MIDSUMMER BOOKS: 8 FEET IS ENOUGH This fall was the final season for Midsummer Books, near the Strand in Galveston: “‘All those shops and restaurants on Strand, Mechanic and Postoffice were hit bad, and Midsummer Books got 8 ft of muddy water which soaked and ruined everything, books, furniture, computer equipment, etc.,’ owner Tim Thompson says by e-mail. ‘Luckily I have flood insurance so I will most likely get compensated for the loss. However, this is one of those times in life where tough decisions have to be made and for a variety of reasons I have decided not to ressurect Midsummer Books,’ he says.” [Hair Balls]
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Openings and Closings
Car-shark favorites Landmark Chevrolet — on I-45 North near Gulf Bank — and Bill Heard Chevrolet — on the Southwest Freeway at 90 in Sugar Land — are both closing as part of a nationwide 13-dealership shutdown orchestrated by the pair’s parent company, Bill Heard Enterprises, which is based in Georgia. The move should make a lot of former customers very happy.
Available soon: A few more of those 9.9-acre stormwater-special feeder-road concrete lots?
- Bill Heard Chevrolet Closes Dealerships [Click2Houston, via HAIF]
- Chevy dealership stays open [Houston Chronicle]
- Bill Heard closing local Chevrolet dealerships [Houston Business Journal]
Photo: Bill Heard Chevrolet
Royce Builders has finally shut down. The company slipped out somewhere between gusts of Hurricane Ike, leaving only a note on its website.
Looking for an earnest money refund? Try Royce’s handy new sounds-like-spam Gmail address! But do it before October 1, because . . . well, just because.
Got a home warranty issue? Well then, just . . . read the warranty!
A reader comments:
My concern is for the people who closed on one of their poorly built homes in the last 365 days. Royce was the backer of the new home warranty for the first year of ownership and now they are gone. My friends who used to work for them tell me there are thousands of unfinished warranty requests that were never completed or even addressed. I wish all the home owners good luck on getting things fixed. At least they will have the Two to Ten Waranty beginning in the second year (if Royce paid the premium).
Royce’s happy farewell message is after the jump!
99 Cents Only Stores’ 5-year Texas experiment is over, says the company. It’ll be closing down all 20 stores in Houston, and 28 more in other parts of the state.
- 99¢ Only Stores quitting Texas [Houston Business Journal, via Boyd’s Blog]
Photo of 99 Cents Only Store on State Highway 249: C.A. Walker Construction
Sandwich franchise Pita Pit has a store tucked inside a Greenway Plaza office building. Two more locations debuted recently: one at Highway 6 and Williams Trace in Sugar Land (opened in May) and another in the tunnel beneath McKinney St. Downtown (opened in July). A new store in a strip center at Westheimer and Fountainview is listed as “coming soon” on the company website.
Now a source reports that a total of 10 Pita Pit franchises are planned for the Houston area — including one in the shopping center at 3939 Montrose Blvd., just north of the Hurricane-Ike-swept Diedrich’s Coffee, near Marble Slab.
- Pita Pit [via Swamplot Inbox]
Photo of Sugar Land Pita Pit: Pita Pit
PENTHOUSE STRIPPED The Penthouse Club at 2618 Winrock has been closed by court order — the first such action stemming from Houston’s 11-year-old sexually oriented business ordinance: “State District Judge Mark Davidson issued a temporary injunction Tuesday afternoon and ordered the club to shut down immediately. A trial in which the city will argue for permanent closure is set for Oct. 27. Davidson’s order is a major victory for the city, which has spent more than $1.2 million defending the ordinance against challenges by adult-oriented businesses, said attorney Patrick Zummo, hired by the city to help it enforce the law. ‘It means that this ordinance that we fought so hard to pass and prove constitutional, that it will actually work,’ Zummo said. ‘We’re not through. We’re looking at other locations around The Penthouse.'” [Houston Chronicle]
ANVIL STRIKES THE DAIQUIRI FACTORY Beaver’s barkeeps Bobby Heugel and Kevin Floyd will be opening their own place in the former Daiquiri Factory on the Westheimer Curve: “Our new bar, Anvil, located at 1424 Westheimer, will be opening in mid-November. Beneath the decades of former bar structure and traffic, lies a beautiful building with priceless windows, historic brick, and exciting features that are certain to make Anvil a site to see.” [Drink Dogma]
A tipster has provided Swamplot with the actual address of the Houston office of Obra Homes, a homebuilder that’s been making itself rather scarce these days:
They are located at 9186 Katy Freeway on the 2nd floor of the Flagstone Lending Group building. As soon as you walk up the stairs, the door in front of you is their office.
Is this office location really that much of a secret? The street address, at least, is mentioned on at least one easily Googled website.
On the other hand, the huge Obra Homes showroom on 290 has closed forever, and the homebuilder appears to have vanished from the the office building on 290 that bears its name. An attorney representing the company told Fox 26 reporter Randy Wallace late last month that Obra has a phone number, but no location.
You can’t even get into the company’s website without a password. But . . . thanks to the Internet Wayback Machine, the “Our Commitment” statement proudly displayed on the Obra Homes site as recently as last year is still available:
A reader notes that a sign offering “13,000 sq feet of restaurant/retail for lease” is up at the Alabama Bookstop, and asks if plans for the location have been announced. Bookstop owner Barnes & Noble is building a new store on West Gray, on the former site of the River Oaks Shopping Center’s north curve.
That 13,000 sq. ft. figure makes it clear the sign isn’t referring to a different space in the Alabama Theater Shopping Center. According to leasing info on the Weingarten website, that’s the approximate size of the Bookstop’s space.
- Alabama Shepherd Shopping Center [Weingarten]
- B. Dalton Booksellers – Bookstop/Alabama Theatre [Barnes & Noble]
Photo of Bookstop at Alabama Theater Shopping Center: Debra Jane Seltzer
UNITED TITLE: OUT OF TEXAS IN A HURRY United Title of Texas, a subsidiary of Mercury Companies, has shut down. “The local offices are in Clear Lake, Pearland, Cinco Ranch, Cypresswood, The Woodlands and on Richmond Avenue. . . . United Title is an independent agency that relied on national title companies to underwrite its policies.” [Houston Chronicle]
No word yet about the diner next door, but the West U. Examiner reports that the Avalon Drug Store on Westheimer just east of Kirby will be calling it quits in 2 weeks:
Pharmacist Bill Morris, who has run the independent pharmacy for 36 years, said “a confluence of events†prompted his recent decision.
Morris is 67 years old — for one thing — and insurance “has made it harder†on independent pharmacy operations, which have low profit margins.
He also pointed to leasing rates that are rising due to the plethora of new construction in the Upper Kirby area.
Update: As owner Coy Ramsey notes in the comments, Avalon Diner is not going anywhere. More from the River Oaks Examiner and Houstonist.
- Avalon Drug closing in 2 weeks [West University Examiner]
Photo: Flickr user Houstonian [license]
A few months after abruptly shutting down operations in the Rio Grande Valley, McAllen-based homebuilder Obra Homes appears to have quietly abandoned its Houston-area business as well, leaving one Rosenberg subdivision littered with empty slabs.
So where the heck is Obra Homes anyway? A model home here at this subdivision is empty and closed, and the company’s attorney tells us no more Obra homes will be built here at the Trails at Seabourne Park subdivision. . . .
The company’s huge showroom on 290 looks like a ghost town. And according to a sign on the window, Obra Homes was locked out for failing to pay rent.
This office building on 290 says “Obra Homes” in big letters. but go inside and there’s no mention of the company.
The homebuilder’s attorney tells Fox 26 reporter Randy Wallace that there is no Obra Homes office. But there is a phone number!
- Is Home Builder Lying? [Fox 26]
- Home builder Obra drops out of Valley market [Brownsville Herald]
Photo of 5010 Cottage Creek Ln., The Trails at Seabourne Park, Rosenberg: HAR
The Downtown music venue is giving it a rest on Pease St., according to the club’s official MySpace page:
Hey everyone Yes the Engine Room is closed down now. All dates have been canceled. We know it’s frustarting to some but we are doing our best to let everyone know who has a date booked with us. We are having a hard time getting a hold of everyone who has a date booked here so please spread the word. We apologize for the inconvenience and any confusion this may have caused anyone. The Jet Lounge will remain open. Once again the Engine Room has been closed down and ALL DATES HAVE BEEN CANCELED!!!
- Engine Room is closed down ALL DATES ARE CANCELED!! [MySpace, via HandStamp, via mikemcguff.com]
Photo: Flickr user Stacy Davidson
City officials posted signs at the Gables of Inwood Apartments near Antoine Forest yesterday notifying residents that they need to vacate the property by Monday. The owner of the 165-unit complex, Collins Ofoegbu of El Sobrante, California, has received notices of more than 240 violations from city inspectors since purchasing the property in 2006.
Some received the news from orange “notice to vacate” signs affixed to their doors. The signs also warned residents that power would be disconnected Monday.
“I need, like, two or three months,” said an agitated Jolanda Hernandez, who waved a recent rent receipt while complaining in Spanish. “I need time so I can move out of here.”
Matt Stiles’s report in the Chronicle indicates there are also problems at a closer-in property with a much larger group of owners: the Park Memorial Condominiums near the corner of Memorial and Detering. Stiles says city inspectors planned to post notices at the condominiums at 5292 Memorial warning residents that the parking garage is unsafe and “may experience catastrophic failure at any time.”
After the jump: More highlights from reporter Matt Stiles’s personal collection of dangerous-apartment photos!
In one fell soup, Bennigan’s has apparently shuttered all of its U.S. locations. And the store is taking its sister restaurant, the ailing Steak & Ale, along with it. The chains’ are filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Both are subsidiaries of Metromedia Restaurant Group, based in Plano.
Over at Houstonist, Katherine Shilcutt Gleave surveys the confusion resulting from the unannounced overnight shutdowns:
Houston is home to at least 20 Bennigan’s restaurants in the city and surrounding metropolitan areas. Calls placed this morning by Houstonist to the locations netted the same result each time: a phone ringing off the hook and no answering service. Only one location answered the phone when we called: the Bennigan’s in Greenspoint off Beltway 8. The befuddled-sounding manager at that location politely told us that they were, in fact, closed. He further confirmed that all other Bennigan’s in Houston were closed as well.
Steak & Ale had 6 Houston-area locations.
- Bennigan’s: Erin Go Broke [Houstonist]
Photo: Flickr user alex_user
