From photographer Candace Garcia: recent construction pix of the Montrose H-E-BMarket, designed by San Antonio’s Lake Flato Architects (with a little local help on the roof design), and going up at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama, across from Fiesta. Scheduled completion date: uh, sometime soon?
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More photos here.
- Wilshire Village coverage [Swamplot]
Photos: Candace Garcia
Excellent job working around that lone tree. Looks like a poor man’s version of the Fort Worth Modern Art Museum, but still very nice!
The day Walmart puts half this effort and commitment towards the design of any of its stores in Houston, I might shop there – once. HEB rocks (Whole Foods too), and the quality, variety, and value of its stocks is unmatched in Houston. I was a Kroger fan for two decades, but they mostly suck now. I can’t wait for this store to open so I don’t have to drive way the hell out to Bunker Hill.
Grand opening date is supposedly Nov. 16th according to the girl sitting next to me at the bar the other day, who’s husband/bf is in training to help open the new store.
I have a friend that works for one of the subcontractors. word is mid-November. just in time for the holidays.
After seeing Lake/Flato’s design take shape, uh, that new Kroger proposed on Studemont?
. . . FAIL.
If only other big box retailers made the same commitment to architecture that HEB does, we’d have a much healthier and more interesting urban landscape.
More windows, bigger parking lot…
looks like the ac bills will be through the roof. too bad all the trees are gone. I’ll still shop at Fiesta across the street and i’ve started going to the Revival Market.
Call me crazy but I believe architectural style and design matters. This is why I’ll be doing my grocery shopping here and not at my boring Garden Oaks or Hieghts Kroger.
Thank goodness Wilshire Village is GONE. That place was a death trap. At least HEB puts some effort into its new bldg.
They saved most of the trees, they are building a beautiful building, and some people are still complaining.
I can’t wait to not shop at the Fiesta. Silent or angry cashiers annoy me.
I don’t know what Fiesta is going to do. I suggest they go full on ethnic with items that are hard to find. Make it an “event” store.
Daro-
Fiesta sure has its problems– dairy product expiration dates and a seafood dept. that I have to run past– but I shop there a lot and I have to say:
The cashiers at Fiesta are the nicest, friendliest and unfailingly the FASTEST on the planet.
I’ll continue to shop at Fiesta – they have the best music in town!
They did save quite a few of the trees, older/larger ones at that, and have planted quite a few new ones as well – lets hope they survive the drought.
To Jon…why do you have to do go to Bunker Hill when you can go to Buffalo Speedway? (I understand though that place can be a clusterscrew, just moved back from that area)
I did a senior group project on HEB at Texas A&M Corpus Christi on their customer service marketing and how they will tailor stores to the local community. They carry everything, they are working with the locals, and I support them because they are a Texas based company that cares about serving Texans. Their store brand products are as good or better quality than the competitive brands, and their meat quality is amazing. In Corpus, all you have is HEB. They ran Kroger out years ago because they blow their competition out of the water. Those apartments sitting there were a total eyesore and I am sure they were a health hazard. Something needed to be done. I live on the other side of Allen Parkway, but I can promise you that my eyes are lighting up knowing that this store will be opening in less than a month and I have been waiting for that day to come. I will be passing up the 2 closer Krogers to shop here. HATS OFF TO THE BUTTS!!! Love your stores!
The building looks nice. Well designed. Lots of glass on all sides of the building. But if Bissonnet and Buffalo can’t handle the traffic, I need to remind my self to avoid Alabama at all costs. For all you people who like to fight over parking spaces, I salute you. You’ll find me at the Whole Foods on Holcomb at 8:50pm on a Tuesday.
Yeah, there is never any parking issues at the Whole Foods on Alabama is there?
Actually it’s very difficult to park at the Whole Foods on Ala–OH I SEE WHAT’S GOING ON HERE
I’m mainly glad they put in a curb. I don’t have the best night vision, and always hated driving south on Dunlavy after dark – so sure I’d go straight into the ditch!
Parking at the Food Whole on Alabama isn’t so bad… most people seem to need to park by the front for some reason.
@Kris: If HEB is so fabulously wonderful and sensitive and responsive to their stores’ neighborhoods, why the heck haven’t they built a nice one in the Heights/Garden Oaks/Oak Forest area?
Am I the only one that thinks the old apt buildings there could have been turned around made made to be quite cool? They had a neat looking vintage vibe about them.
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meh, I know doing anything with them would have been a nightmare (city wise) but part of me wishes someone would have tried (and that would be semi-inexpensive housing for a lot of people)
I shop at the Dunlavy Fiesta fairly regularly. To brace themselves for the new competition, the staff just got spiffy new uniform shirts, and they’ve put out a banner that says that location has housed a neighborhood grocery store for 60 years (indeed, my grandmother shopped there decades ago when it was a Safeway). I keep wanting to ask the employees if anyone is moving over to the HEB, because if I were running HEB the first thing I’d do is hire away the best Fiesta employees. But I’m sure it’s a touchy subject. I love HEB and will probably shop there, too, but I’m going to feel like a traitor.
@ Carol – back in ancient times, it was a Weingarten’s featuring such curiosities as a costume jewelry counter with a clerk and an incubator table around Easter with live baby chicks dyed different colors.
Hellsing, you have some great recollections.
@Hellsing: Thanks, I couldn’t remember what it was before Safeway. I do remember there was an Eckerd Drugs right next to the grocery store.
Fiesta smells bad but the cashiers are definitely not something I’d complain about. They rock.
Living just a few blocks away, the traffic is something I will complain about. Yes, Dunlavy has been restriped with turn lanes but in no way will it be able to handle the traffic. The no left turn restrictions on West Alabama mean that at rush hour left turns are prohibited onto Dunlavy. There is just no way that restriction will be followed or can work. The resulting traffic spillover will be miserable for those of us that live on the surrounding residential streets. I have seen what the Buffalo Speedway HEB traffic looks like and I avoid it at all costs.
On the plus side though the store looks great and the trees have been given large landscape islands like at Central Market in Austin which should help to keep them alive.
@ movocelot, Carol – the area was pretty fun to grow up in during the 60’s. Montrose had a terrible reputation, but our neck of the woods near what used to be Dunlavy Park was uneventful, except for hearing the occasional wreck on 59 (and living a block from Hugo the gorilla). Glad to see that the Poe Fall Carnival is still a good draw. :)