LUCKY BURGER FLOATS ON 
And there it is, like a floating keg tossed into the water after a decades-long cookout: the empty hull of Lucky Burger. It all seems a bit forlorn, writes the Swamplot reader who sent in this photo of the tapped-out fast-food joint at the corner of Richmond and Mandell. A for-lease banner from the property’s landlord, Braun Enterprises, now covers the painted-on Lucky Burger sign on the side of the barrel. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
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Tag: Retail
Be careful not to confuse these life-and-death downtown bar stories: As we learned this morning, the Live! at Bayou Place bars are now dead. But the Live Sports Bar (no exclamation point!), which died back in 2009 at 405 Main St. is about to be resurrected. But in name and address only: A Live Sports Bar — same name, but with different owners — will be opening up in a slightly smaller version of the original space (4,000 sq. ft., marked down from 6,140) across from the Preston St. light-rail stop sometime in the next few months, once the buildout is complete. A Swamplot reader captured the above photo showing the new head-turning banner now posted out front.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Same Name, Same Spot, Different Owners
The team at Braun Enterprises has bought up a series of properties wedged between the Metropolitan Multi-Services Center on West Gray St. and the electrical substation at the corner of Peden St. and Dunlavy, including the 2 retail buildings pictured above. Braun bought up a total of 5 separate parcels in 4 transactions this year, including the offices of Miner-Dederick Construction at 1532 Peden, and retail spaces at 1515, 1705, and 1707 West Gray. That’s a bit shy of an acre in total. Real Estate Bisnow’s Catie Dixon reports Braun is considering selling, leasing, redeveloping, or building something for a future tenant on the property. Here’s a rendering from Braun showing what a renovation of might look like:
Peden Transformers
The 10,000-sq.-ft. Becks Prime location in the Sears wing of the Memorial City Mall — dubbed the Sportatorium on account of its 30 big-screen teevees showing major league sporting events, video game room, and conference room — shut down for good on Saturday. The location had been open since 2008, when the local hamburger chain was substituted late in the game for a venture originally planned to feature Roger Clemens, back in the days when the former Astros, Yankees, and Red Sox player was best known for his standout pitching.
Burgers Are Out!
The sign is down and workers are moving equipment out of the Brio Tuscan Grille at the corner of Kirby and West Alabama. The restaurant shut down yesterday, a reader informs Swamplot. “They had a bunch of stuff all over the floor and about 3 rental moving trucks with guys hanging out,” writes the informant, who adds that one of the unnamed workers said the restaurant had been “not that busy” and wasn’t making enough money. Brio took over the space formerly occupied by Pesce at the 3029 Kirby Dr. spot in the Centre at River Oaks Shopping Center 2 years ago, around the same time the former Borders Books in the same building was being carved up into separate spaces for a pediatric clinic and Ulta Beauty. The Brio CityCentre location remains open.
- Previously on Swamplot: Borders Activity Report
Photo: Swamplot inbox
Moving Out Senza Brio
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER LUCKY BURGER CLOSES 
A few more details to add to our ground-beef-breaking report yesterday on the demise of Lucky Burger: The business’s current owners, who’ve operated the 40-year-old fast-food joint at the corner of Richmond Ave. and Mandell for 15 years, plan to retire. An employee tells Culturemap’s Eric Sandler that the owners couldn’t afford the landlord’s pricing for a lease renewal, and that “prospects in Montrose for a space that’s sufficiently inexpensive to support a $5 cheeseburger are simply too dim.” Meanwhile, Braun Enterprises’ Dan Braun, who heads the partnership that bought the building and the adjacent strip center in 2011, tells the Chronicle‘s Erin Mulvaney that they hope to lease the structure with the barrel-shaped roof penetration to another business once Lucky Burger is out. (Entrepreneurs salivating over the marketing power of a well-known burger stop in the shape of a beer keg might want to note that craft beer bar Revelry on Richmond is set to open soon next door, with hamburgers on the menu.) Lucky Burger plans to wrap up its business — and its last burger — before this Saturday. [Culturemap; Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Houston. It’s Worth It.
A sign on the door of Lucky Burger at 1601 Richmond Ave indicates the longtime barrel-signed drive-up is shutting down for good. No more burgers and no more shakes from the distinctive corner property — but equipment, tables, chairs, cookware, and more will soon be available in a final sale:
Unlucky in Meat
A construction wall is up around the former French Connection store in the Galleria. That’s where the Apple Store to its immediate left will be stretching. The MacBook, iPad, and iPhone showroom, which dates from September 2002, is old enough to have lived through a couple periods of relative ungainliness, Apple Store chronicler Gary Allen reports. At 6,000 sq. ft., it once measured almost twice the size of the typical Apple mall location. But the 2,900-sq.-ft add-on will bring the Galleria location in line with the larger standards for similar spots the company has established more recently. Here’s a map from Allen’s ifo Apple Store site showing how the storefront will double, from 30 ft. to 60 ft. wide:
Bigger Mac
In case the names carved in steel plate on each don’t make it clear to you, the Montrose Management District and Bike Houston want you to know that they are the parties behind these new bike racks going up around Montrose; they’re part of an effort to “improve bike safety” in the neighborhood (or at least keep the ones being used around for longer). New racks went up in front of MV DiY beer, wine, coffee, and candle café at 3224 Yoakum last month; this week a few more were installed in the Hawthorne Square shopping center at 3407 Montrose Blvd. graced by Starbucks, Einstein’s Bagels, and Berryhill Baja Grill (see photo at top) as well as Gratifi Kitchen + Bar at 302 Fairview:
Steel This
COMMENT OF THE DAY: IT’S DRIVE-THRUS, NOT APARTMENTS, THAT ARE THE REAL TRAFFIC-CAUSING MENACE 
“Feared traffic density related to construction of highrise apt/condo buildings is severely overestimated. Traffic flow in and out of the garages is spread out throughout the course of the day, so the increased number of cars will be mostly unnoticed at any point in time on any given day. There are more traffic concerns associated with a drive thru at Starbucks when the line backs up onto the street, thereby interfering with cars which are trying to get around the line. People do crazy things with their cars when trying to get in line for their coffee.” [Escout, commenting on Construction Work Has Begun on the Ashby Highrise] Illustration: Lulu
20 PERCENT OFF ALL OFFICEMAX AND OFFICE DEPOT LOCATIONS 
A total 400 OfficeMax and Office Depot stores will shut down nationwide — 150 of them by the end of the year, the combined company announced today. Office Depot bought OfficeMax last year, resulting in a dual-named office-products giant with 1,900 locations. No specific closings have been announced yet for this round; the Houston area still has 28 Office Depots and 10 OfficeMaxes, according to website store locators. Earlier this year, Staples announced it would close 225 stores; it’s now down from 11 to 9 Houston-area spots. [AP; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 3443 Kirby Dr. location: Douglas W.
For months, local ice cream shop Fat Cat Creamery has been the only business open in the recently expanded and redone strip center at the northeast corner of N. Shepherd Dr. and 19th St. (It’s over around the left side in the photo above.) But now there’s a sign up announcing that Smoothie King is headed for the spot a couple doors down from it along 19th. And there’s more to this sugar rush: It appears a donut shop is headed for a space next door to Fat Cat in the same center. A buildout for Hugs and Doughnuts, from the folks behind the H-Town StrEATs food truck, is now going on in Suite 4 of the 8,000-sq.-ft. center at 1901 N. Shepherd, a source tells Swamplot.
Photo: Re:Vive Development
Hugs and Donuts
The 3.5-acre field at the corner of S. Rice Ave. and Westpark shown here, where the Wald Relocation Services complex stood until 6 years ago, will be the site of the new Micro Center store later this year. The site plan for the Uptown Crossing shopping center intended for this location shows a big-box store set way back in the right distance, at the end of a new curvy street-drive thing cut through to it from S. Rice, across from Sam’s Club. That’s the most likely spot for the 32,000-sq.-ft. building Micro Center is planning. Micro Center sold off its larger 47,759-sq.-ft. West Loop location to Amegy Bank earlier this year. Here’s a rendering of the new, terrifically brown-and-boxy big box Micro Center:
Big Computer Box in Field
DIRK’S COFFEE ON MONTROSE IS SHUTTING DOWN TODAY 
The Dirk’s Coffee drive-up spot on the corner of Montrose and Branard is closing its business today, reports Eater’s Darla Guillen — along with a number of disappointed caffeine-starved fans on Twitter and Facebook. Opened as an outpost of the Diedrich Coffee chain in the mid-aughts mid-nineties, the 4005 Montrose Blvd. location changed its name to Dirk’s Coffee a few years ago after its former parent company exited the retail hot-brew-serving business. “No word yet on why they’re closing, if they’re moving to a new location or if they plan to rebrand yet again,” writes Guillen. Swamplot reader (and social media director at the mayor’s office) Melissa Ragsdale Darragh notes a Dirk’s employee confirms that they will close at the end of the day today: “He stated they would love to reopen at a new location in the future however nothing is planned at this time.”  [Eater] Photo: Jazi H.
SAWYER HEIGHTS ARBY’S UPGRADING TO LA MADELEINE, ADDING SAUCE 
The shuttered Arby’s waving to I-10 eastbound feeder road drivers exiting at Taylor has been gutted, there’s a hole in the outside wall, and the drive-thru window is being filled in. All in service of transforming the Sawyer Heights shopping center slot at 2423 Katy Fwy., next to Vitamin Shoppe, into a La Madeleine, notes reader Christopher Andrews. Included in his tweeted photo report from the Target-anchored center: a TABC notice posted in the storefront, for the wine portion of the “country French café” menu. [Twitter] Photo: Christopher Andrews
