Shopping Centers

Medical Buildings, Mixed Use, Renovations, Shopping Centers, Signage, Upper Kirby

4 Comments

One-stop shopping: you can see the signage and new (and presumably sterile) cabinetry through the second-floor windows ofÂ The Centre at River Oaks (in Upper Kirby, in fact), where a 25,000-sq.-ft. branch of Texas Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Associates is expected to open in March; the makeover of the shopping center at West Alabama and Kirby began last summer; Ainbinder announced that Ulta Beauty would be operating out of the first floor of the bankrupt Borders; Texas Children’s will sit atop both Ulta Beauty and Brio Tuscan Grille.

Previously on Swamplot: Doctors Without Borders: Kelsey Seybold Clinic Taking Over Pole Position at Meyerland Plaza, Borders Activity Report

Photo: Swamplot inbox

77098, Hospitals, Interiors, Medical Buildings, Mixed Use, Renovations, Shopping Centers, Signage

Montrose

01/30/13 1:30pm

In Shepherd Plaza, Le Mort du Peep

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Shopping Centers

11 Comments

No more le breakfast, no more le lunch: Catching workers moving equipment out of Le Peep in Shepherd Plaza, a Swamplot reader sends in this photo. That’s a U-HAUL — er, le trailer — backed up to the doors. “Closed without notice!” cries le tipster. “I asked a worker and he said this location is closed for good.” Le Peep has 6 other restaurants in Houston.

Locations [Le Peep Houston]

Photo: loves swamplot

77098, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Shepherd Plaza, Shopping Centers

Highland Village

01/29/13 2:00pm

The New Highland Village Anthropologie Across the Street From the Old Highland Village Anthropologie

Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers, Signage

1 Comment

There sure has been a lot of activity in the past few months here in Highland Village: the former Tootsie’s building is having a little taken off the top and being split in two for new J. Crew and Anthropologie stores coming this spring, though these recent photos of the building at 4045 Westheimer suggest that Anthropologie — or at least that mauve andÂ understated storefront — is further along. But then J. Crew has farther to go: Anthropologie’s moving only across the street from its 4066 Westheimer store (shown at right).

77027, Highland Village Shopping Center, Redevelopment, Retail, Signage

Buying and Selling

01/23/13 1:00pm

The End Approaches for the San Jacinto Stone Age

Commercial Real Estate, Houston Heights, Land Development, Land Sales, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers

29 Comments

The general landscaping public hasn’t been able to shop at San Jacinto Stone since January 19, when the 68-year-old Heights rockyard began the process of closing for good. (Contractors, at least, have until the end of February.) Back in August, San Jacinto Stone agreed to sell its 8 acres on Yale to a retail developer; yesterday, the deal was closed by Ponderosa Land Development, who says it has plans to build a shopping center on the property just south of I-10 and just north of the Washington Heights Walmart.

Heights-area stoneyard to become shopping center [Houston Chronicle]
Previously on Swamplot: Shops Replacing San Jacinto Stone, Just North of the South-of-the-Heights Walmart

Photo:Â Swamplot inbox

77007, Commercial Real Estate, Houston Heights, Land Sales, Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers

Commercial Real Estate

01/18/13 1:00pm

The Woodlands To Get 7th Village Center, 4th H-E-B

Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, The Woodlands

4 Comments

One more of each, thank you: Creekside Park Village Center, rendered above, will be the Woodlands’ 7th and will be anchored by its 4th H-E-B, the master-planned community says. The shopping center will serve Creekside Park, a 100-acre community planned to go in up there west of Lake Paloma. It appears that the center will herd its shoppers inward toward a 4,300-sq.-ft. glass-walled restaurant, which you can see in the rendering. And there’s gonna be a fire pit in that park-like median-thing. (And a water feature on the other end. You know. Just in case.) In all, 80,000 sq. ft. of retail and office space are proposed for the site on Kuykendahl.

Commercial Real Estate, Grocery Stores, Parks, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping, Shopping Center, The Woodlands

Cinco Ranch

10/12/12 1:56pm

Sprouts Far Out

Copperfield, Cypress, Leasing, Quicklink, Retail, Shopping Centers

5 Comments

SPROUTS FAR OUT The Sprouts Farmers Market grocery chain’s long-awaited Houston-area landing will begin with 3 outside the Beltway locations next year. Sprouts scout Ed Page of UCR MoodyRambin Page says leases have already been signed for a 25,300-sq.-ft. spot at the southwest corner of Cinco Ranch Blvd. and Peek Rd.; for a 29,000-sq.-ft. store at FM 529 and Hwy. 6 in the Copperfield Village Shopping Center; and for a 28,000-sq.-ft. location off the Tomball Pkwy. at Spring Cypress Rd. in the Spring Cypress Village shopping center. Page tells reporter Shaina Zucker leases are being negotiated for several other sites. The southwest organic-friendly chain swallowed up competitor Sunflower Farmers Markets earlier this year. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Colorado store: Sprouts

77095, 77377, 77494, Chain-Stores, Cinco Ranch, Copperfield, Cypress, Grocery Stores, Leasing, Retail, Shopping Centers

Proposed Developments

09/18/12 12:19pm

Shops Replacing San Jacinto Stone, Just North of the South-of-the-Heights Walmart

Retail, Shopping Centers, West End

66 Comments

Here’s a parking-lot view — what you’d see from Yale St. — of a 125,000-sq.-ft. strip development planned for the site of San Jacinto Stone, immediately north of the Washington Heights Walmart going up just south of I-10. San Jacinto Stone measures its stoneyard at 4 acres; the proposed 8-acre development taking over for it appears to include a few adjacent properties to the north, including frontage along the new I-10 feeder road and White Oak Bayou.

77007, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, West End

Houston Landmarks

07/19/12 1:22pm

Fair Warning: About To Mess with Alabama Theater Marquee

Quicklink, Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers, Upper Kirby

11 Comments

FAIR WARNING: ABOUT TO MESS WITH ALABAMA THEATER MARQUEE Publicists for Weingarten Realty want Swamplot readers to know that workers about to poke into the underside of the Alabama Theater marquee aren’t dismantling it. They’ll only be replacing the lights there with new LED fixtures. Doing that will require removing the soffit panels below the Shepherd-facing sign on the soon-to-be first Houston-proper Trader Joe’s. “The marquee will look just as it does today with the only exception being new energy efficient lighting on the underside,” the shopping-center owner tells Swamplot. The work should take about 2 weeks. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Weingarten Realty

77098, Alabama Theater, Grocery Stores, Houston Landmarks, Movie-Theaters, Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers, Upper Kirby, Weingarten Realty

Garden Oaks

06/05/12 11:08am

That Rumor About a New Central Market in Garden Oaks

Quicklink, Retail, Shopping Centers

22 Comments

THAT RUMOR ABOUT A NEW CENTRAL MARKET IN GARDEN OAKS To all of you who’ve been emailing, tweeting, and speculating about H-E-B buying the Sears shopping center at 4000 N. Shepherd at the edge of Garden Oaks and turning it into a Central Market: Interesting idea. But here’s your rumorkiller: Houston division prez Scott McClelland tells Swamplot, “H-E-B has not looked at this location and we’ve had no discussions about it to date.” Photo: City-Data

77018, Garden Oaks, Grocery Stores, Retail

Houston Landmarks

05/25/12 2:04pm

Weingarten: We’re Saving the Alabama Letters

Quicklink, Renovations, Shopping Centers, Signage, Upper Kirby

8 Comments

WEINGARTEN: WE’RE SAVING THE ALABAMA LETTERS Weingarten Realty is preparing reporters for a photo op in front of the Alabama Theater at 2922 S. Shepherd Dr. now being outfitted for a Trader Joe’s. The letters spelling “Alabama” that the company had removed earlier this week from the original tall totem sign in front of the 1939 Art Deco theater that the company recently gutted and leveled will soon be returned intact and unscrambled, a spokesperson promises. The letters are being painted and the neon lighting hidden inside them is being replaced. Expected homecoming date for the letters: sometime between June 13th and June 16th. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Jay Rascoe

77098, Alabama Theater, Historic Preservation, Houston Landmarks, Renovations, Shopping Centers, Signage, Upper Kirby

Quicklink

05/09/12 2:37pm

Borders Activity Report

Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers, Upper Kirby

9 Comments

BORDERS ACTIVITY REPORT There appears to be some construction going on inside the former Borders Books at the corner of Kirby and West Alabama in the Centre at River Oaks Shopping Center. Next door, at the restaurant spot formerly occupied by Pesce, workers are busy transforming and expanding the space into a Brio Tuscan Grille. But a Swamplot reader says the work on Borders looks separate: “Workers were going in and out. The whole inside looks gutted and the doors to specifically Borders were open and there was a table behind the green fence with water coolers. Even the 2nd floor doors where the coffee place was inside Borders were open. . . . When they initially started the demo at Pesce the green fence didn’t extend. Its only recently been there.” [Culturemap; Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox

77098, Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers, Upper Kirby

Openings and Closings

04/27/12 11:31am

Houston’s First Trader Joe’s Opens June 15th — in The Woodlands

Retail, Shopping Centers, The Woodlands

17 Comments

Its brand-new, built-from-scratch store at the Woodlands Crossing Shopping Center near the corner of Woodlands Pkwy. and Kuykendahl Rd. (10868 Kuykendahl if you’re setting coordinates now) looking darn near ready-to-be-shopped-in (above), Trader Joe’s has at last announced an opening date for it: June 15th. Openings of the 2 other announced Houston-area stores — in the former Alabama Theater on S. Shepherd and West Alabama, and in a new building on Voss just north of San Felipe in Memorial — will take place before the end of the year, but haven’t yet been publicly scheduled.

Trader Joe’s announces opening date of Woodlands store [Community Impact]
Previously on Swamplot: Latest Pix of the Woodlandsâ€™ Trader Joeâ€™s, Opening Soon, The 3 Trader Joeâ€™s Grocery Stores Coming to the Houston Area

Photo: Sweetmocha

77382, Grocery Stores, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers, The Woodlands

Retail

04/02/12 5:32pm

Latest Pix of the Woodlands’ Trader Joe’s, Opening Soon

Shopping Centers, The Woodlands

49 Comments

Stalking the new Trader Joe’s is apparently a competitive sport in The Woodlands. And here’s the latest score, sent in by yet another Woodlands-area Swamplot reader who’s marking construction progress at the Woodlands Crossing Shopping Center at 10868 Kuykendahl, just south of Woodlands Pkwy. and across the street from H-E-B. Yes, the very first TJ’s in the Houston area looks for all the world like just another steel-frame-and-stucco building at the butt-end of a parking lot. Except, of course, this one’s got the Trader Joe’s sign attached to the facade’s high forehead:

77382, Grocery Stores, Retail, Shopping Centers, The Woodlands

Memorial

03/29/12 12:36pm

The 3 Trader Joe’s Grocery Stores Coming to the Houston Area

Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, The Woodlands, Upper Kirby

19 Comments

Trader Joe’s has at last confirmed the second and third of the 3 stores that’ll constitute the idiosyncratic grocer’s Houston invasion. If you’ve been following Swamplot, you already know about these locations: In addition to the already announced shopping-center add-on in The Woodlands (recent construction photo at top), there’s another to be constructed in suburban-style big-corniced splendor (midde photo, above) on Voss just north of San Felipe. And yes — the company is now ready to admit — one in the just-decimated hollows of the once-grand Alabama Theater, last known as the Alabama Bookstop bookstore (bottom photo above).