Tag: Galleria Area

Featured Posts
04/06/17 1:30pm

Vietnamese Replacing Italian by the Discarded Starbucks Shell on Richmond Ave.

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Galleria, Renovations, Restaurants, Retail, Richmond Strip
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Roostar Vietnamese Grill, 5551 Richmond Ave., Westheimer Gardens, Houston, 77056

Former Napoli at 5551 Richmond Ave., Westheimer Gardens, Houston, 77056Roostar Vietnamese Grill is just about done moving into the southern slot of the perpendicular 2-man segment of the Richmond Ave. strip center east of Chimney Rock Rd., a reader notes. The Vietnamese kinda-fusion restaurant’s first location opened in Spring Branch a few years ago as Vietnam Poblano, swapping to the new name and stylized but literal melded bird-star logo not long after. Ronnie Nguyen and Linda Nguyen, the 2-link chain’s forgers, had hoped the new location (in the space formerly occupied by Napoli) would be up and running in time for all that Super Bowl hubbub; looks like the new plan is for an April opening.

Next door to the nearly-hatched restaurant is the former Starbucks spot, which had shut down by the time that shiny new freestanding one opened up on the corner across the street last year:

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Coffee Out, Roostar In
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Featured Posts
04/03/17 4:30pm

The Galleria’s Preeminent 24-Hr Sex Shop Looks To Be Up For Grabs

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Galleria, Retail
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Zone D'Erotica, 2626 West Loop South, Galleria Area, Houston, 77027

The always-open pink-and-purple site of adult accessories shop Zone d’Erotica, which has long served as a retina-searing guidepost to westward-bound Galleria traffic, is currently listed as for lease on the website of retail real estate brokerage The Retail Connection, a keen-eyed reader noted this morning. The trapezoid-heavy building is tucked on a trapezoidal plot of land between the yellow-bedecked corner Shell station and the austere gray facade of Dillard’s, and served as a Luke’s Hamburgers in a past life before making the Zone transition well over a decade ago (presumably with the aid of Houston’s lack of zoning laws). Just down the road along the Galleria’s Westheimer Rd. edge, a younger, prettier pad site (built recently as part of the Galleria’s ongoing makeover and reconstruction) has now been filled in with the likes of Michelin-starred dim sum joint Yauatcha, which opened last week.

Photo: The Retail Connection

Westheimer Zone-ing
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Featured Posts
04/07/16 3:15pm

Don’t Look Now, But the Galleria Is About to Sprout a New Residential Highrise

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Galleria, Highrises, Proposed Developments
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Proposed 30-story tower on former Macy's site, Galleria, Houston, 77056

This morning Simon Property Group released renderings of a planned residential highrise in the Galleria, shown here at the corner of W. Alabama St. and Sage Rd. in what’s left over of the land previously occupied by the mall’s second Macy’s. The tower is slated for the same spot previously colored purple for “future retail/office residences” on one of the developer’s Galleria redo maps back in 2014. (That map didn’t mention a highrise specifically, but previous info on the redevelopment plans floated the idea.) Simon says it plans to break ground on the tower by the end of 2017, with a 2019 or 2020 opening in mind.

The rendered view above looks northeast over the Berachah Church across W. Alabama at the glassy highrise, which may hold somewhere between 75 and 100 residential units atop 220 hotel rooms (with separate amenities areas for permanent and temporary residents). The design shows 2 pool decks; the nearby Westin Galleria’s existing pool can be spotted on the right, past an existing parking garage.

Here’s the view from the other side, looking south down Sage across Westheimer Rd. over the new Saks Fifth Avenue building (set to open at the end of the month):

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One Tower to Live Above the Mall
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Featured Posts
03/24/16 1:00pm

Starbucks Now Open Across from Former Starbucks on Richmond Ave at Chimney Rock

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Galleria
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Starbucks, 5540 Richmond Ave, Galleria Area, Houston, 77056

Rising in this photo, from left to right: the back-t0-searching Williams Tower, the 30-story Mercer condo building, and the vertical sign for the new Starbucks that opened yesterday morning at the northeast corner of Richmond Ave. and Chimney Rock Rd. The freestanding coffee shop at 5540 Richmond (next to the spot previously occupied by now-demolished Taco Cabana) is right across the street from the freestanding former Starbucks no longer listed on the company’s website at 5549 Richmond, between wine-themed Pinot’s Palette and probably-not-intentionally-wine-themed Night Train Luggage.

The store is a 4-minute drive from the Starbucks-turned-Minuti on the corner of Fountainview Dr. and Westheimer Rd., and just a 3-minute drive from the new AT&T-adjacent Starbucks on S. Rice Ave. south of 59, at the edge of the Walmart Supercenter parking lot next to relocated MicroCenter. Folks who want to get their coffee and split can head east to the drive-through lane; folks looking to stick around can hang out inside, out front, or on the semi-sheltered side patio which will eventually be partially screened with greenery, if the planter plants follow the plan:

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Coffee’s Back On
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