Going out, coming in: It looks like the work to update this former Rice Epicurean Market at 2617 W. Holcombe into The Fresh Market is well underway. Set back in that shopping center on the southwest corner of W. Holcombe and Kirby Dr. in West University, this will be one of the 4 Rice Epicurean spots that the North Carolina chain said it would be freshening up this year; the others are on Weslayan, Tanglewood, and Memorial.
Photo: Allyn West
Read more about: 77025, Buildouts, Grocery Stores, Retail, West University
Update, 3:30 p.m.: Randall’s president Paul McTavish confirms that this store will be closing. No date was mentioned.
A few readers are reporting that they’ve heard from Randall’s employees here that the store near San Felipe and Voss will shut its doors by the end of the month. One reader even has a date: May 23. County records show that the 56,511-sq.-ft. building sits on 157,149 sq. ft. of pricey Memorial property across Voss from the new Trader Joe’s — the parking lot of which appeared a bit less barren than the Randall’s lot in this photo taken this morning. Attempts to contact Safeway haven’t been returned.
Photo: Allyn West
Read more about: 77057, Commercial Real Estate, Grocery Stores, Memorial, Openings and Closings
April 15, 2013 – 10:00 am
Note: Story updated with new photos.
An update comes in from reader Nicole Sherman, who saw this bare facade-to-be and fruity Sprouts Farmers Market sign at the end of last week and snapped these photos: Filling in for the former Sports Authority in the Kirkwood Shopping Center at 11940 Westheimer, this will be the 4th Sprouts in Houston and the farthest in, only 2 miles beyond the Beltway. In October, the green grocer revealed the first 3 locations it would open in Houston this year:
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Read more about: 77077, Briar Forest, Franchises and Chain Stores, Grocery Stores, Memorial, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
Construction’s expected to begin next week on this Whole Foods at that once-forested spot near Louetta and Cutten Rd. east of the Tomball Pkwy. The 40,443-sq.-ft. store in the master-planned community The Vintage, south of the path of the Grand Parkway, will be the first Whole Foods in North Houston. Houston Business Journal‘s Shaina Zucker notes that the Gensler-designed store will anchor the 18-acre Vintage Marketplace.
Image: Judy Nichols & Associates, via Houston Business Journal
Read more about: 77070, Grocery Stores, Land Development, New Construction, Retail, Shopping Centers, The Vintage, Whole Foods
So the excavator is sneaking up on the old Fiesta. You knew one was coming. And you know there will be more. As of this morning, the low-slung building at the corner of Dunlavy and West Alabama hasn’t yet received a demolition permit, but it’s been on the smashing block since closing in July, not too long after H-E-B opened the Montrose Market across the street. Developer Marvy Finger, who now owns the property here in Lancaster Place, has said he plans to build something Mediterranean — a 6- to 8-story apartment complex that might or might not have some retail, too: “We’re going to try to create something really beautiful,” he’s told the Houston Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff.
Photo: Loves swamplot
Read more about: 77098, Apartments, Demolitions, Grocery Stores, H-E-B Montrose Market, Lancaster Place, Montrose, Proposed Developments
February 28, 2013 – 5:00 pm
A result of the news yesterday that H-E-B will be moving from its Fountain View and Westheimer store to a new one on San Felipe in 2014 is the impending demolition of Tanglewood Court apartments, which stand on the 18-acre property bound by Fountain View, San Felipe, and Inwood. (The photo shows the apartments from the corner of Fountain View and Inwood.) Lynn Davis of Fidelis, which purchased the site in September 2011, tells Swamplot that notice has been given to residents that they’ll need to move by the end of March or early April. Buses from neighboring complexes, says Davis, have been shuttling them around to help them find a new place to live.
And once they’re gone, what, besides the H-E-B, will go in their place?
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Read more about: 77057, Apartments, Briargrove, Demolitions, Evictions, Grocery Stores, Proposed Development, Retail
February 27, 2013 – 3:00 pm
This one at Fountain View and Westheimer, H-E-B regional president Scott McClelland tells Swamplot, will be vacated for a brand-new one to be built less than a mile north on Fountain View and San Felipe. Fidelis owns the 17-acre property there, says McClelland, and approached H-E-B to lease part of it. It’s occupied now by Tanglewood Court apartments. (Calls to Fidelis and Tanglewood Court about the apartments haven’t been returned.) What will happen to the current store? McClelland’s not sure, but he guesses it’ll be sold to a non-grocery retailer. Meanwhile, the new store’s already being designed. Expected to open in Fall 2014, it will be a “next generation format” like the Montrose Market on Dunlavy and West Alabama.
Photo: City-Data
Read more about: 77057, Apartments, Grocery Stores, H-E-B Montrose Market, New Construction, Proposed Developments
February 13, 2013 – 3:30 pm
They grow up so fast: Sending photos in August and October, a reader has been documenting from on high the progress of BLVD Place near San Felipe and Post Oak — and now here’s one more. What’s new? Well, what used to be nothing but grass in the foreground has been stripped for the Hanover apartment tower. And the Whole Foods shell appears to be shaping up, too.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Read more about: 77056, BLVD Place, Galleria, Grocery Stores, Mixed Use, New Construction, Retail, Uptown, Whole Foods
January 18, 2013 – 1:00 pm
One more of each, thank you: Creekside Park Village Center, rendered above, will be the Woodlands’ 7th and will be anchored by its 4th H-E-B, the master-planned community says. The shopping center will serve Creekside Park, a 100-acre community planned to go in up there west of Lake Paloma. It appears that the center will herd its shoppers inward toward a 4,300-sq.-ft. glass-walled restaurant, which you can see in the rendering. And there’s gonna be a fire pit in that park-like median-thing. (And a water feature on the other end. You know. Just in case.) In all, 80,000 sq. ft. of retail and office space are proposed for the site on Kuykendahl.
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Read more about: Commercial Real Estate, Grocery Stores, Parks, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping, Shopping Center, The Woodlands
January 10, 2013 – 1:40 pm
It’s adios for the 60-year-old Heights market — Bridgewood Properties is building a 4-story senior-living complex in its place — but there will be one more flicker before the lights go out: Bridgewood President Jim Gray tells the Leader he pushed back the start of construction “so that the Houston Heights Association could hold its annual Candlelight Dinner & Auction … the Heights’ premier social function.” Gray adds: “It seemed like the right thing to do.” [The Leader; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
Read more about: 77008, Grocery Stores, Proposed Developments, Senior Living, Weingarten Realty
November 15, 2012 – 12:24 pm
Would warehouse facilities have worked as well? Katherine Shilcutt explains: “A long-running joke with many Houstonians is that no one quite knew how Rice Epicurean Markets stayed in business. . . . While all kinds of wild rumors flew about how Rice Epicurean stores stayed open despite a lack of traffic, the truth is that most of its customers — which tend to be both older and wealthier — opted for grocery delivery service at home. And while this sustained Rice Epicurean for many years, it appears that this model wasn’t quite enough to keep its stores in business.” The chain’s lone surviving store, at 2020 Fountain View between San Felipe and Inwood, will continue home deliveries. [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Photo of Rice Epicurean, 3745 Westheimer at Weslayan: Wikimedia Commons
Read more about: Grocery Stores, Openings and Closings, Retail
November 14, 2012 – 12:29 pm
Rice Epicurean Markets is finally giving up on 4 of its 5 remaining locations, the company announced today. The lone holdout is the company’s store on Fountain View at Inwood, which will remain open for the foreseeable future. Its Holcombe, Weslayan, Tanglewood, and Memorial locations will be leased to The Fresh Market, a chain based in North Carolina.
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Read more about: Grocery Stores, Houston History, Leasing, Openings and Closings, Real Estate Investing, Retail
October 30, 2012 – 3:08 pm
The blogger grocery store reviews are in! Or at least one of them, for the just-opened Kroger south of the Heights at 1440 Studemont. Former Stop & Shop cashier Viula finds helpful price scanners, a few extremely wide aisles (and a few especially narrow ones), some discolored lettuces, some very shy salsa, and strange logic in the organization of orange and orange-y juices: “Not life shattering or even really news worthy outside of the fact that I am writing about what a disorganized mess this supermarket seemed to be,” she writes. “But it’s counter-intuitive and makes a mundane task more frustrating than it should be.” In sum, she pronounces: “Eh.” Next up — if anyone publishes one — blogger reviews of the Kroger’s same-opening-day neighbor, the new Washington Heights Walmart? [The Heights Life; previously on Swamplot] Photo: The Heights Life
Read more about: 77007, Grocery Stores, Retail, Sixth Ward
October 19, 2012 – 1:29 pm
From an upper floor to the east, looking toward Downtown: Piers are in and some column rebar bundles are up already for the BLVD Place building fronting Post Oak Blvd. (the street just beyond the construction site in the photo). According to plans posted online, an underground parking level with room for 260 cars will fit below the 48,500-sq.-ft. Whole Foods Market, with more parking behind and above the grocery-store space on 2 additional levels. Also going into the building at the corner of San Felipe St.: other retail, restaurant, and office spaces.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Read more about: 77056, BLVD Place, Galleria, Grocery Stores, Mixed Use, New Construction, Office Space, Retail, Uptown, Whole Foods
Comment of the Day Runner-Up: When Randall’s Was Swank
“It sounds crazy nowadays but I remember back in the ′80s when this store opened up and they had valet parking under their porte cochere with valets wearing tuxedoes. We were very impressed by the little restaurant inside, too. It was so ritzy! Sad to see the prosperity all gone now.” [AW, commenting on Yes, the Voss Rd. Randall’s Is Closing]