Tag: Rice-Village

Apartments
03/29/11 4:26pm

Hanover at Rice Village: What’s Going Up Over Bolsover

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Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Rice Village, Streets
22 Comments

In 2007, Houston’s city council sold a block of Bolsover St. in the Rice Village to the developers of Randall Davis’s Sonoma project so that it could be used as a private drive and restaurant plaza linking two phases of the development. Davis and Lamesa Properties did manage to demolish the neighboring buildings, but Sonoma was never built. Now, the Hanover Company is saying it’s ready to build portions of a 6-story mixed-use building directly on top of part of that street. Plans for the new project, called Hanover at Rice Village, show a large plaza with restaurant seating on the eastern portion of what used to be Bolsover, facing Morningside. But the west half of the block is slated for retail space, apartments, and a private courtyard for residents:

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Openings and Closings
03/24/11 1:42pm

The Rice Village’s New Overnight Sweatbox

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Retail, Rice Village
6 Comments

Official opening date for the new 24 Hour Fitness Super-Sport club carved out of the old Bally’s space at 2500 Dunstan St., just east of Kirby: This Saturday. Yes, this is only the company’s 33rd Houston-area location. Indoor lap pool, basketball and racquetball courts, towel service, blah blah blah.

Photos: Candace Garcia

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Comments
02/08/11 11:42pm

Comment of the Day: Not Entirely Weaned from the Breastfeeding Store

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail, Rice Village
9 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: NOT ENTIRELY WEANED FROM THE BREASTFEEDING STORE “I also find the news sad. The store was so beautiful inside — I felt special walking in to rent a scale, get a consult, buy some clothes, or just use the couches to take a break and feed my babes (with Sandie’s help, I breastfed twins!). I didn’t really understand the name of the store (silly me, I didn’t even realize that it was a store geared toward breastfeeding!) until I had children myself — birthing and breastfeeding a child is definitely work, the work that only a woman can do! My twins are six now. They love walking past the window displays. We’ll have to go again tomorrow, and sit on the couches one last time. The upside of the move is that it sounds like A Woman’s Work is now going to be in the same building as a large pediatric practice; for those families getting breastfeeding help should be easier than ever.” [Joyce, commenting on A Woman’s Work Is Abandoning the Village]

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Openings and Closings
02/07/11 11:09am

A Woman’s Work Is Abandoning the Village

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Retail, Rice Village
15 Comments

Breastfeeding and baby care HQ A Woman’s Work will be shutting down its Rice Village storefront at the end of March. Owner Sandie Lemke plans to move the store by then to a second-floor office at 4101 Greenbriar just south of 59, where she’ll continue her breastfeeding consulting and sales operation on a smaller scale — and by appointment only. “I . . . made the decision to downsize a bit so I can focus on my passion and what I have always considered my product – Breastfeeding,” she writes in an email sent to customers and forwarded to Swamplot. Breastfeeding classes and consulting, breast pumps for sale or rent, and baby slings will still be available at the new location, as well as bra fitting and maternity support services.

Meanwhile, there’s the most-stuff-at-25-percent-off moving sale at the A Woman’s Work storefront at 2401 Rice Blvd., on the corner of Morningside. Lemke founded the store 20 years ago; it’s been at the same location for more than a decade. A couple of years ago, Lemke closed down A Woman’s Workshop, a gathering and classroom space for parenting support groups that occupied a separate storefront across Morningside.

Photo: A Woman’s Work

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Apartments
12/29/10 12:24pm

A Plaza View for the Rice Village: Hanover Plans Smaller Development in Place of Sonoma Screwup

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Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Rice Village
33 Comments

The Village News is reporting that the Hanover Company has purchased the 4.5-acre site in the Rice Village once slated for Randall Davis’s Sonoma development, and is ready with plans to build a large — though far less grandiose — retail-and-apartment project on the site. Davis and partner Lamesa Properties made a mess of the site 2 years ago, purchasing a stretch of Bolsover St. from the city and demolishing several buildings’ worth of retail and office space before facing the credit markets and figuring out they wouldn’t be able to get financing for the project.

Hanover’s project, called Plaza View Hanover at Rice Village, is scheduled to include 385 “high-end” apartments, 14,000 sq. ft. of retail or restaurant space, and a multi-level parking garage, all in what its designers label a pedestrian-friendly design. What’s that plaza we’ll be viewing? An almost-17,000-sq.-ft. public space along Morningside, with a “water feature, grass lawn, large trees, and restaurant dining spaces.” According to Hanover executive veep John Garibaldi, 55,000 sq. ft. of retail space, 34,000 sq. ft. of office space, and an 8,000-sq.-ft. grocery store were cut from the earlier Sonoma plans. Much of the towering nouveau pomposity of the Sonoma design has been cut too. Along Kelvin St., Hanover’s buildings will reach 6 stories tall; 5 stories along Morningside and Dunstan.

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Comments
12/27/10 4:50pm

Comment of the Day: Cold Case, Rice Village

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Neighborhood Disputes, Quicklink, Rice Village
7 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: COLD CASE, RICE VILLAGE “Seems to me a little backwards math could figure this one out. The trajectory (calculated from point of entry through roof vs point of breakage of the glassware) and size of object thrown (amount of melting can be estimated based on size of ice recovered vs time and temperature) should be able to figure out very close which balcony the blocks came from.” [tanith27, commenting on Iced Again: A White Christmas Comes Early to Hans’ Bier Haus]

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Neighborhood Disputes
12/27/10 11:08am

Iced Again: A White Christmas Comes Early to Hans’ Bier Haus

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Rice Village
18 Comments

Santy Claus delivered 6 or 7 large and heavy before-Christmas gifts to Hans’ Bier Haus, the little bar that’s provided so much entertainment to the Rice Village over the last year. The little one-story structure at 2523 Quenby, doesn’t have a chimney; the gifts were just dropped onto the roof sometime early Friday morning. From there most of them crashed through. In addition to several holes in the ceiling, the ice blocks left a few damaged light fixtures, a few broken glasses, and a sprinkling of drywall crumbles inside, plus a breakaway tree limb on the back patio. Bier Haus co-owner Bill Cave tells abc13’s Sonia Azad the partially melted blocks were discovered Friday morning.

But gosh, who besides a mean old Santa could have done such a thing to Hans’ Bier Haus? And . . . who did it over Thanksgiving, too?

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Condos
11/30/10 9:56am

Hans’ Bier Haus on the Rocks

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Neighborhood Disputes, Nighlife, Quicklink, Rice Village
28 Comments

HANS’ BIER HAUS ON THE ROCKS Restraining orders may have put a little damper on the back-and-forth between Hans’ Bier Haus and some of the fun-loving residents of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condo building that towers over it next door, but Miya Shay reports things are back to uh, normal now. Bar owner Bill Cave tells her he “believes a big chunk of ice crashed through his roof and into the bar” in the wee hours of this past holiday weekend. But gosh, where’s the evidence? (Note: Video posted with the story is out of date; Hans’ Bier Haus already renewed its license.) [abc13; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Jack H.

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Buying and Selling
11/16/10 2:51pm

Children’s Kirby Assessment: Bike Barn Site Bank and Drive-Thru

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Demolitions, Land Sales, Proposed Developments, Retail, Rice Village
9 Comments

A 2-story Frost Bank with a drive thru will take over the Kirby side of the former Village Plaza shopping center between Dunstan and Bolsover — once the demo company finishes smashing the Bike Barn, Mattress Giant, and the shells of a few other stores its been chewing on, reports the Village News. Frost bought the 35,000-sq.-ft. leftover portion of the center at 5925 Kirby earlier this month from the Children’s Assessment Center. The CAC plans to expand its Rice Village “campus” (named after attorney John M. O’Quinn) and build a parking garage on the back half of the property.

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Neighborhood Disputes
11/12/10 2:23pm

The Next Neighbor in Line for 2520 Robinhood Won’t Mind Getting Wet

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Nightlife, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Rice Village
7 Comments

THE NEXT NEIGHBOR IN LINE FOR 2520 ROBINHOOD WON’T MIND GETTING WET Hudson Lounge owner Adam Kleibert is hoping his new bar directly to the east of the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condo tower will get better treatment from his neighbors than the drenching and projectile greetings Hans’ Bier Haus directly to the west received last year. And he tells the HBJ‘s Allison Wollam that he and his brothers have some plans for the rest of the property they own directly adjacent to the tower. Once the lending market turns around, he says, they’d like to build a 33-room boutique hotel with a rooftop pool on the site. Kleibert says the Hudson Lounge is already planning a reception expressly for condo residents. [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Candace Garcia

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Condos
11/04/10 3:59pm

Now Open: The Bar on the Other Side of the 2520 Robinhood Condos

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Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Rice Village
24 Comments

Residents of the east-facing condos in the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby tower jealous of all the fun their neighbors in the west-facing units have been having with late night partiers at Hans’ Bier Haus next door now have their very own partly open-air next-door bar to mess with: Hudson Lounge opened earlier this week, at 2506 Robinhood. And hey: on this side of the tower, there’s no pesky parking garage to get in the way of any nightclub-condo interaction.

Brothers Adam, Alexander, and Andre Klieber carved the new straight-Mod space out of the former office HQ of Adam and Alexander’s other business, Southampton Homes — after business there slowed down. New swiveling steel doors on the front and back of the 1950 building open to a patio and separate bar pavilion in back.

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Openings and Closings
10/12/10 1:32pm

Rising from the Ruins of Bally’s: A 24 Hour Fitness in Rice Village?

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Retail, Rice Village
12 Comments

Will a new, third Inner Loop location for health-club chain 24 Hour Fitness take over where the Rice Village Bally’s left off? That’s what some not-so-subtle banners hung on the Dunstan St. building have been claiming for more than a month now. Plus: a bid package for the buildout was sent out to subcontractors over the summer. Other than that, we haven’t heard a thing: The new location isn’t even listed in the “coming soon” section of the fitness chain’s website. The Bally’s Total Fitness in the same building, at the corner of Dunstan and Kelvin, shut down last June.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Leasing
09/20/10 1:44pm

Last Call for Two Rows

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Openings and Closings, Retail, Rice Village, Shopping Centers
34 Comments

Having achieved the title of “Houston’s last remaining brewpub,” Rice Village’s Two Rows is now scheduled to close at the beginning of next month. General partner Rusty Loeffler tells the Chronicle‘s Ronnie Crocker (and a tipster tells us) that Weingarten Realty was asking far more than the company was willing to spend to sign a new long-term lease for the 10,000-sq.-ft. upstairs space in the Village Arcade on University at Morningside. Now ready to move into half of that space: Jason’s Deli. Loeffler says his restaurant “may look at other locations in Houston” that’ll have room for the company’s brewing equipment.

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Hazards
07/09/10 8:46pm

Rice Village Barbecue and Pot Luck Brings on the Chemicals and Hazmat Crew

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Neighborhood Disputes, Quicklink, Rice Village
20 Comments

RICE VILLAGE BARBECUE AND POT LUCK BRINGS ON THE CHEMICALS AND HAZMAT CREW As abc13 reports it this evening, both sides in everyone’s favorite ongoing Rice Village feud contributed what they could to today’s neighborly resolution of that little rotting-meat problem. To neutralize the odor emanating from the tens of pounds of stinky flesh that had been dumped on an adjacent private alley a week ago, workers from Hans’ Bier Haus reportedly poured calcium hydroxide (or lime) onto it. And the friendly folks next door at the 2520 Robinhood at Kirby condos hired a hazardous-materials crew to remove the resulting stew: “It’s a corrosive and it could be toxic also,” Bernard Nelson of Legacy Environmental told a station reporter. “If it gets on the skin it could burn. It carries [a] pH of 14 to 16 so that’s definitely caustic.” [abc13; previously on Swamplot]

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