Strip Centers

Apartments
03/05/08 11:42pm

Greenway Commons: Gas Station Too!

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Commercial Real Estate, Greenway Plaza, New Construction, Parking, Proposed Developments, Retail, Sprawl, Strip Centers
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Greenway Commons Costco at Richmond and Weslayan, Houston

Didja know that the new Costco going up on the former site of the HISD headquarters building at the corner of Richmond and Weslayan . . . is gonna have its very own gas station right out front?

Costco liked the idea of coming inside the Loop so much . . . it decided to bring all its friends! The city just issued a building permit for the new Costco Fuel station. But that’s just the latest addition to Greenway Commons, which is turning out to be quite a mix: A 45,420-sq.-ft. LA Fitness is going above the Costco, next to a 4-story parking garage which is connected to a 2-story retail strip center. It’ll all be protected from the busy surrounding streets by more than 500 surface parking spaces and 2 corner pad sites slated for “banks.” In back: a 550-unit Morgan Group luxury apartment complex . . . with two more separate garages!

After the jump, more drawings and plans of this surprising development.

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Apartments
02/19/08 9:37am

Hoa Binh: The Lasting Legacy of the Original Strip Mall

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Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Historic Preservation, Midtown, Parking, Proposed Developments, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
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Hoa Binh Center at 2830 Travis, Midtown, Houston

Wielding a copy of Stephen Fox’s Houston Architectural Guide, transit buff Christof Spieler writes in to report that the vacant and graffiti-laden Hoa Binh Center in Midtown — targeted by Camden Property Trust for a new apartment complex — has an important story behind it. He quotes from Fox’s writeup of the shopping center, which was built in 1923:

What distinguishes this building is that it was the prototype of the 20th century American suburban shopping center: it introduced the concept of off-street parking, toward which the grocery store itself was oriented.

Spieler adds:

In other words, Camden may be about to tear down the world’s first strip mall. Now that’s a historic building.

And it’s certainly worth at least a nice plaque somewhere on those new apartments going up on the site!

But before all you preservationist types get up in arms about the impending demolition of the mother of all strip malls, keep in mind that an equally important part of this structure’s history and legacy will almost certainly be preserved, cherished, and celebrated. Sure, the building will probably end up in a pile of rubble off Loop 610. But all those historic off-street parking spaces? They’ll be moved into a nice new garage at the Camden Travis, where residents of the new apartments and their guests will be able to enjoy them for generations to come.

After the jump: Spieler spills more Hoa Binh history!

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Apartments
02/14/08 2:19pm

Fairmont on San Felipe: Stacked!

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Briargrove, Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Retail, Strip Centers
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Rendering of The Fairmont on San Felipe, Houston

It looks like our earlier report about the Fairmont at San Felipe — the strip-center-apartment combo planned for the southeast corner of San Felipe and Winrock — was wrong. Judging from this new rendering of the complex, it sure looks like those apartments will actually be stacked directly on top of the retail spaces, forming a lovely parking-lot-courtyard tableau!

Permits for construction of the apartments were just approved by the city. After the jump: closeups, plus the plan that led us astray.

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Apartments
12/13/07 3:01pm

Heights Village: Parking Lots Are the New Main Street!

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Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Houston Heights, Mixed Use, New Construction, Parking, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Washington Corridor
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Heights Village Parking Lot on Yale St., Houston Heights

Looks like a lot of pedestrian action going on in these marketing drawings for Orr Commercial’s new Heights Village, a five-acre restaurant, retail, office, and “upscale housing” development slated for the current site of the Sons of Hermann hall just south of I-10, between Heights Blvd. and Yale St. and an adjacent parcel abutting railroad tracks to the south.

Why, with all those people in the drawings walking to and fro, it looks like this development will have all the charm of a small old-town Main Street . . . or at the very least all the charm of an old small town that decided to build a multi-level parking garage, but still turned its Main Street into a parking lot anyway, just to hedge its bets.

After the jump: more parking-lot pedestrians!

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Apartments
12/05/07 12:23pm

The Fairmont on San Felipe: Close Enough for Comfort

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Briargrove, Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Retail, Strip Centers
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Site Plan of The Fairmont on San Felipe, Houston

Sure, there’s Post Properties, the Sonoma in the Rice Village and all those tired old buildings downtown, but most Houston developers won’t put apartments on top of retail unless they’re dragged kicking and screaming. And really, the idea of living next to a strip center evokes a much warmer, more folksy feeling. Isn’t that what Houston is all about?

The latest: The Fairmont on San Felipe, on the southeast corner of San Felipe and Winrock. A couple of apartment courtyards, connected by a central garage, behind two strips ready for 41,500 square feet of retail. It’s now under construction, on the site of the old Regency Arms apartments, which burned last year after it had already been vacated for demolition.

Update, 2/14/08: Looks like they have been dragged!

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Commercial Real Estate
11/15/07 11:36am

Stuck in Traffic? Pull Over for a Philly Cheesesteak by the Wayside

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Development Strategy, East End, New Construction, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
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New Shopping Center at the Northeast Corner of I-45 South and Wayside, Houston

The Lenny’s Sub Shops continue their Houston conquest. The franchise is now up to seventeen stores, with eleven opening soon, including one in this new shopping center about to begin construction on the Gulf Freeway feeder just north of Wayside. That’s almost a third of the way to the company’s goal!

The I-45 (northbound) and Wayside property developer is Bobby Orr, who complained to the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff about the glut of suburban strip centers back in June: “We’re going urban,” he said. And really, the Orr Commercial properties are all over the map. But don’t be fooled by the side-of-the-freeway location and strip-center layout on this one: Luring hungry drivers out of inner-loop freeway traffic jams is an important part of Houston’s urban spirit.

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Chinatown
10/30/07 2:51pm

Park 8: The Land of Oz Comes to Houston

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Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Medical Buildings, Mixed Use, Parks, Proposed Developments, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
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CEO David Wu told the Houston Business Journal last year, “It’s the sort of thing you’d see in Taiwan or Hong Kong, but we’re putting it here in the U.S.”

That’s a good description of Park 8: The Land of Oz. Here’s another one, from the project website:

The Park8 is carefully designed over and over again, improving to its perfect design today. More important, it nicely put urban life and nature together with equal force. With it’s high quality exterior finish, and it’s splendidly designed floor plans, the Land of Oz emphasis on unrestrained openness and convenience. Every penny is well worth for its consideration on security and safety issues, recreational areas, leisure activity clubhouses and beautiful landscaping design.

Wow.

How about a third try: three 26-story condo towers and a couple of parking garages on 17 acres next to Beltway 8, south of Bellaire Blvd., bounded by Arthur Storey Park on one side and parking lots for two two-story retail strips on the other. Also part of the project, but not shown on the plans: a new Chinatown General Hospital.

The first phase is under construction. And condos are for sale! All come with good Feng Shui and karaoke, courtesy of the 3CmyBox included in every unit. If you like the project video above, you’re going to love the development’s website, which includes a “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” soundtrack and prominently features six videos for the feature-packed 3CmyBox in the Photo Gallery section.

The project’s tagline:

A union of Western an Chinese Culture. A combination of fantasy and reality.

After the jump, off to see the Wizard!

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Commercial Real Estate
10/29/07 10:02am

Know Your Tuscan-Themed Shopping Centers, Part One: Villagio Vs. Villaggio

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League City, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Tuscan Lakes
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Tuscan Villaggio Shopping Center in Tuscan Lakes

There’s so much of that Tuscan charm in Houston, sometimes it’s hard to keep the new developments straight. Maybe this will help:

Villagio, you’ll remember, is the “boutique life-style center” opening in Cinco Ranch, but also planned for the Woodlands and north Austin, and later . . . Round Rock, San Marcos, New Braunfels, and Dallas. Tuscan Villaggio, on the other hand, is the 30,000-square-foot Tuscan strip planned for the corner of League City Parkway and Tuscan Lakes Boulevard. It’s pictured above, and planned for only 15 tenants. The first phase will open next year adjacent to Tuscan Lakes, the 840-acre uh, Tuscan development in League City also developed by Johnson Development Corp.

Villagio in Cinco Ranch has Bookworm and Network Funding Mortgage. But you’ll be able to identify Tuscan Villaggio because a new 31,310-square-foot Tuscan-themed Kiddie Academy will be nearby.

Got it? Which one more convincingly conveys that authentic feeling of historic Italian drive-up retail?

Drawing of Tuscan Villaggio: Slattery Tackett Architects

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Apartments
10/25/07 8:00am

The Strip Center Apartments on O.S.T.

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Commercial Real Estate, Mixed Use, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Parking, Retail, Strip Centers, Texas Medical Center
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Kirby Old Spanish Trail Apartments

Isn’t mixed use great? On Old Spanish Trail at Kirby, where Target and Garden Ridge used to be, Simmons Vedder is ready to go with this exciting version of a retail-and-residences mix. They company is leasing the land back from the Texas General Land Office.

Yes, that’s three stories of apartments above a brand new strip center facing O.S.T. No need for fake towers at the corners on this one!

Residents won’t have far to travel for shopping: just walk to your car in the seven-level garage, then pull out and park in front!

Not pictured: the drug store with drive-thru next door. See the full site plan after the jump.

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Commercial Real Estate
10/22/07 8:02am

Big! Lots for Small! Fry

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For Sale by Owner, Real Estate Investing, Shopping Centers, Sprawl, Strip Centers
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Firewheel Village Shopping Center, Garland, Texas

Worried that all those big-money real-estate investors have turned the Texas landscape into an unending sprawl of soulless shopping centers populated by the same boring chain stores?

Well, worry no longer! That’s right: Now even small investors can get in on the act!

As of this month, a new company called Nexregen will let even grumpy, middle-income sprawl curmudgeons put their money where their mouth is—by investing in shopping centers, strip malls, and other commercial real estate with as little as $2500.

For now, the options are limited: Nexregen is for Texas investors only, and there’s only one property available so far: the 14.5-acre, 148,870-square-foot Firewheel Village Shopping Center in the sprawling Dallas satellite of Garland, Texas, pictured above.

Yes, it’s a REIT, but you’re investing in a single property at a time. And that’s a pretty small minimum investment. If you think Houstonians aren’t proud enough of their commercial strips—or that there aren’t enough of them—just wait until Nexregen sells property here!

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Shopping Centers
06/18/07 7:49am

Shopping Center Update: Franchises, Anchors, and All Those Nail Salons

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Strip Centers
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Three items from the world of Houston shopping-center development:

  • A suburban shopping-center developer complains to the Chronicle about Houston’s glut of bland suburban strip centers:

    Retail developer Bobby Orr says the suburbs are overridden with unanchored strip centers, so his company is developing projects closer to the center of town . . .

    Orr believes there are “only so many nail salons and dry cleaners” that can fill up suburban centers and that there’s pent-up demand in urban areas where housing density is increasing.

  • As if on cue, two former Subway franchise owners tell the Houston Business Journal that they’re going to flood the Houston market with more than a hundred new Submarina sandwich shops. The first store opens the beginning of August, at I-45 and Airline.
  • And speaking of anchors, the HBJ also reports that Staples will soon be rescuing shopping centers all around Houston from that nail-biting anonymity:

    Staples officials are tight-lipped about the company’s plans for Houston, but local retail sources say they’ve seen Staples stores on as many as 11 different site plans for future retail developments ranging from Katy, to League City to Spring, as well as a close-in site at Post Oak and San Felipe.

    Staples has already signed a lease for a new store at I-45 South and Almeda Genoa.

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Commercial Real Estate
05/07/07 9:42am

Franchise Sub Leases To Blanket Houston

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Leasing, Retail, Strip Centers
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Lenny’s Sub ShopNever heard of Lenny’s Sub Shops? That may soon change. The company is leasing space for six new stores:

  • Orchard Plaza Shopping Center on Broad Street in Pearland
  • Humble Park Shopping Center on FM 1960
  • Bridgestone Lakes Shopping Center on FM 1960
  • Memorial at Dairy Ashford Center
  • Gulf Freeway at Rowlett Shopping Center
  • Bingle at Long Point Shopping Center
  • South Main Plaza

Doesn’t sound like enough? There are more on the horizon. The company is planning to open 90 new shops in Houston strip centers. You can see how quickly a Philadelphia-style sub shop from Tennessee, founded by a former Chick-Fil-A and Olive Garden executive from New Jersey can become a Houston strip-center mainstay.

After the jump, behind-the-scenes photos of distinctive Lenny’s interiors!

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