08/04/11 8:13pm

Who’s going to lease those small retail spaces being developed along with Uchi’s takeover of the former Felix Mexican Restaurant space in Montrose? Here’s one answer: Opening later this year just behind the restaurant will be Southside Espresso, a new retail coffee house venture (and beer-and-wine bar) from Sean Marshall, the proprietor of Fusion Beans. The 714-sq.-ft. space has an address of 904B Westheimer, but the front door faces Grant St. The coffee shop will be open from 7 am to 11 pm and allow customers to use the same bathroom facilities as Uchi patrons.

Also helping to tip Westheimer’s boiling point a little further east: another new coffee shop, just announced for the recently re-muraled former Mary’s, Naturally space at 1018 Westheimer. Picky caffeine prophets David Buehrer and Ecky Prabanto will be moving up from their popular perch at Greenway Coffee & Tea in the basement food court of Greenway Plaza building number 5. (They plan to keep that small but popular shop running, though.) Their new Montrose venture, Blacksmith, will likely include “a small, but full kitchen” when it opens next spring, Buehrer reports.

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08/03/11 12:51pm

A TRADER JOE’S IN THE ALABAMA THEATER? 3 months ago, Trader Joe’s announced plans to build 10 stores in Texas. But where? A little bird tells Nancy Sarnoff that the California-born grocer is exploring the possibility of taking the vacant Bookstop space in the former Alabama Theater on South Shepherd Dr. No official comment from Weingarten Realty or Trader Joe’s, but Sarnoff notes the theater space’s listed 14,000-or-so sq. ft. is right in the target range for a Trader Joe’s store. The space has been vacant for almost 2 years. [Prime Property; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Chris Adams

08/02/11 11:38pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE CASE FOR BUILDING CRAP “i’m no developer, but being that this is off Yale (and not washington) across from a wal-mart it’s safe to assume they’re not going to be pulling in high-margin clients. there’s no point building a nice shopping center catered to the area if you can’t lock-in clients that can afford the rent. rent’s are already going to be well above average for houston. better to have a generic crappy strip center than a bankrupt high-end strip center. they know they’re building in the middle of a double-dipping economy in an area that certainly has high average incomes, but is still in flux none the less. better to build crap and establish a proven income stream with sensible margins before going overboard and losing money. as for the store selection, it’s certainly nothing i’d patronize but it’s an expected utilitarian lineup. we live in the internet age, what do you really expect, an amazon pick-up storefront? it’s easy to criticize, but it ain’t my money so i’m not going to call people out for doing sensible things with theirs. you can’t run a business and support employees livelihoods by taking risks for communities that may never support you in the first place.” [joel, commenting on Piggybacking on the Washington Heights Walmart: Stripalicious Yale St. Retail at Heights Marketplace]

08/02/11 1:55pm

What’s this we’re looking at? New pedestrian-friendly retail going in along Yale St., right across from Ainbinder’s Walmart-anchored center on Yale and Heights Blvd. in the West End? No, silly. That’s a ghost head-in-parked car hidden behind the artfully-placed starburst in the bottom left corner of the rendering. All those figures in front are just walking back and forth between the fish-taco joint at one end and their dentist on the other. Yes, work has already begun on this new strip center at the corner of Yale and Koehler St., called Heights Marketplace. The developer promises it’ll be finished before the end of the year, with the first stores opening next March.

If Ainbinder missed a few strip-center clichés in its Washington Heights District shopping-center plan, this Orr Commercial development, back-to-back with one of Ainbinder’s Heights Blvd.-facing strips, is here to take up the slack:

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08/01/11 11:46pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: SHOPPING CENTER PARKING LOT OF THE APOCALYPSE “This is how I imagine the end of the world begins.” [Justin, commenting on For the Glory of Old Navy: Purple Martins’ Majesty Meets 59 Feeder Road Shopping Center Parking Lot]

07/26/11 12:30pm

YOUR FEEDBACK WAS IMPORTANT TO US The Borders “nothing held back” liquidation sale has brought out a slew of not-so-well wishers to the Galleria store, Jef Rouner finds: “The clerks told us that a pretty significant amount of customers had come in to gloat about the liquidation prices, scold the clerks for bad business practices, harp about how Borders got just what was coming to it, and finally, openly mock the soon to be un-employees.” [Art Attack; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user e_walk [license]

07/25/11 11:26pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: BORDERS BIDS YOU ADIEU “Do what I did at my store when they announced it was liquidating in February. Immediately unplug the wi-fi router. Immediately section-off the cafe with caution tape. Immediately move all of the seating off the sales floor. This isn’t the time to lounge around, it’s the time to buy shit and get the fuck out. It’s also not the place to take your morning shit anymore, so make sure to also permanently close the restrooms to the public.” [Chris, commenting on Borders Liquidation Sales Begin]

07/22/11 1:30pm

BORDERS LIQUIDATION SALES BEGIN Starting today: going-out-of-business sales at all Borders bookstore locations nationwide, including the 6 hereabouts: on West Alabama at Kirby, in Meyerland Plaza, in the Galleria, in The Woodlands, Webster, and at IAH. Books-A-Million is in talks with the bankrupt chain to assume the leases and inventory of as many as 30 Borders locations, but none of them are in Houston. The only possible Texas takeover on the list is in San Antonio. [Washington Post] Photo: Pedro Vit

07/19/11 6:59pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE MEYER PARK SHOPPING CENTER’S SITTING DUCKS “Is anyone but me concerned about the poor ducks I see constantly killed in the Walmart parking lot at MeyerPark? I saw another one yesterday, killed with 2 of his buddies near his body, waiting to be killed by the throngs of people there. Their breeding ground is becoming a Kohls and they are unsafe, in danger, and being killed off. The management company should pay to have them relocated before they are all killed.” [Sharron Reilly, commenting on Comment of the Day: Mystery Neighbor for the Meyer Park Walmart?]

07/19/11 1:58pm

Montrose all-star convenience store Pak’s has been hit by the same pair of robbers 5 times in the last 8 months. And now it’s been remodeled, with an eye on security. The cashier area is now surrounded by glass, and a new wall adjacent to it now extends from the front to the back, closing off one side of the store, Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia reports. Behind that wall is a mysterious black box, measuring maybe 500 sq. ft. that’s visible to the street. What’s going in there? An owner confirms to Garcia it’s a new lease space, though no tenant has been identified yet.

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07/18/11 11:53am

BORDERS SHOWDOWN Only one bid came in for bankrupt bookseller Borders Group by Sunday’s deadline — and it’s from a liquidator. An auction of the company’s assets is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon; going-out-of-business sales could begin as early as Friday. Back in February, Barnes & Noble CEO William Lynch said his company might be interested in taking over a few of the remaining 400 Borders locations. Six of them are in Houston. [Publisher’s Weekly; Lynch statement; previously on Swamplot]

07/15/11 12:03pm

A reader traces the provenance of some of the store and restaurant names prominently featured in some newly released renderings meant to show off the assorted new strip-center spaces Moody Rambin Retail hopes to fill near the new Walmart off Yale at Koehler St. in the West End. And finds a few not-so-fake names mixed in with the fake ones:

“Keohler Coffee” is obviously fake, or just bad spelling. But, there is actually a “La Gra Italian Tapas” in St. Louis MO (of all places). I wonder whether they are coming to Houston? And there is a “Nono’s Bistro” on the rendering which has a logo that looks just like the logo for Nino’s Bistro in Harrisburg, PA. The most mysterious of the mystery tenants might be “Krakatoa Seafood and Game”. The logo on the rendering is just like the logo on this logo designer‘s website. But, I cannot find a restaurant anywhere that resembles the logo.

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07/14/11 6:06pm

The almost here, the already here, and the soon-to-be-departed:

  • Opening Soon: City inspection issues having been conquered, Hubcap Grill‘s new Heights-ish outpost in Shady Acres is now aiming for an opening “mid/late” next week, tweets burger-slinger Ricky Craig. The converted drive-up at 1133 W. 19th St. is just around the corner from Cedar Creek. Plenty more patio seating in back.
  • Already Open: So sorry you missed the christenings, but the nightclub, restaurant-bar, and wading pool carved out of the former Settegast Kopf funeral home at 3320 Kirby, have been open and holding events for a week or 2 already. That place wearing its paneling on the outside is Hendricks Pub and Eatery. Roak is the nightclub; the atrium pool has its own name: Rush. The bars and their neighbors in the David Crockett subdivision immediately to the west will have plenty of time to become acquainted with each other before their court date next May. Some local residents have filed suit against the bars’ owners, claiming the clubs are in violation of local deed restrictions:

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07/14/11 11:08am

A MICROSOFT STORE FOR SUGAR LAND? Chron tech guy Dwight Silverman zooms in on Microsoft COO Kevin Turner’s map showing the 75 new retail stores the software company plans to open in the next 2 to 3 years. And yes, that sure looks like a tiny Windows flag flying somewhere Sugar Land-ish. (The flag over the red dot indicates the store Microsoft opened last month in the Galleria, the company’s first Texas location.) A Microsoft spokesperson hedges on the map, saying it’s only “representative of the types” of locations that might be considered. But Silverman doesn’t buy it: “Given that Turner offered a very specific number in his speech, and the locations on the map seem to be specific as well, I suspect this is more than just a case of the ‘mights.'” [TechBlog; previously on Swamplot] Image: Microsoft

07/08/11 11:18am

NEW HOUSTON STEAK ’N SHAKES READY TO BAKE Thirty years after its first big move into Houston (with 5 locations that didn’t last too long), fast-food burger operation Steak ’n Shake is ready to roll into town in a big way again. Chodrow Realty Advisors’ David Littwitz says he’s been working to get 5 new franchises of the national chain open here soon — 1 this year, and 4 next. A Steak ’n Shake restaurant on FM 1960 at Eldridge has been open for 3 years; a second location on the I-10 feeder at Westgreen in Katy opened last year. [Houston Business Journal; history] Photo: Robert S.