07/31/08 2:30pm

5010 Cottage Creek Ln., the Trails at Seabourne Park, Rosenberg, Texas

A few months after abruptly shutting down operations in the Rio Grande Valley, McAllen-based homebuilder Obra Homes appears to have quietly abandoned its Houston-area business as well, leaving one Rosenberg subdivision littered with empty slabs.

So where the heck is Obra Homes anyway? A model home here at this subdivision is empty and closed, and the company’s attorney tells us no more Obra homes will be built here at the Trails at Seabourne Park subdivision. . . .

The company’s huge showroom on 290 looks like a ghost town. And according to a sign on the window, Obra Homes was locked out for failing to pay rent.

This office building on 290 says “Obra Homes” in big letters. but go inside and there’s no mention of the company.

The homebuilder’s attorney tells Fox 26 reporter Randy Wallace that there is no Obra Homes office. But there is a phone number!

Photo of 5010 Cottage Creek Ln., The Trails at Seabourne Park, Rosenberg: HAR

07/30/08 2:25pm

Gables of Inwood Apartments, 5600 Holly View Dr., Houston

City officials posted signs at the Gables of Inwood Apartments near Antoine Forest yesterday notifying residents that they need to vacate the property by Monday. The owner of the 165-unit complex, Collins Ofoegbu of El Sobrante, California, has received notices of more than 240 violations from city inspectors since purchasing the property in 2006.

Some received the news from orange “notice to vacate” signs affixed to their doors. The signs also warned residents that power would be disconnected Monday.

“I need, like, two or three months,” said an agitated Jolanda Hernandez, who waved a recent rent receipt while complaining in Spanish. “I need time so I can move out of here.”

Matt Stiles’s report in the Chronicle indicates there are also problems at a closer-in property with a much larger group of owners: the Park Memorial Condominiums near the corner of Memorial and Detering. Stiles says city inspectors planned to post notices at the condominiums at 5292 Memorial warning residents that the parking garage is unsafe and “may experience catastrophic failure at any time.”

After the jump: More highlights from reporter Matt Stiles’s personal collection of dangerous-apartment photos!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

07/29/08 3:17pm

Bennigan’s Sign, Houston

In one fell soup, Bennigan’s has apparently shuttered all of its U.S. locations. And the store is taking its sister restaurant, the ailing Steak & Ale, along with it. The chains’ are filing for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. Both are subsidiaries of Metromedia Restaurant Group, based in Plano.

Over at Houstonist, Katherine Shilcutt Gleave surveys the confusion resulting from the unannounced overnight shutdowns:

Houston is home to at least 20 Bennigan’s restaurants in the city and surrounding metropolitan areas. Calls placed this morning by Houstonist to the locations netted the same result each time: a phone ringing off the hook and no answering service. Only one location answered the phone when we called: the Bennigan’s in Greenspoint off Beltway 8. The befuddled-sounding manager at that location politely told us that they were, in fact, closed. He further confirmed that all other Bennigan’s in Houston were closed as well.

Steak & Ale had 6 Houston-area locations.

Photo: Flickr user alex_user

07/28/08 3:42pm

Plan of Pearland Town Center, Pearland, Texas

The drive-thru mall with extras known as Pearland Town Center opens this Wednesday, at the intersection of 288 and FM 518! But it’ll be so much more than just a collection of chain stores arranged neatly in a giant parking lot:

Sixty-two apartments rest on top of retail stores, giving residents a downtown feel without the hassle of daily traffic. Granite countertops complement the kitchen of each unit along with stainless-steel appliances.

The above-retail units will be available for leasing July 30 while another set of 238 freestanding residential units will be accessible in late 2009. One-bedroom apartments will lease for $1,300 per month, and two-bedroom loft apartments will lease for $1,900 per month.

75-percent of the 85-percent-leased mall will be open Wednesday, reports David Kaplan in the Chronicle.

Plan of Pearland Town Center: CBL & Associates

07/18/08 1:22pm

It appears our report earlier this week was a bit premature (although this one was more accurate). Rosenberg will be losing 2 out of its 3 Starbucks locations. And a total of 8 Starbucks stores will be closing in Houston — plus 1 in the Deerbrook Mall, which is technically in Humble.

Thanks to the pioneering work of a last-name-free coffee drinker going by the name Winter, who has been on a 11-year-long “personal mission” to visit and photograph every single Starbucks in the world, we now have a well-illustrated compilation of the 11 Houstonish Starbucks locations the company has decided to close as part of its 600-store nationwide shutdown extravaganza. Ready for the tour?

Closing Starbucks, 3821 S. Shepherd at Farnham, Houston

3821 S. Shepherd at Farnham. On the “other ” Shepherd Curve, across from Amy’s Ice Cream. It’s been hiding there for a while, but did it ever have customers?

More shuttered Starbucks below. See them all!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

07/17/08 10:32am

The Former Bistro Vino Restaurant, 819 W. Alabama, Montrose, Houston

Patio of the Former Bistro Vino Restaurant, 819 W. Alabama, Montrose, HoustonIt took 2 weeks, but someone at last noticed: Montrose wedding-reception capital Bistro Vino has shut down. Scooping a number of popular restaurant-review websites, the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reports that owner Mohammad Bayegan sold the house-turned-restaurant at 819 W. Alabama (at Roseland) and a small apartment building next door to an unnamed residential developer.

[La Colombe d’Or owner Steve] Zimmerman, who lived in a house behind Bistro Vino in the late 1970s and 1980s, said the area had been a quiet residential neighborhood until the 1990s, when small businesses opened offices on West Alabama.

In a note on the Bistro Vino website, Bayegan bids

farewell to all our loyal customers especially to our hundreds of brides that gave us the honor to be part of the start of a very important journey of their lives.

After the jump: one of those brides, starting a journey!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

07/16/08 1:36pm

THE FURNITURE BANK’S UPSCALE NEIGHBOR The home-furniture-for-the-furnitureless nonprofit has opened a new store called the Bargain Bazaar — on the north side of I-45 near Scott, down the street from its new warehouse on Hussion Street — to sell “slightly used” furniture to the public. If all goes well, the Furniture Bank will buy the building someday. [Greater Houston Weekly]

07/15/08 11:47am

KATY FREEWAY CONSTRUCTION: END IN SIGHT The eastbound main lanes are wide open all the way into downtown for the first time in more than 36 months. . . . Having this long stretch of roadway open paves the way for the final completion of the entire project slated for October 2008, a grand total of 23 miles.” [abc13]

07/15/08 11:39am

THE DEATH OF THE GRANDE MOCHA FRAPPUCCINO HAS BEEN GREATLY EXAGGERATED Those two or three Starbucks locations in Houston rumored to be closing as part of the coffee company’s 600-store nationwide shutdown? One of them’s in Rosenberg. That means only two Rosenberg Starbucks left! [Houston Business Journal]

07/09/08 11:13am

New Strip Center Under Construction at 2318 S. Shepherd Dr., the Future Home of the Hot Bagel Shop

Bagel addict Charles Kuffner reports that the famed Hot Bagel Shop on Shepherd will be moving across and down the street in the fall, into this expanded strip center now under construction on Shepherd just north of Fairview. The new strip center has already swallowed the Houston Shoe Hospital location next door.

The Hot Bagel Shop’s current building — already bleeding tenants — will be torn down, Kuffner reports.

Photo: Charles Kuffner

07/08/08 11:18am

BECKS PRIME LOCATION FOR A SPORTS BAR That space on the west side of the Memorial City Mall where the Roger Clemens Rocket Sports Grill was supposed to open . . . before all Roger Clemens memorabilia was removed from it? It’s now scheduled to open this summer as . . . the Becks Prime Sportatorium. [Houston Business Journal]

07/03/08 12:19pm

HOUSTON STARBUCKS CLOSINGS No exact word yet which Starbucks locations in Houston will be shut down, but it’s fun to speculate! “Of the 600 stores, 50 of the stores across the nation were told today that they were first onto the chopping block and would be shuttered by the end of the month. However, it’s unclear if any of those 50 stores were in Houston. Our source estimated that between five and ten Houston locations would be affected by the closure. When asked to speculate which locations he thought were least profitable and most likely to close, our source guessed the new Chinatown location (Bellaire and Wilcrest) and a Galleria-area store at Richmond and Chimney Rock.” [Houstonist]

07/03/08 10:56am

Former Pig Stand Coffee Shop on Washington Ave., Houston

Neighbors in the Sixth Ward have noticed some activity at the shuttered Pig Stand on Washington at Sawyer:

It appears that the former owners of the Pigstand property have retained ownership, but that they have leased the property out to the Sawyer Sportsbar, Inc.

Sawyer Sportsbar, Inc., is a new corporation, formed in April, by none other than Darren Van Delden, owner of The Drake.

I am not sure if Darren or the Dallas property owners are doing the build-out, but it is in its very early stages. (The Pigstand only had an outdoor bathroom, so I expect some relatively expansive upgrades, at least to the interior).

Photo of Washington Ave. Pig Stand (No. 7): Flickr user Fotollena

07/02/08 7:54am

SHELL STILL LEAVING BELLAIRE Shell Oil will renovate and expand its Westhollow campus off the Westpark Tollway near Highway 6 and send most Bellaire employees there. “. . . two-thirds of the 5-acre [Bellaire Technology Facility] is built on leased land. That lease will expire in 2010, which added to the decision to close the operation there.” [Houston Chronicle]