, but a new section of the resale shop at the Memorial Assistance Ministries in Spring Branch will open officially for the first time this weekend anyway. And oh, by the way, says the group’s marketing manager, in advance of that the shop at 1625 Blalock Rd. north of Long Point is actually open already. The new section adds 4,000 sq. ft. of retail space to showcase more of the used clothing and household stuff people keep donating. Another 4,200 sq. ft. was also added to the warehouse area to sort through it all. New totals: 14,000 sq. ft. for the store, plus 8,400 sq. ft. in the warehouse. The program’s executive director says the store typically generates enough income to fund MAM adult education programs and other assistance for more than 800 families.
The new store space, designed by Kirksey, is at the northern end of the complex’s original building (in the front at right in this new photo):
There’s a changing of the guard at the strip-center endcap at 10705 Westheimer in Westchase. Workers have been taking down the signs; the Smashburger in that location closed for good on Monday. A reader claims that the burger joint, on a small strip directly adjacent to the McDonald’s at the corner of Wallingford Rd., was the chain’s worst-performing store. And: that the location has already been reserved for Dunkin’ Donuts. A franchise group plans to open 16 new Dunkin’ Donuts stores in Houston over the next 6 years.
- Previously on Swamplot: Dunkin’ Donuts’ Big Texas Push, Smashburger: Meat Candy for Strip Centers
Photos: Swamplot inbox
THE NEW MICROSOFT STORE ABOUT TO OPEN IN THE WOODLANDS MALL WILL CLOSE SOON 
Surprise! Microsoft will be opening a new store in The Woodlands Mall this fall “to meet expected demand for new Microsoft-enabled devices.” Meaning: the new Surface tablet computer and the tile-happy Windows 8 operating system. But don’t expect the store to stick around long after customers figure out the new interfaces — or give up on them for something more familiar. The Woodlands location will be one of 32 “pop up” stores around the country being thrown up for the selling season, which will more than double the software company’s retail presence for its big rollout. A schedule for the stores’ openings and closings wasn’t included in the company’s announcement. [Woodlands Online] Photo: Desman Associates
Inspired by a Kyrie O’Connor column last month decrying the absence of any Little Free Libraries in Houston, Heights resident Mag Franzoni and her husband went ahead and created one themselves. At the grand opening of the tiny custom-built bright-red exchange box perched on a couple of 4x4s in front of the home at 736 Tulane St. earlier this month, Franzoni had it stocked with a carefully pruned collection that included a biography of Ho Chi Minh, John McCain’s Character Is Destiny, Portia de Rossi’s anorexia tell-all, and Max Brooks’s World War Z, on the coming Zombie War. “I loved the idea where people could go and grab a book (and hopefully — if they can – bring a different one in return) and basically making this library into a gift that keeps on giving,” the newly minted front-yard librarian wrote the Heights Kids Group. “I hope some of you will stop by and pick up/bring a book. And if not, maybe you can share it with everyone you know so eventually everyone in Houston knows where to go when they want/need a book to read.”
Photos: Mag Franzoni
ICE CREAM MAN REOPENING MYTIBURGER 
Oak Forest’s Mytiburger, which shut down 2 weeks ago, is expected to reopen tomorrow under new ownership. Shawn Salyers, the owner of a local Baskin Robbins franchise 9 blocks away, noted the lines out the door at the tiny burger joint at 2211 W. 43rd St. after owner Kathy Reynolds-Smith announced her intention to close up shop. Salyers plans to add free Wi-Fi, a touch-screen ordering system, and an outdoor seating area under a tree outside. He’s also hired Reynolds-Smith, who ran the restaurant for 24 years after taking over for the previous owner — as a consultant. [The Leader] Photo: Charlotte Aguilar
STRIPPED Has the Strip House — the Shops at Houston Center stripper-themed steak house — closed its doors for good? Or is it just, you know, trying to renegotiate its lease with a landlord’s lockout notice for non-payment of rent taped to its McKinney St. front door? Reported outages of the Strip House’s Facebook page and Twitter feed may turn out to be mere negotiating tactics. “Our goal is to resolve this matter as soon as possible,” a release sent out this morning quotes owner Penny Glazier as saying. Her company, the Glazier Group, declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy in late 2010. The chain owns Strip Houses in 3 other cities. [Eater Houston] Photo: Flickr user jerry1540
The robbers who held up a couple of IBC Bank locations inside Houston-area Kroger stores in 2 separate incidents over the last few months won’t have those branches to kick around any more. The IBC Bank in the Kroger at 11565 Hwy. 6 South in Sugar Land (at the corner of West Airport) and the one in the store at 3135 FM 528 and Bay Area Blvd. in Friendswood (featured in the surveillance video still above) have now been shut down — along with 2 other in-Kroger locations. The closings weren’t a direct result of the robberies, but part of International Bancshares Corp.’s plan to close up grocery-store locations — which have grown unprofitable as a result of new restrictions on bank fees — and open a few more standalone branches. IBC closed 20 Houston-area grocery-store branches — 19 in H-E-B Markets and another inside a Randall’s — last December.
- IBC Bank closes half its Houston branches, plans strategic growth [Houston Business Journal]
- Friendswood Police searching for lone suspect in Kroger store bank branch robbery [Bay Area Citizen]
- $5K reward out for grocery store bank robber [MyFox Houston]
Photo of suspect in Friendswood Kroger IBC Bank: Bay Area Citizen
Last night at the Fiesta on Dunlavy was the last night at the Fiesta on Dunlavy. Photographer-about-town Sarah Lipscomb, who began shopping at the store on the corner of West Alabama back when it was a Safeway, grabbed a few shots of the grocery store’s interior as she strolled the aisles there one last time:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: PACK THEM IN “Swamplotters crack me up. If this site were home to a bunch of crack houses and Fiesta wanted to tear them down and build this exact strip center (with or without decades of deferred maintenance) with a giant parking lot out front, every one would be up in arms about because it’s not dense enough, or urban enough, mixed use enough or pedestrian friendly enough. I see an eyesore going away, just [like] that dump that used to be across the street. I see $40-50 million of additional tax base that will toss another $1 million each and every year toward HISD and local government. I see room for 500-600 new residents in Houston’s core who will drop countless millions of dollars into bars, restaurants and retail stores and help Houston become an even more dynamic and vibrant city. I see progress. And I like it. Companies are hiring in Houston. People WANT to live in Houston. I say we accommodate them rather than force them to the next mile of empty prairie in the suburbs while letting our own city rot from the inside out.” [Bernard, commenting on Montrose Fiesta on Dunlavy Will Close Forever in Less Than a Month]
Fiesta Mart announced today that it will shut down its store at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama — across the street from the newly built modern H-E-B Montrose Market — on July 15th. Developer Marvy Finger plans to build a 6-to-8-story “Mediterranean-style” apartment complex on the 3.68-acre site, which he bought last fall. Fiesta has operated the former Weingarten grocery store on the site since 1994.
- The end is near for Montrose Fiesta [Prime Property]
- Previously on Swamplot: Montrose Fiesta Building Owners: That Variance Is for Future Generations, The Montrose Fiesta Is Over: Here Comes Lancaster Square, West Ave-Style Apartments and Retail Planned for Dunlavy Fiesta Site?
Photo: Candace Garcia
Brave Architecture’s new Sicardi Gallery across from the Menil parking lot is “pretty amazing,” declares Glasstire art critic Kelly Klaasmeyer, who was there for Thursday’s opening opening. The 2-story 5,800-sq.-ft. stucco-and-steel structure is a big step up from the gallery’s small previous space next to the McClain Gallery on Richmond. That lone window on the second floor of the new building facing West Alabama is designated as a rear-projection screen for exhibited videos, but they’re not showing yet:
