Strip Centers

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers

9 Comments

Future Home of Samurai Noodle Ramen Shop, Durham Shopping Center, 1801 Durham Dr. Suite 1, Cottage Grove, Houston

Future Home of Samurai Noodle Ramen Shop, Durham Shopping Center, 1801 Durham Dr. Suite 1, Cottage Grove, Houston A source tells Swamplot that the Samurai Noodle restaurant that’s scheduled to open in the former Sprint spot in the Durham Shopping Center facing the Katy Fwy. feeder road (at center in the photo above) is in fact a first out-of-state venture for the acclaimed 3-location Seattle ramen shop of the same name. The I-10-facing spot in the strip center at 1801 Durham Dr. is wedged between Golden Hunan restaurant and the SNAP Spay-Neuter and Animal Wellness Clinic (not to be confused, we earnestly hope, with SNAP Kitchen). In Seattle, Samurai Noodle offers non-pork broth options for non-traditionalists, and allows customers to specify their preferred level of noodle firmness.

By the Katy Feeder

77007, Cottage Grove, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Strip Centers

06/26/14 11:15am

Where To Pick Up New CrossFit Gear While Waiting for Your Pizza on Washington Ave

Openings and Closings, Retail, Strip Centers, Washington Ave, West End

2 Comments

Pinks Pizza and Below Parallel, 1009 Moy St., West End, Houston

Pinks Pizza and Below Parallel, 1009 Moy St., West End, Houston The reader who sent Swamplot a steaming hot tip late last summer — Pink’s Pizza is coming to Wash Ave! — brings us up-to-date on construction progress at the sidestreet-facing strip center at 1009 Moy St. (above) a full 10 months later: There’s been none. “Other than the signage on the building and on Washington at the front of the shopping center, there’s been no work done in months,” reads our report. One door over from the Pink’s spot in Suite B (pictured at right), however, a sign is up for Below Parallel, a new retail outlet where customers will be able to equip themselves to work off their pizza before even eating it. The banner promises shoes, supplements, and apparel —- and an opening date next month. “Strange location,” declares our tipster — the shuttered Blue Moose Lodge is around the corner — “but I guess the four Crossfit gyms in a mile radius can shop there.”

All the Gear You Need, Today [Below Parallel]
Previously on Swamplot: Pinkâ€™s Pizza Moving Into West End Strip Center

Photos: Swamplot inbox

West End Cycles

77007, Openings and Closings, Retail, Strip Centers, Washington Ave., West End

04/23/14 12:30pm

More Sugar Headed for the Sweetest Strip Center on North Shepherd

Houston Heights, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers

8 Comments

Strip Center, 1901 N. Shepherd Dr., Houston Heights

For months, local ice cream shop Fat Cat Creamery has been the only business open in the recently expanded and redone strip center at the northeast corner of N. Shepherd Dr. and 19th St. (It’s over around the left side in the photo above.) But now there’s a sign up announcing that Smoothie King is headed for the spot a couple doors down from it along 19th. And there’s more to this sugar rush: It appears a donut shop is headed for a space next door to Fat Cat in the same center. A buildout for Hugs and Doughnuts, from the folks behind the H-Town StrEATs food truck, is now going on in Suite 4 of the 8,000-sq.-ft. center at 1901 N. Shepherd, a source tells Swamplot.

Photo: Re:Vive Development

Hugs and Donuts

Houston Heights, Houston Heights Annex, Leasing, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers

04/11/14 12:15pm

Extremely Well Hidden Bar Off Willowbend Blvd. Now Impossible To Find

Nightlife, Strip Centers, Willowbend

5 Comments

Vacant Strip Center, 4122 Willowbend Blvd. at Craighead Dr., Westwood, Houston

Former Carolyn's Bar at Vacant Strip Center, 4122 Willowbend Blvd. at Craighead Dr., Westwood, Houston Carolyn’s, the dive bar at the corner of Craighead and Willowbend Blvd. across the train tracks from the Willowbend subdivision closed sometime around the end of last month, a reader notes. Back in 2008, the bar at 10711 Craighead Dr. won the Houston Press award for Best Hidden Bar. For years, Carolyn’s (pictured at right, behind the “canopy”) was the sole remaining tenant in the dilapidated but once-stylin’ classic 1959 strip center with vintage details stretched along that corner. Now, reports the reader, it appears the 18,600-sq.-ft. center is entirely empty — despite the remaining sign facing Willowbend for the Fruit of the Spirit Community Church (“Developing Fruitful Lives,” above).

Everybody Out of the Strip Center

77025, Bars and Clubs, Leasing, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Strip Centers, Willowbend

01/13/14 10:45am

Suchu’s GOOFy New Strip Center Home Is Where Patrick Swayze Learned To Dance

Garden Oaks, Houston History, Leasing, Openings and Closings, Strip Centers

2 Comments

Suchu Dance, 3480 Ella Blvd., Ella Plaza Shopping Center, Oak Forest, Houston

The 1,500-sq.-ft. space deep in the crotch of the Ella Plaza Shopping Center just south of the railroad tracks at 3480 Ella Blvd. is the new home of modern dance troupe Suchu Dance. It’s also the former longtime Houston haunt of Patsy Swayze‘s Houston JazzBallet Company andÂ the Swayze School of Dance. Long before the dance teacher made it big with her choreography for Urban Cowboy in 1980 and decamped to Hollywood, Swayze taught hundreds of gyrating Houstonians — including her 5 children, in the strip center corner. Her son Buddy, who as Patrick Swayze went on to star in Dirty Dancing and Ghost, started barging in on classes there at the age of 3, long before playing football at Waltrip High School across the street; he met his wife, Lisa Niemi, in the strip-center studio as well. He died from pancreatic cancer in 2009; his mother passed away in California’s Simi Valley last September.

Somebody Put Baby in a Strip Center Corner

77018, Attractions, Garden Oaks, Houston History, Houston Landmarks, Leasing, Oak-Forest, Openings and Closings, Strip Centers

11/20/13 10:15am

Apartments and Retail for Westheimer and Montrose Corner? Not Until Half Price Books and Spec’s Scoot

Houston Landmarks, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Retail, Strip Centers

16 Comments

APARTMENTS AND RETAIL FOR WESTHEIMER AND MONTROSE CORNER? NOT UNTIL HALF PRICE BOOKS AND SPEC’S SCOOT Half Price Books in Westmont Shopping Center, 1011 Westheimer Rd., Montrose, Houston The owner of the once-Art Deco but now slathered-with-stucco shopping center at the southwest corner of Westheimer and Montrose says it’s willing to wait 7 to 10 years for the center’s leases to run out before building something new on the site. Unless, of course, they can negotiate an early exit (or time-out while construction takes place) for the Half Price Books, Specâ€™s, Papa Johns, 3-6-9 China Bistro and Jack in the Box currently on the site. If they can’t buy out the tenants, PM Realty’s Wade Bolin tells Shaina Zucker, they’ll start leasing out the still-vacant spaces in the former Tower Community Center, which the company calls the Westmont Shopping Center. “PM Realty Group did not share early design plans,” Zucker adds, “but several sources confirmed the mixed-use structure could include residential with retail on the ground floor.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: PM Realty

77006, Houston Landmarks, Leasing, Montrose, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail, Strip Centers

Proposed Developments

11/01/13 10:15am

The Hot Bagel Shop’s Strip Center Future

Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers

13 Comments

A reader writes in with the latest potential future scenario for the Hot Bagel Shop on S. Shepherd south of Welch: “I’m not sure if this has already been reported on, but [earlier this week] at Hot Bagel Shop, I was told that the lot next door is being scraped for the first half of a new strip center, which the bagel-ers and the nail people will move into once it’s complete. The gold retailer will not be renewing his lease. Afterwards they’ll knock down the existing building and construct the other half of the new building.”

This design for a strip center at 2015 S. Shepherd is featured on the website of Houston’s Dang La Architecture:

77019, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, Strip Centers

Apartments

09/23/13 11:05am

A First Look at the Strip Center-and-Apartments Combo That Could Go Up Between UH and TSU

Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Public Transportation, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers, Third Ward, TSU, University of Houston

44 Comments

Here’s a plan that looks to plug in to Metro’s still-under-construction Southeast Line and redo about 8 blocks along Scott St. in the Third Ward between UH and TSU. Though the plan, drawn up by LAI Design Group and dubbed “University Place Redevelopment,” is provisional, it appears to have in mind something like what the rendering above shows: A reshaped streetscape on Scott St. that would combine apartments, restaurants, shops, offices, and community buildings.

The first phase appears to call for a strip center facing Scott between Holman and Reeves, withÂ 289 1- and 2-bedroom apartmentsÂ and a parking garage in the rear:

77204, Apartments, Light-Rail, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Stadiums, Strip Centers, Third Ward, TSU, University of Houston

Idylwood

08/19/13 3:00pm

Non-Walmart Do-Nuts in Idylwood

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers

6 Comments

Maybe attracted by the gravitational pull of the hulking 185,000-sq.-ft. Idylwood Walmart going up on the other side of S. Wayside Dr., Shipley Do-Nuts is moving into this strip center. This location is about 2 miles closer in than the one near HCC Southeast, also on the northbound Gulf Fwy. feeder.

Idylwood Walmart coverage [Swamplot]

Photo: Allyn West

77056, Idylwood, Idylwood Walmart, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers

Lower Westheimer

08/06/13 10:00am

Vinoteca PoscÃ³l To Move East from Westheimer Strip Center to Westheimer Standalone

Montrose, Restaurants, Strip Centers

2 Comments

A reader sends this photo of the vacant building at 608 Westheimer between Katz’s Deli and Bombshell Tattoo and Piercing Studio that the owners of Vinoteca PoscÃ³l have bought and are planning to relocate to next year. Eater Houston reports that the new 6,300-sq.-ft. spot will provide quite a bit more room than the old one owners Marco and Gloria Wiles — who also run Da Marco and Dolce Vita — were renting in that strip center at 1609 Westheimer, across the street from Buffalo Exchange and Hugo’s. Observes Darla Guillen: “The increased square footage will allow them to seat more customers, and they will have a bigger bar with plenty of local brews on tap.”

A Chef Marco Wiles Restaurant [PoscÃ³l Houston]
Vinoteca PoscÃ³l is Moving to 608 Westheimer [Eater Houston]

Photo: Swamplot inbox

77006, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Relocations, Restaurants

Commercial Real Estate

07/12/13 3:00pm

Richmond Strip Not Down for the Count?

Nightlife, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Richmond Strip, Strip Centers

5 Comments

RICHMOND STRIP NOT DOWN FOR THE COUNT? Real estate reporter Shaina Zucker cruises Richmond Ave., tallying up the evidence that she suggests might just point to a resurgence of that once-lively strip between Hillcroft and Chimney Rock: “30 — The number of For Lease signs visible; 4 — The number of For Sale signs visible; 6 — The number of empty lots visible; 5 — Number of active adult entertainment locations (strip clubs, novelty stores, etc.); 8 — Number of other active clubs/bars facing Richmond; 6 — Number of open fast-food locations; 20 — Number of auto sales/retailer locations; 3 — Number of active construction projects; 35,127 — Richmond at Fountain View average daily traffic volume by number of vehicles; 33,720 — Richmond at Chimney Rock average daily traffic volume by number of vehicles.” [Houston Business Journal] Photo of La Bare at 6234 Richmond: City Data

77057, Commercial Real Estate, Redevelopment, Retail Vacancies, Richmond Strip

Openings and Closings

07/10/13 11:00am

Filling the Donut Hole in River Oaks

Quicklink, Retail, River Oaks, Strip Centers

23 Comments

FILLING THE DONUT HOLE IN RIVER OAKS A few weeks ago the doors and drive-thru window of this new donut shop in River Oaks owned by billionaires Jeff and Mindy Hildebrand were flung open, and the tony feel of the scaled-up endcap at 3601 Westheimer has apparently won the affection of Houstonia’s Annabel Massey: “Never before have I walked in to a donut shop to find beautiful countertops made of marble, artwork by Lorri Honeycutt, or a display of delicious taste-testers in the form of donut holes for me to pop into my mouth as I wait in line.” Massey also seems taken with the Hildebrands’ rigorous recipe development: “Every afternoon, nine boxes of donuts would be delivered . . . . Mindy distributed them to family and friends, looking to get feedback on their work-in-progress. After three months of taste-testing, they finally landed on a delicious one-of-a-kind recipe.”Â [Houstonia] Photo: Allyn West

77027, Openings and Closings, Retail, River Oaks, Shopping Centers

Demolitions

06/18/13 11:00am

Morningside Thai Moves Away from Morningside, Where a Motel Crotch Frames Townhomes Frames

New Construction, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Strip Centers, Townhomes, University Place

7 Comments

First things first: Here’s the new location of Morningside Thai. Hoping to open June 22, says owner Ying Roberts, the no-longer-on-Morningside, no-longer-eponymous restaurant can be found at 2473 S. Braeswood Blvd., inside the Kirby Glen Retail Center, north of OST, right where the South Main neighborhood bumps into University Place. Got that? Of course, the Braeswood address might be a tad misleading in this case, since the restaurant actually faces Kirby Dr.

77030, Demolitions, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Relocations, Restaurants, South-Main, Strip Centers, Townhomes, University Place

East End

05/28/13 11:00am

Lawndale’s Strip Center Donuts

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Strip Centers

7 Comments

It’s coming soon, the sign says, that international power trio of donuts, kolaches, and tacos. (In the suite beside El Greco, the Mediterranean restaurant, to boot.) West ofÂ Idylwood and Country Club Place at 5420 Lawndale St., this strip center is less than a mile east of the new Oak Leaf Smokehouse on Telephone andÂ that complementary retail activity recently opened inside theÂ Tlaquepaque Market.