Daily Demolition Report: Farewell to Foley’s

A Magna cart-off, and other shopping sacrifices:

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Commercial Structures

Residences

Photo of former Foley’s (later Macy’s) Downtown: Jim Parsons

17 Comment

  • Re: Foley’s

    No surprise here. It’s shuttering and impending demolotion was bittersweet news a few months ago, but the mourning period is over…time to move on and get excited about what comes next.

  • Will they implode it?

    I hope they implode it.

  • Is the deed done or is it scheduled for sometime this weekend?

  • Cherry Demolition is the contractor handling the demolition and they are under explicit instructions to not share any information as to the pending plans.

  • Can they implode it with the tunnels directly under it?

  • Federated, May Stores, Allied……..anyone forget that these department stores were once part of smaller groups, them all of a sudden without government approval they merged…….Antitrust…..look it up, because macy’s is in direct violation, big time………as are many retailers who went merge happy, as are many of our “oil” giants……….those Lawyers are getting tired of making nothing from fake tort, might start seeing them get interested in helping the public fight those violations of public trust……since it also affects the retirement funds their worthless stocks helped ruin…….just a thought?

  • Someones gotta have the inside scoop! I wanna go down there and see this building get blown up!!

  • The only tunnel below it is the one that provides it and its garage access to the tunnel system, so that may not be an impediment to implosion, as the only loss would be connection of the garage to the rest of the tunnels.

  • I go downtown pretty regularly- I’ll post what I see going down at Macy’s next time I’m out that way.

  • I am a 78 yr. old Houstonian. I practically grew up in Foleys! I will miss it very much like so much of Houston that is not the town I grew up in. I love growth but sometime it hurts. I’ve heard many people say and have read that Houston needs downtown retail like New York, or San Francisco. I agree. But in both cities almost every downtown skyscraper is retail at the base of the building. Not here. If its a bank, that’s all it is. Drive around downtown – all of the bldgs. have no retail.
    Years ago, before many of you were born, downtown was very active, (before shopping malls). We had many retail stores, NM, Sakowitz (which is now a parking garage!)Battlesteins,Levy’s, Joske’s, and they were all very well supported. Maybe some of the new and existing buildings should give this a try. Just reminiscing (sp?).

  • Bob: I’m a little younger than you but I also remember an active downtown. Foleys was always our favorite destination especially at Christmas as they had the only “real” Santa in Houston. I also remember eating in the cafe in the basement of Foleys. I’m sad to see the old building go.

  • Does anyone know what is going to happen to 1715 Westheimer? I simultaneously am delighted and worry about that stretch.

  • To Bob: you described my experience with Foleys ,too. Christmas and lunch. We would drive an hour to get there and to a little girl from the sticks, lunch there was really a fancy occasion. I even remember what I would always order. RIP Foleys!

  • BBBBAAANNNGG! And a cloud of dust!

  • How would I go about finding out who obtained the demo permit for 1648 Kipling? I’m curious about who and what is being built.

  • @Harold, over there ——> is a link to Online Permit Search for the CoH where you can search for demo nd construction permits. It only works with IE for Windows. Use the “job address” field.

  • I used to execute the window and store displays there. The demolition is set for September 21st just before dawn.