Not quite 3 years after reopening as what owner Rodney Finger claimed to be the biggest furniture store in Texas, the 600,000-sq.-ft. I-45 Finger Furniture flagship — and the 16.5 acres near UH that it sits on — has come up for sale. Until the Finger family bought the property in the early ’60s, it was home to a minor-league baseball stadium for the Houston Buffs, a farm team for the Cardinals up in St. Louis. That history was given some floor space among the couches and mattresses indoors in the Houston Sports Museum — with a replica home plate in the showroom tile to approximate the original. And the asking price? $11 million.
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Just on the other side of I-45 from U of H, the 4001 Gulf Freeway property faces Cullen on the south. It comprises the warehouse and showroom in the photo above and two smaller buildings east of the freeway. Houston Chronicle‘s Katherine Feser reports that two other nearby properties, totaling about an acre, are also for sale.
- Prominent site on I-45 South goes on market [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Previously on Swamplot: A Whole New Ball Game: Fingers Back and Open for Business
Images: Allyn West (building); Wulfe & Co. (map)
I’m old, and even I never attended a game in Buff Stadium. I think the team departed in ’58 or’59. The stadium was there until about ’61. They were the farm team for the St. Louis Cardinals. In ’62 the Colts started playing in a stadium on what is now the parking lot of the Astrodome/Reliant stadium. I think it was eventually moved to Gomez Palacio for the Mexican League. But I could be wrong.
Forgot to mention I attended way too many games at Colt Stadium. My dad played semi-pro before attending college and we went to every game. Boy it was hot and mosquito ridden.
Is the Houston Sports Museum still open at the Fingers site or is the Fingers site (and Houston Sports Museum) already closed?
More Hardiboard beehives? This is right across the street from the Eastwood Transit Center, which is where the planned University Line would terminate.
I don’t see anything exciting happening with this piece of property.
UH should buy it.
Not exactly right down the street from Eastwood Transit Center. More like half a mile down a frontage road.
Drew…you’re correct. I had a mental image of it there but it’s actually a tough walk down the feeder. Still could be a mega-cluster of green people pods but more likely a mattress superstore.
It is terrible for UH because it is on the other side of the Freeway, not to mention a lot of parking lots. It is not like all the other adjacent land around UH is that pricy.
I don’t think the museum is still open, there’s a fence up surrounding the whole site that says ‘no trespassing’.
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The closest exit from the gulf freeway if you’re traveling north is Telepsen, and 2 stop lights. It’s not terribly convenient to access.
I agree that it might be sitting there a while, and I assume the owners know that as well, having spent a pretty penny to wrap it up tight in barbed wire fencing. As an Eastwood resident, that’s probably the worst part, that they put on their sign “moved to Willowbrook” (missing letters, natch), and made their inner city property look abandoned. It was a crappy store when it was open, and is equally crappy now that it is closed. I have to wonder if Fingers would have closed their doors sooner, if Wal-Mart would have purchased that site instead of Wayside. Maybe Fingers will tear it down because the land is probably more valuable with the building gone. Though with that said, the land across Cullen has been for sale forever.
The word on the street says it’s going to be an indoor flea market. “La pulga gigante†or something like that.
Not to mention, the macy’s warehouse closed a few months ago (land has been for sale for a while, but they quietly closed shop for good).
UH should buy it to avoid things like the Gigante flea market or whatever. Just so they can control what’s around campus (and maybe sell it to “campus friendly” businesses.
I wish HEB would buy it.
Good call Michael, I think HEB would be a good fit, EADO is under served with no major grocer. I am not counting the Randall’s in Midtown. Also UH students would finally have a supermarket to go, I am not counting the HEB on OST and MLK.
If you want an HEB there, email and tell them! I did this today, so if enough people do it might make their radar.
Sure would be wise of HEB to move on this opportunity. Not too many large, well-placed pieces of land available for a suburban-sized grocery store that all the retailers insist upon building.
I would like to see an HEB there too, but one with a different model from the one at Gulfgate.
We have Fiesta on Wayside and I shop there for some things. I do not need “my HEB” trying to be a Fiesta also.
i would love to see Target open on this location.
So any new updates on this?
I would love for Costco to buy this. Just imagine the demographics that are filtered because one can’t afford to pay cost cod annual membership.
Regarding Buff Stadium, I did attend games there and listened to the team play on radio. Year ago, I was browsing in the store, totally unaware that this was once where Buff Stadium stood when I happened upon a gold-looking home plate in the floor. It was near an unassuming back corner somewhere in that big building. It must have had an inscription because that is when I became aware that this location use to be exactly where the old Buff Stadium home plate was installed during those historic years before the Astros. I can’t remember the announcer’s name who called the games but he was a favorite around town. Also, the only big names I can recall that played there was Dizzy Dean, Vinegar Bend Mizell and Les Fusselman.