Tag: Shopping Centers

Commercial Real Estate
03/24/10 3:56pm

Chasing Down Weingarten’s Mysterious “Alternatives” to Demolishing the Alabama Theater

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Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, Leasing, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Upper Kirby
13 Comments

Last night, a spokesperson under contract to Weingarten Realty writing on behalf of the company reported to Swamplot and its readers that the shopping-center owner “can’t verify the authenticity of the drawings” we reported on yesterday.

The drawings referred to are bid documents that Heights Venture Architects prepared for Weingarten detailing an extensive interior demolition of the 70-year-old Art Deco Alabama Theater at South Shepherd and West Alabama — more commonly known until its closing last September as the Alabama Bookstop bookstore.

Well, gee. Today, “an official” of Weingarten’s architecture firm isn’t having such a hard time with the verification process:

An official at Heights Venture Architects told CultureMap this morning that the company did submit plans detailing a near total interior demolition of the Alabama at the specific request of Weingarten (the company that owns the vacant building).

The official at Heights asked not to be named and said he had no speaking authority, but confirmed that the company had been asked to submit the plans, which Swamplot first published.

What a fun game! Now that this round is over, let’s jump to the next one: Okay, so maybe Weingarten did ask its architects to prepare demolition drawings. Maybe Weingarten is exploring all its options! Just pricing a complete demo for . . . say, comparison.

Here’s the same Weingarten spokesperson feeding this ruse:

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Commercial Real Estate
03/23/10 3:16pm

Weingarten’s Alabama Theater Plan: Speculative Demolition for Fun and Profit

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Historic Preservation, Houston Architects, Leasing, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Upper Kirby
18 Comments

Weingarten Realty’s director of investor relations Kristin Gandy tells the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff that the owners of the vacant Alabama Theater building in the Alabama Shepherd Shopping Center at the corner of South Shepherd and West Alabama do not have a deal for the space with any new tenant, including Staples. Swamplot reported earlier this morning that a local construction firm is soliciting bids from subcontractors for an extensive interior demolition of the 1939 Art Deco theater, which from the early eighties until late last year was the home of the Alabama Bookstop bookstore. Drawings detailing the demolition were prepared for Weingarten by Heights Venture Architects, and the bid documents included floor plans for a prototype Staples office-supply store.

Gandy tells Sarnoff

Weingarten has not signed a lease nor has any lease under (letter of intent) with any particular tenant at this time. We have several tenants that are reviewing, but we don’t have a definitive agreement in place.

Weingarten may not have an agreement in place, but the publicly traded company certainly has demolition plans in place, already labeled as issued for permitting. Which means either

  • Weingarten is conducting extensive pricing research for a number of options for the space in a rather peculiar manner (the ready-for-permit bid documents do not ask bidders to price any alternative to demolition); or
  • (far more likely) Weingarten is gambling that demolishing the interior of Alabama Theater will help it to attract a very particular type of tenant to the unique Inner Loop property.

How much does Weingarten want to demo?

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Commercial Real Estate
03/23/10 8:15am

Weingarten Plans an Alabama Theater Demolition. Is Staples Moving In?

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Historic Preservation, Leasing, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Upper Kirby
78 Comments

It looks like the former Alabama Theater — known since the early eighties as the Alabama Bookstop, and since last fall as that big vacant space for lease in Weingarten Realty’s Alabama Shepherd Shopping Center — is about to be gutted. A local construction company is currently taking bids from subcontractors for a rather complete interior demolition. The plans, prepared by Heights Venture Architects, show major alterations to the floor, walls, and ceilings.

The theater’s original sloped floor will be buried under a new concrete slab; wood floors inserted during the 1983 bookstore conversion will be removed. For now, the balcony will remain.

Here’s a little before and after to demonstrate:

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Galleria
03/01/10 10:06am

Post Oak Strip Centers Versus the Uptown Light Rail Plan: The Gathering Storm

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Proposed Developments, Public Transportation, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Traffic
70 Comments

At a meeting last week at Kenny & Ziggy’s Deli organized by Jim “Mattress Mack” MacIngvale, owners of businesses located along Post Oak Blvd.’s vast double phalanx of front-loading strip centers — and representatives of a few of their landlords — groused about Metro’s design for the new Uptown Line and prepared for possible battle. The Examiner Newspapers’ Michael Reed first brought attention to a few quirks of the latest design for the Post Oak stretch of the light-rail line late last year: It features 7 stations, 5 gated crossings, and in all close to 2 dozen traffic signals along the 1.7-mile path from Richmond Ave. to the 610 West Loop. It also blocks all instances of that staple of sprawl-style shopping-center development: the non-intersection left turn.

Had Metro been communicating its plans to the property owners? Had the property owners been relaying any information they received from the transit agency to their tenants?

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Commercial Real Estate
02/24/10 9:14am

The Coming Migration of the Buffalo Grille?

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Leasing, Parking, Quicklink, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, West University
No Comments

THE COMING MIGRATION OF THE BUFFALO GRILLE? Is the Buffalo Grille, left as the lone strip-center survivor at the corner of Bissonnet and Buffalo Speedway after the recent invasion of the new H-E-B Buffalo Market, looking to shuffle off to a new location? An H-E-B representative did tell the West U city council the restaurant would stay where it’s been for the last 26 years — but that was last May. More recently, restaurant co-owner John McAleer says H-E-B managers have “expressed concerns” about there not being enough parking for the grocery store. So he’s looking into a possible new location for the West U breakfast joint — namely, a portion of the former JMH Market less than a mile to the southwest, at the corner of Edloe and Rice Blvd. “McAleer said the restaurant has not received official word from the grocery store about what will happen in April 2011 when its lease expires. There’s still the chance that The Buffalo Grille will stay put, but the family is exploring all its options . . . ‘They’re worried some of our customers are taking their spots, and their customers are going over to Kroger, which is obviously their biggest competitor,’ he said.” [Instant News West U; previously on Swamplot]

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Dunvale
01/26/10 11:43am

The Neighborhood Walmart and Sam’s Club Made

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Retail, Shopping Centers
1 Comment

Walmart shut down its Sam’s Club Business Center pilot program late last week — and closed the program’s only store — the Sam’s Club at Dunvale and Westheimer. The HBJ‘s Casey Wooten surveys the wreckage:

[Walmart spokesperson Susan] Koehler attributes the poor performance of the Dunvale Sam’s Club to its location. In April 2008 when the concept was unveiled, however, the company touted its proximity to major commercial centers on Houston’s west side as a reason it was selected to be the test store for the business center concept. . . .

Lance Gilliam, managing director at Moody Rambin Interests, who has worked with real estate clients in that area, says the Dunvale/Westheimer intersection is one of the busiest areas of the city, boasting heavy traffic and a dense daytime population, largely thanks to the Walmart, Sam’s Club and AMC Theatres that were built around the same time.

“It used to be considered a no man’s land, but once they located there, there were a lot of developments,” says Gilliam.

Now, development in the area may make it difficult for Wal-Mart to find a use for the building, says Gilliam.

Photo: Walmart

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Commercial Real Estate
12/14/09 11:46am

New Life for Greenspoint Multiplex, After Conversion

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Greenspoint, Leasing, Renovations, Shopping Centers
2 Comments

“The former six-screen AMC movie theater at 1100 Greens Parkway” just north of Beltway 8 at Ella, reports Nancy Sarnoff, “is becoming convention space that will house the International Faith Based Business Expo and the Vision Changers Performing Arts Christian Center.”

Photo: LoopNet

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Openings and Closings
12/07/09 1:13pm

Closing the Borders at Westheimer and Gessner

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Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers, Woodlake
10 Comments

When Borders announced back in November that it would be closing 200 Waldenbooks, Borders Outlet, and Borders Express bookstores nationwide, only 3 Houston stores were on that list: the Waldenbooks in Willowbrook Mall, Houston Center, and the Northwest Mall. Not included: the Borders Books & Music in the former Houston Jewelry building at 9633 Westheimer, at the corner of Gessner. But employees have apparently been telling customers for months that that store would be closing in January. And now a reader reports that “Store Closing” sale signs are up in the windows. The shopping center, says an employee, is being redeveloped. Last day of business: January 16th.

Photo: Hennie Schaper

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Houston History
12/04/09 1:35pm

Spec’s Drive Thru

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Openings and Closings, Quicklink, Retail, Shopping Centers, Streets, West University
2 Comments

SPEC’S DRIVE THRU What lurks beneath the new 24,000-sq.-ft. Spec’s Liquor going into the former Linens ’N Things in the Weslayan Plaza Shopping Center, at the corner of Weslayan and Bissonnet? “Sources on site said build-out of the space held a few surprises. For example, work on plumbing led to the discovery of an entire street running beneath the original building, complete with curbs.” [West University Examiner]

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Malls
12/02/09 1:17pm

Straits at CityCentre: Courtyards Are the Devil’s Playground

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Shopping Centers, Town and Country Village
16 Comments

New westside restaurant doesn’t face onto a parking lot. Chaos ensues:

The dining room of Straits, the swank new Malaysian restaurant at City Centre, looks chaste and serene in its Web site photos. So I was dumbstruck by the maelstrom that greeted me on a school night the week before Thanksgiving, when the restaurant felt more like a thunderous Vegas nightclub.

The bulk of the floor plan was given over to bar/lounge seating, and outdoors–looking upon the grassy City Centre mall plaza ringed with fire pits–tented pavilions held still more tables for the cocktail crowd. A live band on an outdoor stage blared R&B standards as ice-blue holiday lights swayed, wind whipped the fire-pot flames high and merrymakers clustered on the chilly lawn.

“It looks like the Devil’s Playground out there,” murmured my dinner guest as he found me at a table beside the sleek open kitchen. We were both a little shellshocked. Judging by the avid crowds, far west Houston, out by I-10 and the Beltway, has been hungering for a capital-S-Scene, and the restaurant- and bar-heavy new City Centre development has provided one readymade.

Photo of CityCentre courtyard: Misha Govshteyn

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Openings and Closings
12/01/09 3:34pm

A Brief but Incomplete Guide to Houston’s Frozen Yogurt Landscape

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Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers
7 Comments

Attack of the more-or-less Pinkberry-like “is it really yogurt?” shops:

  • Berripop: Planning new locations “along Washington Ave.,” in Sugar Land, and in the Rice Village. Owner David Lee “plans to open at least 20 franchised and company-owned stores throughout Houston, Austin, Dallas and College Station over the next two years.” Already in Uptown Park, across from the Richmond Costco near Greenway Plaza, on Waterway Court in The Woodlands Town Center, in Meyerland Plaza, and in the Town & Country Village Shopping Center.
  • Fruituzy: The owners, who also own Fadi’s Mediterranean Grill, are “currently scouting sites for additional locations.” Already 2 locations on Westheimer, each in strip centers near a Fadi’s: one at the corner of Shadowbriar, just west of Kirkwood, and another at Dunvale.
  • Tasti D-Lite: New location under construction underground at Milam and Walker Downtown. Local owner Webster Foods “plans to open four to seven Houston locations in the next 12 to 18 months as part of a pilot program.” Already in Highland Village and at the corner of Post Oak and San Felipe.

There’s more!

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Attractions
11/11/09 6:50pm

Openings and Closings: That Flood of New Establishments

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Baytown, Downtown, East Montrose, Galveston, Houston Heights, Hyde Park, Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, Spring Branch, Strip Centers, Upper Kirby, Washington Corridor, West End
2 Comments

So much new stuff going on it’s impossible to keep track of it all!

  • Opening Soon? A new “Houston Ave. Bar” at the site of the former Farmers Coffee Shop on the corner of Houston Ave. and White Oak. Here’s the evidence: A permit for a “2 story addition” to the property was approved by the city last month. The corner is already a popular gathering place for floodwaters — several commenters on HAIF have posted photos of the intersection after Hurricane Ike (see above) and Tropical Storm Allison.
  • Moved: The Central City Co-op Wednesday market, from that Ecclesia space next to the Taft St. Coffee House to new digs at the Grace Lutheran Church at 2515 Waugh, just north of Missouri St. Sunday markets are still at Discovery Green. Next up for the co-op crew: Selling enough veggies to pay off those loans used for the church buildout.
  • Opening Softly, Later This Month: A place called Canopy, from the folks who brought you that place called Shade. Claire Smith and Russell Murrell’s new restaurant will go in the spot where Tony Ruppe’s was, in the double-decked strip center at 3939 Montrose, reports Cleverley Stone. Three meals a day, 7 days a week, plus 3 seating areas:

    a bright and refreshing dining room, festive bar and side street patio. We will eventually offer curbside “to go” service.

  • Opening Early Next Month: The brand-new Dessert Shoppe, in the strip center portion of 19th Streete in the Heights. Fred Eats Houston writes that sisters Sara and RaeMarie Villar will be serving up “whole cakes and pies to individual desserts, along with assorted breakfast pastries, cookies, quiches, cupcakes, and some breads.”
  • Reopened, for the First Time Since Ike: The Shriner’s Hospital for Children in Galveston. The combined boards of the International Shriners and Shriners Hospitals for Children had originally decided to close the hospital for good, after 30 inches of water wandered through the building’s first floor during the Hurricane. Shriners voting at this summer’s convention in San Antonio reversed that decision. The new hospital will have a smaller staff and budget. The Chronicle‘s Todd Ackerman reports that the hospital should already be open for reconstructive surgery cases; burn victims will have to wait until December for treatment.

And yet even more new stuff:

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Houston Heights
10/28/09 1:00pm

Expanded Heights Kroger: Now Wider Than Wide Angle

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Redevelopment, Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers
11 Comments

How big is the newly expanded mega-Kroger on 11th and Shepherd? So big that a Swamplot reader standing in the parking lot couldn’t fit the entire store in one photo. The best attempt, above, shows the place is “too big to do that now.” At 96,000 sq. ft., the Merchants Park Shopping Center Kroger at 1035 N. Shepherd is now apparently the largest grocery store inside Houston city limits.

The new section of the store opened last Friday, reports our reader,

to much rejoicing in the Heights. Both the new and the old section of the store is in use. I assume now that the new part is open they will begin renovations on the old part of the store.

The new part of the store has a Starbucks, large produce section & bakery, Mediterranean bar, hot food bar, and prepared foods section.

More reader-submitted pics from inside and out:

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Commercial Real Estate
08/17/09 11:07am

Alabama Bookstop Theater: The Balcony Is Closed for This Performance

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Historic Preservation, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Upper Kirby
6 Comments

You were maybe planning to stop by the Bookstop in the old Alabama Theater on Shepherd for one last browse before the store closes on September 15th? Do a little clearance-sale shopping, grab a coffee up on the balcony and look out over that live-on-stage magazine stand?

It may be a little too late for that now. On the Houston Press Twitter feed this weekend, Katharine Shilcutt reported that the upper levels of the store are already cleared and closed . . . for good.

Photo: Houston Press

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Commercial Real Estate
08/06/09 2:36pm

Alabama Bookstop Stop Date: September 15th

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Historic Preservation, Leasing, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
24 Comments

That summer clearance sale that’s been going on at the Bookstop in the Alabama Theater Shopping Center on South Shepherd is uh, final. The store will be closing for good on September 15th. The new Barnes & Noble in the River Oaks Shopping Center on West Gray will be opening the next day (a bit sooner than was announced earlier), but no unsold books from the Bookstop location will be making the trip north.

So what happens to the Alabama Theater after then?

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