Tag: Openings and Closings

Downtown
08/27/10 5:00pm

Unveiling Market Square’s New Look

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Houston Architects, Openings and Closings, Parks, Renovations
28 Comments

The construction fences surrounding Market Square Park for the last 6 months are now down, ahead of tomorrow’s grand reopening extravaganza starring Mayor Parker and local rockabilly revivalists the John Evans Band — and including, as well, many activities for dogs. The latest $3 million makeover is the Downtown park’s third revamp since the 1970s, and was designed by local landscape architects Lauren Griffith Associates and Ray + Hollington Architects. Among the features: a new food kiosk run by Montrose mainstay Niko Niko’s (and featuring their new breakfast pita), a dog run, a few artworks carried over from the park’s previous incarnation, and a 9/11 memorial.

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Openings and Closings
08/23/10 2:03pm

Where the Buffalo Grille Will Roam

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Parking, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, West University
11 Comments

The original Buffalo Grille has at last identified a fallow shopping-center slot to migrate to, about a mile southwest of its current location. The new brunch spot will be at 4080 Bissonnet, on the far western end of West U’s Montclair Shopping Center (the one with the Randalls) at Weslayan. Last seen in this location: The Candle House, next to one of those old retail storefronts for Countrywide Home Loans.

Buffalo Grille’s current building on Bissonnet at Buffalo Speedway — where it’s been for 26 years — is the only section remaining of the shopping center torn down on that site to build H-E-B’s Buffalo Market. The Buffalo Pharmacy next door to it was demolished in 2008. The following year, an H-E-B representative told West U’s city council that Buffalo Grille would stay where it was, but by this April, the grocery company politely announced that its neighbor would be looking for a new home — to open up more spaces for parking.

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Midtown
08/20/10 1:14pm

Going in Next to Reef in Midtown: Barcadia

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Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
22 Comments

Heading into the former dealership back office at 2600 Travis near McGowen, one door down from the old Pontiac and Oldsmobile showroom that’s now home to Reef: a second installation of Barcadia, a bar-arcade-restaurant amalgamation begun in Dallas. The original location, just a few hours’ drive up I-45, offers an entire wall of eighties arcade games, brunch, a couple-dozen beers on tap, and a vaguely retro-carnival interior. A company website declares the Houston branch will be opening this summer, but a quick glance at the progress of construction in the 3,000-plus-sq.-ft. interior makes it easy to imagine a debut later than that.

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CityCentre
08/09/10 1:57pm

Flora & Muse Imports Quaint to CityCentre

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Openings and Closings, Retail
1 Comment

Scheduled to open a little later this month amidst the mixed-use toniness of CityCentre: Yet another bistro-patisserie-tearoom-bar-coffeeshop-library-flower shop and performance-space hybrid, this one called Flora & Muse. Financing for the new venue comes in part from Turkish television star BaÅŸak Köklükaya (you may know her as Findik from “Uy Basuma Gelenler”). The store promises a “whimsical, neo-Victorian interior” designed by Laura Umansky (her Laura U Collection is on Westheimer near Hazard). Chef David Luna, formerly of Shade and Canopy, at last steps out from beneath all those overhangs to develop the menu for the mini-mixed-use mashup, which will include a 1,200-sq.-ft. patio.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Art
08/06/10 1:55pm

Roof Moves Again, Friday Night Sky Reopens in Shady Acres

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Openings and Closings, Religious Facilities, Shady Acres
4 Comments

The third-most-famous retractable roof in Houston opened up for visitors last Friday for the first time in 2 years. Artist James Turrell’s Skyspace — in the Live Oaks Friends Meeting House at 1318 W. 26th St. in Shady Acres — will again be coaxing in the night sky for the public every Friday evening, starting an hour before sunset. What shut out the twilight for so long?

The ceiling’s hatch runs on rails that until recently were mounted on a wooden support that was sheathed in metal. Thanks to Houston’s semitropical climate, water worked its way into the wood and began rotting it out, [property clerk Philip] Koch said.

“We didn’t know this for sure until we actually did the repair work, but it was making some pretty ominous noises and was getting stuck,” Koch said. “We didn’t want it to get stuck in the open position because we’re open to the heavens and the rain comes in.”

Members initially thought the system could be repaired, but further assessment showed it would need to be redesigned and replaced, adding a $50,000 price tag to the $100,000 the Live Oak Friends Meeting had already received from the Houston Endowment based on early estimates.

The new design replaced the metal-sheathed wooden curb with what Koch described as “a piece of pipe, basically, that’s square in cross section and that has special pieces on the side – both to keep the hatch from moving off the rails and also to keep it in place in the event of a hurricane. That had to be custom made, and so did the pieces to attach it to the roof.”

Photos: Flickr user TxTamz (Meeting House); Devin Borden Hiram Butler Gallery (Skyspace)

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Katy
08/05/10 12:29pm

Katy Main Street Looks Like a Parking Lot: Opening the Newest H-E-B

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Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
6 Comments

A few snippets from yesterday’s grand opening of the new 88,000 sq.-ft. H-E-B at the new “Katy Main Street” shopping center at the southwest corner of I-10 and Pin Oak Rd., just west of the Katy Mills Mall: a “Texas Front Yard” at the entrance where you can pick up mulch, bug spray, and that giant parrot-like watering yardbird you were looking all over for; a solitary “Fudgie Wudgie” fresh fudge stand; a guacamole station; and H-E-Buddy giving hugs and high fives to shoppers in the produce section. This is the fourth H-E-B in Katy. It’s adjoined by a new strip center with no current tenants.

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Parking
08/04/10 10:20am

Blue Fish Gets a Smooth New Parking Lot — on Washington Ave

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Restaurants, Retail, Washington Corridor
6 Comments

Update, 9/15/11: Our error. 5820 Washington is now the home of The Blue Fish, a restaurant chain based in Dallas — not to be confused (as we did) with Blue Fish House, a Houston-based restaurant with locations at 2241 Richmond Ave. and in Sugar Land at 2735-C Town Center Blvd. The Dallas chain also has a location in Bayou Place. We’ve updated the story.

This new parking lot across Knox St. from Benjy’s on Washington recently replaced the Thomas Collection fabric store that used to sit directly on the corner of Washington Ave. Dallas’s Blue Fish chain will be opening a new location in the building behind it, at 5820 Washington Ave. Yes, this is the same building that, a few weeks ago, a Swamplot reader identified from a state license application as the future home of Washington Wine Storage. That facility’s address will be 1120 Knox St.:

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Openings and Closings
08/03/10 11:44am

Now and Forever Doesn’t Live Here Anymore

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Retail, Strip Centers, Upper Kirby, West University
7 Comments

All that’s left of the Now and Forever Bridal Boutique — looking wistfully at Lakewood Church from across the Southwest Freeway — is this lonely sign by the shop’s old entrance. But don’t fret: Next door, in the same feeder-road strip center, Party City still rages! Now and Forever’s new location: the 3701 Kirby office building a block south of Richmond, not far from Hardcore Pilates.

Photos: Swamplot inbox

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Galleria
07/28/10 1:41pm

Destination XL: Rochester Big and Tall Getting Bigger and Taller

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Openings and Closings, Retail
5 Comments

A sign inside the Rochester Big and Tall store at the Uptown Collection strip center on Westheimer at Yorktown describes the new-concept superstore soon to take it over: Destination XL will be “an experience . . . where life, style and size has no boundaries!” Conveniently, exercise equipment store Hest Fitness Products has vacated the space next door. That’ll make it easier for the large-size men’s clothing store to . . . expand: Workers will bust through the wall separating the 2 spaces, and Destination XL will take over all 11,000 sq. ft.

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Buildings for Sale
07/19/10 1:33pm

Swamplot Street Sleuths: Last Chances

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Commercial Real Estate, Montrose, New Construction, Nightlife, Washington Corridor
No Comments

Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:

Some odds and ends to tie up from last week:

  • Montrose: “Let’s just say business has not been getting stronger,” Chances Bar co-owner Anne Vastakis tells Houston Press reporter Richard Connelly, who followed up on Swamplot’s hot tip from last week. Vastakis continues:

    With the economy the way it is — these mega-lesbian bars — there are four bars there, and in the `90s they were thriving. Now, I don’t know, maybe there’s too much competition.

    So yes, the bar and the entire block it’s on are for sale, though the owners hope to sell the 27,341-sq.-ft. property at 1100 Westheimer at Waughcrest to “someone who won’t change things too much.” The owners plan to keep the place open in the meantime.

  • Washington Corridor: That warehouse at 1120 Knox St., across the street from Benjy’s on Washington, will become Washington Wine Storage, according to a state license uncovered by commenter Guy Incognito. The building’s owner is the Urban Meridian Group. Expected opening date: around the end of August.

We’ll post more reader questions tomorrow. Send us what you’ve got before then!

Photo: Commercial Gateway

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East Downtown
07/16/10 7:08pm

Coming to the Street That Warehouse Live Built: An EaDo Corner Grocery

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Openings and Closings, Retail
4 Comments

A 3,500-sq.-ft. grocery store called Epicurean Express will open next month across the street from live-music showcase Warehouse Live in East Downtown. It’ll fit next to Cork Soakers Wine Bar — which opened earlier this year — in a sixties-vintage strip center at the corner of St. Emanuel and Rusk that used to house a massage parlor. (The PODS pod in the photo above is in front of the market space, at 2018 Rusk.) Both the grocery and the wine bar, the renovation of the strip center, and Lucky’s Pub across the street (next door to Warehouse Live) are the work of corner entrepreneur Anthony Wegmann. Wegmann says he’s still looking for other businesses for the strip center’s remaining 3,500 sq. ft.

Wegmann’s publicist says he’s hoping Epicurean Express will be “more appealing than an access road gas station corner mart.” It’ll sell fresh produce, meats, spices, and cleaning supplies, among other things. A coffee bar will be included when it opens; prepared meals are scheduled to arrive in the fall.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Discovery Green
07/12/10 8:17am

Swamplot Street Sleuths: The Air Up There

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Downtown, Hotels, Openings and Closings, Utilities
No Comments

Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:

Answers to two questions left over from last week:

  • Discovery Green: The sleek, silver and blue Skyline Bar & Grill on the 24th floor of the Hilton Americas hotel is gone. In its place is the Skyline Ballroom, shown above in flouncier attire, courtesy of a reader who pointed us to the hotel’s meeting-room brochure. The 3,275-sq.-ft. space is now available for banquets and receptions. Meanwhile across the green, reception of the 10 wind turbines recently installed at the top of the brand-new 30-story Hess Tower has been just a little bumpy. “The turbines are functional,” reports engineer and new Metro board member Christof Spieler. “Whether they’re economical is another question…. the turbulence at the top of a building means it’s not nearly as good a place for a wind turbine as an open plain.” But it all adds up, commenter Mt figures: “Power Bill savings: Negligible, PR Value for [an] oil and gas company: PRICELESS!”

We’ll post more reader questions tomorrow. Send us what you’ve got before then!

Photo of Skyline Ballroom: Hilton Americas—Houston

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Comments
07/09/10 5:34pm

Comment of the Day: Holding Down the Fort at 3400 Montrose

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Montrose, Office Buildings, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
2 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOLDING DOWN THE FORT AT 3400 MONTROSE “The building has not been shut down, I am still renting there. They have not communicated any plans. It would make an excellent art studio building, and there is money in that- take Winter Street Studios as an example. Would also make great living spaces, but would require tremendous remodel. If you hear any clues about plans of owners, please post!” [Stoney, commenting on Scott Gertner’s Skybar Closing, May Take the Whole Building with It]

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Disaster Aftermath
07/09/10 4:29pm

Galveston’s New Rinse-Off Nightspot

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Flooding, Galveston, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Quicklink
2 Comments

GALVESTON’S NEW RINSE-OFF NIGHTSPOT A lawsuit will determine whether Scott Arnold can collect the remainder of the insurance money he expects for the loss of the famed Balinese Room to Hurricane Ike. In the meantime, the former owner of the waterside bar wanted to make sure his next nightspot would survive another big Galveston flood. So . . . is his new Granite Room, which opened on July 4th as part of the Voodoo Lounge complex at 26th and Mechanic streets, on an upper floor or something? Naaah. It’s mop-down friendly: “This building got nine feet of water during Ike,” he tells HBJ reporter Allison Wollam. “So I designed the club with granite and marble so that if it floods again, we can just hose everything down and be open again within a week or two.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Granite Room

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Nightlife
07/08/10 4:37pm

The Social, Not Working?

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Washington Corridor
24 Comments

THE SOCIAL, NOT WORKING? Live, from the Twitternet rumor mill! The Social Lounge and Patio Bar at 3730 Washington Ave. at Yale — just a couple blocks from the proposed site of the West End Walmart — “has closed its doors to the public,” reads an entirely unverified message from a liquor distributor. “Sources tell me the Comptroller was there yesterday to change the locks,” the tweet continues. Uh . . . whose comptroller? [Twitter] Photo: Katharine Shilcutt (license)

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