Swamplot Archives by Tag: Shopping Centers

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

New Planned Parenthood Incites Protests in Spring

May 8, 2013 – 11:00 am
   

This 7th Houston-area Planned Parenthood, which signed a 5-year lease and opened last week here at 4747 Louetta Rd. in a Spring shopping center shared by a Chase branch, party supply store, and daycare, doesn’t seem to have received the warmest welcome: Cool Kat Party Supply owner Glenn Mehterian says he moved his main entrance around the corner: “We’ll have more comfort entering our store from the Kroger side,” he tells abc13. And others have been moved to protest the clinic in their own way: Conroe man and Right to Life volunteer Joe Wiegan has come here to pray: “It was a lonesome feeling,” he tells the Montgomery County Courier’s Kimberly Sutton, “but after about half an hour, a man and his young son walked out of the Chase Bank next door and asked if they could join me . . . . He led a beautiful prayer for the unborn and they left with tears in their eyes. . . . .” Then Wiegan was joined by another: “He said he passed by earlier and asked God to please keep me here until he got back by so he could stop and pray with me . . . He was an awesome bear of a man, with a spirit as gentle as a lamb’s.” [abc13; Montgomery County Courier; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Montgomery County Courier

11:00 am | 62 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: Spring, Quicklink, Shopping Centers
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Thursday, April 25, 2013

Now Open: Torchy’s in Rice Village

April 25, 2013 – 2:30 pm

As of late last week, Torchy’s Tacos is open, having built out and taken up this corner suite formerly occupied by Gugliani’s at 2400 Times Blvd. in Rice Village. This is the Austin chain’s 3rd location inside the Loop: There’s one on South Shepherd Dr. half a block from the Arby’s that’s becoming a Dunkin’ Donuts and another under construction in the former Harold’s in the Heights building at the corner of Ashland and 19th St.

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2:30 pm | 23 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: Rice Village, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants, Shopping Centers
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Monday, April 15, 2013

Look What’s Sprouting on Westheimer and Kirkwood

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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10:00 am | 1 Comment | Read more about Neighborhoods: Briar Forest, Neighborhoods: Kirkwood, Neighborhoods: Memorial, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Thursday, April 4, 2013

Vintage Marketplace Whole Foods Going Up Soon

April 4, 2013 – 10:30 am

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

10:30 am | Add a Comment | Read more about Land Development, Master-Planned Communities, Neighborhoods: The Vintage, New Construction, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Monday, April 1, 2013

Dunkin’ Donuts Opening Next Month in Westchase Strip Center

April 1, 2013 – 10:30 am

If you can’t wait until June or July for Dunkin’ Donuts to open inside the Loop at the former Arby’s at South Shepherd and Fairview, you might plan to come here, the former SmashBurger at 10705 Westheimer, where a company rep says that the donut makers will open in May the first of 16 planned Houston stores. Sharing the Westchase strip center with a Cricket store and Brookstreet Bar-B-Que, the coffee-colored endcap has undergone at least one other renovation: A drive-thru lane now cuts through what had been SmashBurger’s treeside patio.

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10:30 am | 11 Comments | Read more about Buildouts, Neighborhoods: Westchase, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Shopping Centers
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Thursday, March 28, 2013

Gutting a Belly-Dancing Studio for a Place to Row in Weslayan Plaza

March 28, 2013 – 12:05 pm

This white box, covering up the emergency exit of a vacated belly-dancing studio, will be the new entrance of Houston’s first indoor rowing facility, says founder Greg Scheinman. In West University Place, ROW Studios is building out the former Sirrom Dance behind the Randall’s in Weslayan Plaza and resurfacing the parking lot facing Academy St.

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12:05 pm | 20 Comments | Read more about Buildouts, Neighborhoods: West University, Renovations, Shopping Centers
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Monday, March 25, 2013

Telephone Road’s New Sweet and Sweat Shops

March 25, 2013 – 11:00 am

As though mandated by some surgeon general recommendation for commercial development, the new neighbors in the Tlaquepaque Market at Telephone and Lockwood are an ice cream shop and a fitness studio. Scoops, the sign for which recently appeared above those window bars, is replacing a nail salon at 724 Telephone; it will share a wall with a Zumba studio, a former dollar store that doesn’t have a sign yet — but it does appear to have been renovated to provide rump-shakers inside the comfort and convenience of opaque window screens. These new interests are just a few blocks from the new Oak Leaf Smokehouse that opened for lunch in late February at 1000 Telephone Rd., and just a few suites from the new-ish Blue Line Bike Lab.

Photos: Allyn West

11:00 am | 8 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: East End, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, Signage
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Thursday, March 21, 2013

The End Coming for Marfreless in River Oaks

March 21, 2013 – 10:30 am
   

And the low-light, low-key make-out den behind that signless blue door in the River Oaks Shopping Center says it’s closing at the end of March in a press release quoted here in the Houston Chronicle: “Marfreless’s owners have been trying to do whatever they could to keep the bar operational but other entities involved weren’t budging in regards to the rising cost of doing business, making it impossible to keep the business at this location.” Serving martinis and discreetly turning the other way as couples have gone at it for 40 years, Marfreless says it’s looking for another location. [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Flickr user jmcgeough

10:30 am | 10 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: River Oaks, Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Shopping Centers
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Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Houston Pavilions To Be Renamed, Rebranded

March 5, 2013 – 5:00 pm
   

Clearly, former NBA star Earvin Johnson knows the value of renaming — and Houston Pavilions, which Magic and other investors bought back in August, will be given a new moniker of its own, reports the Houston Business Journal’s Shaina Zucker: Today, @HouPavilions tweeted an invitation to a party on April 4 at San Jacinto between Dallas and Polk during which the mall-ish complex will reveal its new name and new brand strategy. “[R]etailers and restaurants,” the invitation says, “will have booths featuring complimentary tastings and interactive activities including Wii Bowling, a basketball hoop-off for the chance to win a signed Houston Rockets basketball and more.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user cjt3

5:00 pm | 11 Comments | Read more about Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategies, Neighborhoods: Downtown, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Friday, March 1, 2013

Wherefore Art Thou, Juliet and Romeo?

March 1, 2013 – 10:00 am

It was abrupt, Thursday’s closing of Rice Village’s Juliet and Romeo Couture on the corner of Kirby Dr. and Times Blvd., an employee at a nearby shop tells Swamplot: No signs were posted anywhere before early Thursday morning, when the merchandise inside was gone. The store’s phone number, as of this morning, is “non-working.” Juliet and Romeo had a spot on Westheimer before it moved to the 9,650-sq.-ft. building at 6117 Kirby that dates to 1940, according to city records, shared by an alterations shop, Ovations night club, and the Main Street Theater offices around the corner, all facing Times Blvd.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

10:00 am | 2 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: Rice Village, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

More Retail Moving North on Yale St.?

February 27, 2013 – 10:00 am

Update, 4:48 p.m.: The map and drawing are not part of UCR Houston’s active plans, a representative from the retail advisor tells Swamplot; UCR is not marketing this property and does not represent and has never represented the property’s current owner. Read more here.

Is this where even more retail development will be coming to the Heights? UCR MoodyRambin Page is marketing A reader alerts Swamplot to a flyer representing a possible plan for this 4-acre site on Yale St. north of the Washington Heights Walmart and the recently sold San Jacinto Stone property — that’s that big empty green square right next to I-10 — for a bank and fast-food restaurants.

You can see a more detailed site plan after the jump:

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10:00 am | 36 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Soap Shop Closing in Rice Village

February 26, 2013 – 12:30 pm

A few doors down from the Main Street Theater at 2516 Times, Naked Body and Bath is closing on February 28, an employee tells Swamplot. Opening here not quite 7 years ago, the shop is looking to get out from under that blue awning in Rice Village and move its bath bombs and body butters to a smaller storefront sometime next year.

Photo: Allyn West

12:30 pm | Add a Comment | Read more about Neighborhoods: Rice Village, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Thursday, February 14, 2013

A Torchy’s Takeover in Rice Village

February 14, 2013 – 9:30 am

Four, apparently: That’s how many construction workers it takes to hang the new Torchy’s Tacos sign out front of the former Gugliani’s Italian Grill building in Rice Village. A Swamplot reader reports that the suite at 2400 Times Blvd. has been getting a gutting since Tuesday; much of it has been junked in the Dumpster pictured above. The Austin chain has two other locations inside the Loop — one on South Shepherd Dr. near Fairview and one under construction in the former Harold’s in the Heights store at the corner of Ashland and 19th St. There has been no announcement yet when the Rice Village location will open.

Photo: Allyn West

9:30 am | 14 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: Rice Village, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants, Shopping Centers, Signage
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Thursday, January 31, 2013

Texas Children’s Preparing To Open in Kirby and West Alabama Shopping Center

January 31, 2013 – 10:30 am

One-stop shopping: you can see the signage and new (and presumably sterile) cabinetry through the second-floor windows of The Centre at River Oaks (in Upper Kirby, in fact), where a 25,000-sq.-ft. branch of Texas Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Associates is expected to open in March; the makeover of the shopping center at West Alabama and Kirby began last summer; Ainbinder announced that Ulta Beauty would be operating out of the first floor of the bankrupt Borders; Texas Children’s will sit atop both Ulta Beauty and Brio Tuscan Grille.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

10:30 am | 4 Comments | Read more about Interiors, Medical Buildings, Mixed Use, Neighborhoods: Upper Kirby, Renovations, Shopping Centers, Signage
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Wednesday, January 30, 2013

In Shepherd Plaza, Le Mort du Peep

January 30, 2013 – 1:30 pm

No more le breakfast, no more le lunch: Catching workers moving equipment out of Le Peep in Shepherd Plaza, a Swamplot reader sends in this photo. That’s a U-HAUL — er, le trailer — backed up to the doors. “Closed without notice!” cries le tipster. “I asked a worker and he said this location is closed for good.” Le Peep has 6 other restaurants in Houston.

Photo: loves swamplot

1:30 pm | 11 Comments | Read more about Neighborhoods: Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Shopping Centers
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