Retail

Downtown
02/13/09 4:20pm

Houston Pavilions: Lucky Strike Out, Hats Off, Shoes Back in Boxes

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Malls, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
4 Comments

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.”

Meanwhile, this past Wednesday night HAIF poster houstonartstudent reported the quiet withdrawal of two minor — and seemingly out-of-place — retail tenants:

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Openings and Closings
02/11/09 10:45am

Village Chocolate Bar: Now Serving Cake and Ice Cream in Plus Sizes

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Restaurants, Retail, Rice Village
9 Comments

Just opened in this . . . uh, extra-wide storefront at 2521 University in the Rice Village, just a few doors down from Candylicious: a second — and considerably larger — location for the Chocolate Bar. A reader sends in this night-time photo, providing evidence that the retail space was formerly the home of . . . yes, a Lane Bryant.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Hempstead
02/05/09 11:46am

Lawrence Marshall: Clobbered

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail
1 Comment

LAWRENCE MARSHALL: CLOBBERED The Lawrence Marshall auto empire, owned and operated by former football star Ray Childress, abruptly shut down all its operations yesterday afternoon. The 7 car dealerships took up 40 acres way out in Hempstead, but were perhaps a more notable presence in Houston’s larger media landscape, where commercials featuring the former Oiler’s emphatic monotone regularly consumed huge lots of available ad space. [Houston Chronicle]

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East Downtown
02/05/09 10:42am

Thelma’s Bar B Que: Smoked Out

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Hazards, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
3 Comments

Thelma’s Bar B Que — on the corner of Live Oak and Lamar in . . . oh, all right: EaDo — is closed, after the restaurant was singed by a fire last Friday. Robb Walsh from Eating . . . Our Words reports from the scene:

The front of the business appeared as ramshackle as always, but a sign on the door announced the bad news. The rear of the building where the barbecue pit used to be was badly damaged as was the kitchen area. The old-fashioned cinderblock barbecue pit used at Thelma’s had a small metal door on the outside where the wood was loaded and a grate with a steel door inside the building where the meats were cooked. The fire appears to have originated in the fire box or chimney as that part of the building has been torn away.

Photo: Flickr user Jennifer Lynn

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Art
02/03/09 8:44am

Bill’s Junk: It’s Only Art If You Don’t Buy It

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Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, Norhill Historic District, North Norhill, Renovations, Retail
3 Comments

There’s a lot of junk for sale in this tiny Norhill storefront: Thermoses from the 1970s, a bouffant-hairstyle catalog, a 1967 Delta Zeta sorority photo, hand-painted cans of Campbell’s Soup, and — writes Kelly Klaasmeyer in the Houston Press — “what is possibly the world’s largest extant collection of macramé owls.”

Who would want any of this stuff? Even the owner wants to be done with it:

[Bill] Davenport decided to get rid of stuff because of a move. “I had to move all my junk over from storage, and I thought, ‘Oh no, this can’t go on.’ I had to look at everything as I unpacked it.” As a result, he started thinking that maybe he didn’t need all of it.

Davenport and Francesca Fuchs, both artists, bought the 4,320-sq.-ft. 1930 commercial building at 1125 E. 11th St. (off Studewood) more than 2 years ago. After 16 months of renovations, they recently moved in upstairs with their kids. And Davenport opened Bill’s Junk in one of the retail spaces downstairs:

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Openings and Closings
02/02/09 5:01pm

Chico’s and Demand: Any Stores Wrapping Up Here?

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Retail
No Comments

No official announcements of closures yet, but the Houston Business Journal hints a few may come soon. Chico’s announced plans late last week to close as many as 25 of its 1,076 women’s clothing stores nationwide.

There are 14 Chico’s in the Houston area. The company also owns 5 Soma Intimates stores and 9 White House/Black Market locations.

Photo of Chico’s and Soma on Amherst St. in the Rice Village: Swamplot inbox

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Cancellations and Delays
01/29/09 10:59am

What’s Next for That Parked Bolsover Sonoma Block

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Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Rice Village, Streets
10 Comments

A tidbit from Lamesa Properties, proud owner of that block of Bolsover St. in the Rice Village that was supposed to turn into a grand plaza for Randall Davis’s Sonoma development, but for now is just a fenced-off lot:

Company representative Julie Tysor said that while construction is on hold, the firm is open to ideas for the site to have some “long-term benefit to the community.” For now, plans are under way to make the unpaved area a green space, and the paved area may be used for much-needed Village parking.

Photo of Sonoma Site on Bolsover St.: Miya Shay

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Openings and Closings
01/29/09 9:14am

Wednesday Afternoon Pad Site Massacre

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Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail
4 Comments

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON PAD SITE MASSACRE Yesterday featured separate announcements of retail closings from Starbucks and JPMorgan Chase: First, 36 out of 111 Houston-area Washington Mutual branches will be shut down by March; the remainder will be converted to Chase Bank locations. That’ll leave only 220 Chase Bank locations around town. Next, Starbucks says the company will close 300 coffee shops worldwide, including 200 in the U.S. No word on how many will be leaving the Houston area, but last year 11 stores in this region closed after a 600-store cut. For the surviving locations, there may be a longer wait for decaf after lunch: “Company officials say demand for decaf falls off significantly in the afternoon, and Starbucks will brew decaf in the afternoon only at a customer’s request. It takes about four minutes to make a fresh pot. Last year, Starbucks started brewing fresh pots of coffee every 30 minutes.” [Houston Business Journal; previously]

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Leasing
01/23/09 11:39am

Design Source at West Ave: What’s Cooking?

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New Construction, Retail, Upper Kirby
4 Comments

Bruce Wolfe, who owns Houston’s Ligne Roset furniture showroom — and is about to open one in Austin — tells Houston Business Journal reporter Allison Wollam that business at the sleek and modern 3,500-sq.-ft. store in the strip center just north of the Rice Village at 5600 Kirby Dr. was better this holiday season than last, despite problems in the economy that have hurt other home-furnishings retailers:

“It’s not unusual for one of our clients to come in and show us their floor plan and hand us a $40,000 check to furnish their entire home,” he says. “When it comes to furniture, if you pay with peanuts, you’re going to get a monkey. And you can’t pay for a Pontiac and expect to drive away with a Mercedes.”

The Houston Ligne Roset store was one of the few in the chain to carry the entire catalog in Spanish, which Wolfe says that also helped attract new clients.

Wollam goes on to report that Ligne Roset will be expanding and moving up Kirby in April, to the new West Ave development — where the store will be 1 of 5 showrooms Wolfe will operate under the name Design Source:

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Proposed Developments
01/23/09 9:38am

Burger Chains Ready Attack on Houston: Carl’s Jr., Smashburger, Five Guys

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Restaurants, Retail
19 Comments

A new company has signed an agreement to open 121 new Carl’s Jr. franchises in Texas — including as many as 40 in the Houston area — over the next 10 years. But it’ll take a while for them to get started here at least. The Houston Business Journal‘s Allison Wollam reports that RWJP Star Enterprises has

a franchise agreement to open locations in the eastern part of Houston, and [partner Rich] White expects the first location to open in the first quarter of next year. They are still in the process of scouting sites, the first of which will be built from the ground up.

Carl’s Jr. franchises have to agree to open at least three units, for a total initial investment of $1.3 million, according to the company’s Web site.

Will the year-long wait leave enough time for other competing newcomers to get established? Wollam reports Smashburger is planning to open a second location at Briarforest and Eldridge later this month. And:

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Fresno
01/22/09 4:19pm

Openings and Closings: Little Big’s, McMansion Kroger, McCain’s

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Houston Heights, Missouri City, Montrose, Restaurants, Retail, Sienna Plantation
9 Comments

To counter the all-shutterings edition of Openings and Closings posted on Swamplot earlier this week, here’s a mostly debuts version:

  • Opening: With the opening of Bryan Caswell’s Little Big’s, Montrose’s late-night restaurant row is complete — at least on weekends, when the burger shack will be open until 3 a.m. Writes Katharine Shilcutt in Eating Our Words:

    In addition to sliders, fries and shakes, Little Big’s also offers wine and beer at extremely reasonable prices, which will all but ensure their popularity. Once the large, welcoming patio is completed, it’s a sure bet that this will be the new hot spot in Montrose.

    This Little Big’s is in the former Ming’s Cafe on Montrose just north of Westheimer; the next one will be in Hermann Park.

There’s more!

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Furniture
01/22/09 11:41am

Designed To Move: Ginger Barber in Southgate

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Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Retail, Southgate
2 Comments



Itinerant Interior Designer Ginger Barber is moving yet again: Her latest redo is on the market, reports Cote de Texas’s Joni Webb. This time it’s a 3-bedroom, 2 1/2 bath 2-story near the corner of Greenbriar and Holcombe in Southgate — but Webb spots furniture in the photos she’s seen in earlier Barber homes:

Her wonderful assortment of pine and dark wood furniture, down-filled upholstered pieces covered in linen slips, and all her textural wicker, seagrass, and stone moves from house to house almost seamlessly. . . . With no wallpaper, colored walls or patterned fabrics to contend it, the nomadic Barber can reuse her possessions, over and over again – which is a wonderful lesson to take from her.

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Cypress
01/19/09 11:01am

Openings and Closings: Daily Grind, On the Border, Frock

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Washington Corridor
7 Comments

Nothing new this time; Swamplot’s latest Openings and Closings report is just a list of old places going away:

  • Going: There’s nobody home at Washington Ave. coffeehouse The Daily Grind, reports Jason Bargas at Houstonist:

    A peek through a window facing the parking lot yielded a dining area devoid of tables. The cash register was no longer on the corner of the bar yet a ceiling fan twirled overhead. An industrial looking extension cord hung from the rafters perhaps indicating an intention to use power tools. But, no signs or bulletins indicated a remodel in progress nor a closing of the business.

    Signs or no, the restaurant’s most recent spate of online publicity renders a closing less than surprising. One comment on the Houstonist post notes a rumor that the coffeehouse will be reopening “next to Rudyard’s.”

  • Going: A poster on HAIF notes that the On the Border restaurant on the feeder road of the Northwest Freeway in Cypress appears to be toast: “Lights out, nobody home.”
  • Gone: And there will be no more Frock shopping: The Frock Boutique on Greenbriar near Westheimer closed late last year, but owner Marianne Mayeux says she will come to you.

Got the scoop on other retail openings or closings in your area? Send your tips to Swamplot!

Photo of The Daily Grind: Katharine Shilcutt Gleave

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Openings and Closings
01/16/09 5:25pm

Circuit City Closes, Out of Juice

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Retail
5 Comments

At last, that going-out-of-business sale you’ve been waiting for! Circuit City, which announced 2 Houston-area store closings in October and declared bankruptcy in November, today declared it will shut down all its stores — including the 13 left in Houston — and liquidate all remaining assets.

Photo: Annie Sitton

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Aldine
01/15/09 7:33pm

The Meanest Strip Mall in Houston

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Retail, Strip Malls
1 Comment

John Nova Lomax, in the second installment of his 3-part version of his and David Beebe’s IAH-to-Downtown slog, passes by this rough-and-tumble strip mall just down the street from the Aldine ISD’s W.W. Thorne Stadium, — and figures out why the street is called Aldine Bender:

In one corner lurks a closed down bar called Sassy’s. The doors of this place were open even though it was abandoned. Someone had pulled much of the furniture out of it and left it on the sidewalk out front.

Flanking Sassy’s were a donut shop and not one, but two different Spanish-language chapters of Alcoholics Anonymous. And the piece de resistance was an abandoned Pontiac, complete with flat tire and faceprint in the windshield. A faceprint that went inward toward the dash, not outward from the driver’s seat. Perhaps the rival AA chapters got into a parking lot fracas…

Photo of 1215 Aldine Bender Rd.: John Nova Lomax

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