Tag: Grocery Stores

New Construction, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail

24 Comments

Opening date for the brightly colored new 40,450-sq.-ft. Whole Foods Market on West Dallas and Waugh: June 22, the company reports. What about farther afield? A Whole Foods spokesperson says the company has no current plans for a store in Katy, but Nancy Sarnoff reports sources have told her the grocery retailer “is in negotiations to put a 30,000 square-foot store at the corner of Grand Parkway and Fry Road.”

Photo: Candace Garcia

77019, Grocery Stores, Montrose, New Construction, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail, Whole Foods

Commercial Real Estate

05/10/11 3:34pm

Look Out for Sprouts

Commercial Real Estate, Grocery Stores, Retail

Quicklink, Retail

9 Comments

LOOK OUT FOR SPROUTS Next little grocery chain likely to show up in Houston: Sprouts Farmers Market, out of Arizona. Page Partners managing principal Ed Page tells Nancy Sarnoff heâ€™s â€œactively negotiating on some sites right nowâ€ for the fast-growing retailer to set up shop. Where? He wouldn’t say. But in Southern California, Sprouts took over a couple of former Circuit City stores, without even pulling the plug. Sprouts recently merged with a similar health-oriented chain — founded in San Diego by the same family — Henry’s Farmers Market. [Prime Property] Photo of Sprouts in Culver City: Retail Remix

Proposed Developments

05/03/11 10:58am

Trader Joe’s Is Now Looking To Open Stores in Houston

Grocery Stores, Proposed Developments, Retail

Quicklink, Retail

51 Comments

TRADER JOE’S IS NOW LOOKING TO OPEN STORES IN HOUSTON You heard that right. The Dallas Morning News is announcing that private-label grocer Trader Joe’s plans to open 30 10 stores in Texas and is now actively scouting sites. The California-based chain is reportedly “looking at multiple locations in Dallas, Houston and Austin.” The first store would likely open in Dallas, within the year. [Dallas Morning News]

Montrose

04/29/11 9:30am

Disco Kroger Breaks on Through to the Other Side

Renovations, Retail

No Comments

And now, from roving Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia: exclusive pics of the brand new windows recently installed on the formerly blank south wall facing Hawthorne St. of the Kroger at 3300 Montrose, as part of the grocery store’s continuing renovations. Last we checked, construction was scheduled to be complete next month.

77006, Grocery Stores, Montrose, Renovations, Retail

03/29/11 4:58pm

Comment of the Day: East Downtown’s Homesteading Spirit

East Downtown, Quicklink, Retail

6 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: EAST DOWNTOWN’S HOMESTEADING SPIRIT “Yo, Wayne my Homes! Here in da â€™Do, we grow our own cilantro and make our own hummus. Just sayinâ€™.” [sugarpie, commenting on Comment of the Day: The Hummus and Brie Desert in East Downtown]

77003, Comments, East Downtown, Grocery Stores

03/25/11 3:13pm

Comment of the Day: The Hummus and Brie Desert in East Downtown

East Downtown, Quicklink, Retail

23 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE HUMMUS AND BRIE DESERT IN EAST DOWNTOWN “. . . The census records just came out, and EaDoâ€™s population gained 3500 people (of course in 2000 EaDo didnâ€™t existâ€¦ it was just a warehouse district). If EaDo wants to actually KEEP these new residents, itâ€™s gonna have to build us a damn grocery store that has stuff we actually eat!! That means Hummus, Brie, F-R-E-S-H produce and a deli that offers some actual prepared foods. . . . I should NOT have to drive to West Gray or Montrose just to get fresh Cilantro!!” [wayne2k33, commenting on Hereâ€™s Your Montrose Kroger, All Dressed Up]

77003, Comments, East Downtown, Grocery Stores

03/23/11 2:46pm

Comment of the Day: Go Disco, Disco Kroger!

Montrose, Quicklink, Renovations, Retail

No Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: GO DISCO, DISCO KROGER! “â€™Stina â€“ is there a petition or FB page or something for your effort? Can we also request a DJ booth, or at least a curated playlist for the sound system? Maybe get the King of Grief to do a few special Kroger Classic Club Hour sets?” [Nonsequiteuse, commenting on Discovered at Disco Kroger: Historic Disco Wall Print]

77006, Grocery Stores, Montrose, Renovations, Retail, Theming

Interiors

03/22/11 3:32pm

Discovered at Disco Kroger: Historic Disco Wall Print

Montrose, Renovations

16 Comments

Shopping Disco Kroger on Montrose during its ongoing renovation, reader Derek Brotherton spots a newly uncovered panel of what he “can only imagine” is old wallpaper — above the produce cooler section on the store’s north wall. “There’s still a few panels up,” he writes. “Hopefully they leave them unmolested and cover them up or maybe someone can rescue them for posterity’s sake.”

Previously on Swamplot: Hereâ€™s Your Montrose Kroger, All Dressed Up

Photo: Derek Brotherton

77006, Grocery Stores, Interiors, Montrose, Renovations, Retail

Downtown

03/08/11 11:45am

Shoppers at Downtown Phoenicia Market Will Have One Park Place to Park

Openings and Closings, Retail

7 Comments

The bottom 2 floors of the 6-level parking garage at One Park Place will be dedicated for shoppers at the new Phoenicia Specialty Foods market going into that building, reports the Chronicle‘s Purva Patel. How convenient will that be for folks arriving by car who want to grab a few pitas from the conveyer belt and then head around the other side of the building to Discovery Green for a picnic? The opening of the 28,000-sq.-ft. store at 1001 Austin St. was originally scheduled for December and then April. It’s now been delayed until “at least” May 15.

77010, Discovery Green, Downtown, Grocery Stores, Openings and Closings, Retail

Garden Oaks

03/02/11 6:38pm

What They’re Doing to Food Land on Ella

Redevelopment

17 Comments

How is it that Garden Oaks residents are so sure that the former Food Land supermarket at the corner of Ella and Judiway is going to be turned into a storage facility and not, say, a long-rumored H-E-B? Well, there’s this sign up on the property, which pretty much makes it clear what’s happening to the 32,596-sq.-ft. space.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

77018, Garden Oaks, Grocery Stores, Redevelopment, Storage

02/11/11 11:32pm

Comment of the Day: The Shops Around the Corner

Montrose, Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail, Third Ward

24 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE SHOPS AROUND THE CORNER “Where I live, in the Montrose area, I will soon be within a three minute drive of TWO Whole Foods, a brand new HEB, an updated Kroger, another supernice Kroger on West Gray, a Randallâ€™s, a Fiesta, etc. Three of these will be within a 10 minute walk from my house. Iâ€™d wager that there are few (no?) other neighborhoods in America offering this kind of variety and abundance. Meanwhile, my fellow Houstonians who happen to live in the 3rd Ward have no real shopping options nearby. They have to drive 10 or more minutes to perhaps suboptimal grocery stores and fresh produce. But there is a plethora of fried and fast food options in their neighborhood. So, when deciding where to eat quickly, McDonalds or the Navy Fried Seafood store seem to be the first choices. I think what Superhouston is implying is a possibly causal relationship between poverty, [poor] health, and a lack of fresh food. The connection is complicated, multi-dimensional, and definitely worth talking about.” [Matt, commenting on Where the Grocery Stores Arenâ€™t]

77004, 77006, Comments, Fast Food, Grocery Stores, Montrose, Restaurants, Third Ward

Housing Data

02/09/11 11:14am

Where the Grocery Stores Aren’t

Retail

32 Comments

A graphic produced by UH’s Community Design Resource Center late last year maps Houston’s “food deserts” — sections of town that are more than a mile from the nearest grocery store and where a high proportion of residents live below the federal poverty line. The group found grocery-poor areas in parts of the Third Ward, Alief, Sunnyside, South Park, Acres Homes, Independence Heights, East Jensen, Kashmere, the Fifth Ward, East Little York and West Oaks. In all, the group counts more than 250,000 low-income Houstonians living more than a mile from a grocery store; according to their calculations, more than a quarter of that number have no access to a vehicle. A larger version of the group’s preliminary map, where blue squares represent grocery stores and each red dot stands for 50 people with income below the poverty level, is here.

Houston: Desertia [Super Houston]

Map: University of Houston Community Design Resource Center

Grocery Stores, Houston Data, Retail

Buying and Selling

02/08/11 10:47am

Get Ready for a Studemont Kroger

Commercial Real Estate, Industrial Properties, Land Sales

63 Comments

Kroger has bought 8.5 acres of former industrial land on Studemont, just south of I-10, the Chronicle‘s Purva Patel reports. The land, which was once part of Houston’s Sixth Ward, sits just north of Arne’s Warehouse and Party Store and across the street from Grocers Supply. Kroger closed on the larger portion — a 7.2-acre cleared parcel at 1400 Studewood, listed for sale at $15.7 million — just last week. A spokesperson for the grocery chain wasn’t ready to announce a new store on the site, but did say the company had already taken possession of 1.3 acres just to the south, at 1200 Givens St. If Kroger does build a new supermarket there, the parking lot would have 450 ft. of frontage on Studemont; other industrial properties, many of them accessed from Summer St., would still be sandwiched between it and the Sawyer Heights Target.

77007, Buying and Selling, Commercial Real Estate, Grocery Stores, Industrial Areas, Land Sales, Sixth Ward

Montrose

02/02/11 12:02pm

Here’s Your Montrose Kroger, All Dressed Up

by Jenny Staff Johnson

Renovations, Retail

50 Comments

Here’s a rendering showing the future of the Kroger now under renovation at 3300 Montrose. The construction will be contained entirely within the store’s current footprint — though a 2,400 sq.-ft. mezzanine “lounge” will up the store’s interior space to more than 43,800 sq. ft. Kroger spokesperson Kristal Howard says the changes to the store will improve the layout and allow changes to the food offerings, including an increased emphasis on “perishables.” The design comes from Houston’s CDA Architects, the folks who brought you the Costco at Greenway Commons, the Kroger on West Gray, and that yellow Walgreens at the corner of T.C. Jester and W. 18th.

What about parking? Has Kroger had its eyes on the land under the derelict office building across Hawthorne St. at 3400 Montrose, which Scott Gertner’s Skybar left last year — followed by everyone else in the building? “We have not been in communication with any nearby properties concerning an expansion of our Montrose store,” Howard says.