A pile of dirt is heaped up at the northeast corner of N. Braeswood Blvd and the West Loop feeder road this afternoon, next to a sign announcing the upcoming arrival of a Starbucks to the site. The lot held a Citgo station before demolition in mid-2013; a reader notes that construction crews have been poking around at the site for at least the past 3 weeks.
The blocky facade of the Halstead apartment complex can been seen in the background of the above snapshot — down the street to the east, the Halstead and next-door Meritage complex are slowly being joined by a midrise residential development going up at the corner of N. Braeswood and Frankway. East of that is a Proguard Storage facility and the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant.
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The Starbucks will fall into place across the West Loop from the on-its-own Starbucks on Beechnut in Meyerland Plaza, and the inside-of-Target Starbucks on the other side of the same center; another one is nestled into the Randall’s at W. Belfort, across 610 to the South.
Photo: Mike McGuff via Swamplot inbox
That is a great corner: close to Meyerland Plaza and pretty much surrounded by high-falutin’ apartment complexes (except for the dowdy Meyer Oaks?). The place will rake in the cash.
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But, given all of the close-by Starbucks, what that neighborhood really needs is a good bakery (a panaderia to be more specific) to go with all of this coffee. Though, Three Brothers is down the way.
Starbucks is pretty crafty about analyzing traffic patterns. They must have discerned enough east-west traffic on Braeswood and breakfast traffic onto the Loop ramp to make the parcel worth it. Still, i miss the gas station.
Re bakeries: there are also New York Bagels and My Pita over on Hillcroft.
This is going to be hell on my commute in the morning. People are gonna pull in for their morning fix and jet across three lanes of traffic to get on the freeway. Lets see how many accidents there are in the first year.
Or, as my parents referred to it, the gas station where that lady got murdered.
This should be pretty easy to get to by bicycle due to the proximity to the Braes Bayou trail, so lets hope they put in a bike parking rack. I also hope that they will figure out the entrance/exits and parking lot so it doesn’t end up being as much of a traffic nightmare as the one at Buffalo Speedway and South Main is during peak hours.
@Major Market: Pshaw! That will only be one Starbucks at that intersection.
Oh, you mean this lady?
http://swamplot.com/high-security-in-bellaire/2011-08-17/
There is another Starbucks about 2 1/2 blks away do not need another other what will happen to the other one??
This is nothing compared to the laughable propinquity of multiple Starsbucks at River Oaks Center.
The dueling starbucks in River Oaks may have been best described by Lewis Black. I was at the Laugh Stop when he pointed out the discovery in his act. Heres the audio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb7qDfIzQRk