Tag: Shopping Centers

Art
03/05/08 11:12am

Storefront Ad: Midtown Full Frontal Oddity

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Commercial Real Estate, Midtown, Real Estate Investing, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Storefront Ad for Red Bull Art of Can Competition and Exhibition on Elgin St., Midtown, Houston

Here’s one advantage if you’re one of the not-so-large number of retail centers in Houston that doesn’t have a parking lot in front: If business ain’t so hot, you can always sell the highly visible adspace on your facade!

A reader sends in this photo of an ad for Red Bull’s Art of Can competition on the streetfront of a retail center on Elgin, across from the Calais apartments in Midtown. The Maple Leaf Pub is two doors down.

Is this the future of retail real estate? Sure, we’ve all seen ads painted onto the sides of old buildings and the giant window stickers on David’s Bridal storefronts, but doesn’t this go a bit . . . beyond that? Think of the possibilities: Stores . . . with ads covering their entire fronts, advertising . . . other stores. Or anything.

Forget billboards, graffiti, and wheatpaste posters. When this new market really kicks in, we’ll see Houston for its revenue-generating possibilities: We’ve got acres and acres of exploitable advertising space.

Tyvek Housewrap was only the beginning.

What comes after Tuscan-themed shopping centers? Billboard-themed shopping centers!

After the jump: a second photo, so you can get your Red Bull straight.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Commercial Real Estate
02/25/08 10:26am

Midtown Mix: Fit for Leasing

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Development Strategy, Leasing, Midtown, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Retail
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Fence at Elgin and Louisiana Advertising the Mix @ Midtown, Houston

More details about Crosspoint Properties‘s expanding developments at the corner of Elgin and Louisiana in Midtown: Catty-corner across Elgin from the building that’s already under construction is this new fence advertising the “Mix @ Midtown.” The Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff writes that Crosspoint — whose owners also rule the High Fashion Home/Fabric empire down the street — is planning an additional 50,000 square feet of retail space in the recently fenced block, though construction won’t start until 2009 at the earliest.

A commenter on HAIF suggests announcing the Mix might be a good way to drum up more interest in 3201 Louisiana — the building that’s already going up. A 24 Hour Fitness “Super Sport” — which will include a basketball court and swimming pool and occupy the entire second and third stories of that building — is the only tenant Crosspoint’s George Levan is mentioning. Still available, apparently: retail space on the entire 25,000-sq.-ft. ground floor.

Photo: HAIF user ricco67

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Commercial Real Estate
02/21/08 10:34am

Uptown Whole Foods: Still on Track, Apparently

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Galleria, Leasing, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Retail, Shopping Centers
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View of Proposed New Galleria Whole Foods at Blvd Place at Former Eatzi’s Site

It may not count as confirmation exactly, but we now at least have repetition — from two separate sources — that the new Whole Foods Market our readers have been worrying about will in fact be coming to the Galleria area.

The first source is the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff, who — after interviewing Boulevard Place developer Ed Wulfe — states that a new Whole Foods will be the anchor of Wulfe & Co.’s new mixed-use development on Post Oak Blvd. . . . though it won’t open until 2010.

The second source is . . . a little unusual. We’ll tell you about it in our next an upcoming post.

Update, 2/26/08: That second source.

Boulevard Place Whole Foods image: DMJM H&N

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Apartments
02/19/08 9:37am

Hoa Binh: The Lasting Legacy of the Original Strip Mall

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Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Historic Preservation, Midtown, Parking, Proposed Developments, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers
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Hoa Binh Center at 2830 Travis, Midtown, Houston

Wielding a copy of Stephen Fox’s Houston Architectural Guide, transit buff Christof Spieler writes in to report that the vacant and graffiti-laden Hoa Binh Center in Midtown — targeted by Camden Property Trust for a new apartment complex — has an important story behind it. He quotes from Fox’s writeup of the shopping center, which was built in 1923:

What distinguishes this building is that it was the prototype of the 20th century American suburban shopping center: it introduced the concept of off-street parking, toward which the grocery store itself was oriented.

Spieler adds:

In other words, Camden may be about to tear down the world’s first strip mall. Now that’s a historic building.

And it’s certainly worth at least a nice plaque somewhere on those new apartments going up on the site!

But before all you preservationist types get up in arms about the impending demolition of the mother of all strip malls, keep in mind that an equally important part of this structure’s history and legacy will almost certainly be preserved, cherished, and celebrated. Sure, the building will probably end up in a pile of rubble off Loop 610. But all those historic off-street parking spaces? They’ll be moved into a nice new garage at the Camden Travis, where residents of the new apartments and their guests will be able to enjoy them for generations to come.

After the jump: Spieler spills more Hoa Binh history!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Apartments
02/18/08 8:48am

Maybe Somebody Did Give Up

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Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Midtown, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Shopping Centers
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Hoa Binh Center, Travis and Tuam, Houston

For years, Camden Property Trust has been talking about a giant mixed-use project the company is planning for the “superblock” bounded by Main, Anita, McGowen, and Travis in Midtown. And the Chronicle‘s Nancy Sarnoff reported this weekend that Camden is ready to go ahead with its Midtown development.

Except the new Camden project isn’t on the vacant superblock. And it won’t be mixed use. It’s a four-story, 253-unit, $45 million apartment complex called the Camden Travis, planned for the site of the former Hoa Binh supermarket building, the dilapidated and heavily tagged vaguely-moderne-looking shopping center one block to the west, at 2830 Travis.

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Commercial Real Estate
02/13/08 11:27am

Is Whole Foods Coming to Boulevard Place . . . or Not?

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Galleria, Leasing, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Marketing, Retail, Shopping Centers
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View of Proposed New Galleria Whole Foods at Blvd Place at Former Eatzi’s Site

Uptown residents have had a lot of fun speculating about just how enormous and feature-filled the new Galleria Whole Foods flagship store on Post Oak Blvd. will be. The Whole Foods website lists it at a massive 78,000 sq. ft. — though the page it’s on hasn’t been updated since last October.

But now from our mailbox comes this gushing report:

Rumors have been circulating for the last week that Whole Foods has pulled out of Ed Wulfe’s BLVD Place development on Post Oak Blvd. The owners of a prominent jewelry store across Post Oak Blvd. have been telling people that the deal fell through.

Is this just shopping-center trash talk? Or has something changed? Our informant provides more Boulevard Place and Whole Foods FUD:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Apartments
02/04/08 5:35pm

How High Will Little Bunny Fly?

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Commercial Real Estate, Highrises, Proposed Developments, Shopping Centers, Westlawn Terrace
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Fly High Little Bunny, 3120 S. Shepherd, Houston

A short item in the Houston Business Journal is encouraging rumors of a new highrise on Shepherd, one block south of the Alabama Theater Bookstop.

That’s the current location of jewelry store Fly High Little Bunny, along with the Jamail Real Estate office shown in this photo sent in by a Swamplot reader. The property includes two houses in back.

But the new development could stretch all the way to W. Alabama. A poster on HAIF claims the same buyer is also purchasing the shopping center on the north side of the block, which contains Ruchi’s Taqueria and Roeders Pub, and is planning highrise apartments and a parking garage, with retail space on the ground floor.

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Apartments
01/17/08 5:52pm

River Oaks District Development Reaches Advanced Watercolor Stage

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Commercial Real Estate, Condos, Highrises, Mixed Use, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Retail, River Oaks, Shopping Centers
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Watercolor of Proposed River Oaks District Mixed Use Development Planned for Westheimer by OliverMcMillan

With new bold, rich watercolor renderings now posted to its website, OliverMcMillan shows its mixed-use proposal for Westheimer is serious. The River Oaks District won’t be in River Oaks exactly, but it would mark a serious upgrade for this portion of Westheimer just inside the Loop, on a portion of the site of the Westcreek Apartments.

What’s planned here: 300,000 square feet of retail space, 300 fancy apartments, 250,000 square feet of office space, plus two hotels — rumored to be a W and a Le Meridien. The W Hotel will house 150 condos on its top floors.

After the jump: those shiny watercolors, plus plans and an aerial view!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Apartments
12/13/07 3:01pm

Heights Village: Parking Lots Are the New Main Street!

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Commercial Real Estate, Development Strategy, Houston Heights, Mixed Use, New Construction, Parking, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers, Strip Centers, Washington Corridor
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Heights Village Parking Lot on Yale St., Houston Heights

Looks like a lot of pedestrian action going on in these marketing drawings for Orr Commercial’s new Heights Village, a five-acre restaurant, retail, office, and “upscale housing” development slated for the current site of the Sons of Hermann hall just south of I-10, between Heights Blvd. and Yale St. and an adjacent parcel abutting railroad tracks to the south.

Why, with all those people in the drawings walking to and fro, it looks like this development will have all the charm of a small old-town Main Street . . . or at the very least all the charm of an old small town that decided to build a multi-level parking garage, but still turned its Main Street into a parking lot anyway, just to hedge its bets.

After the jump: more parking-lot pedestrians!

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Galleria
12/11/07 10:15am

Fig. Leaves: Miraculous Advanced LipoDissolve Works on Retail Locations Too!

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Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sugar Land, The Woodlands
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Collage of Diagrams from fig. Medical Body Shaping Website Showing How Advanced LipoDissolve Is Supposed To Work

Swamplot’s many readers eager to return to Houston-area Fig. Medical Body Shaping clinics for continuing fat-reducing injections will be saddened to learn that the national chain has abruptly shut down and discontinued all operations. A note on the fig.com website indicates the company will likely be seeking bankruptcy protection.

There are three local Fig. clinics: in Sugar Land at 59 and Highway 6, next to Panera Bread; next to Jamba Juice at the Summit Plaza by Lakewood Church; and at the Portofino Shopping Center across I-45 from the Woodlands. (Yes, that’s the same Portofino Shopping Center that was home to the statue-genitalia controversy a few years back — which was ultimately solved with . . . a fig leaf.) All three Houston-area Fig. locations had been open only since April.

Okay, whose inside joke was it to locate all three fat-reduction clinics in shopping centers on feeder roads?

What happened to Fig. that would cause it to shut down so suddenly? (Reader caution: suggestive uh . . . medical detail below.)

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Commercial Real Estate
12/10/07 10:02am

CompUSA Boxes Available Soon

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Galleria, Openings and Closings, Retail, Royal Oaks, Shopping Centers
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Empty Willowbrook CompUSA store

Looking for a couple strategic locations on Westheimer for Big Box stores . . . say one near the Galleria, the other near Kirkwood? You’re in luck: CompUSA is toast.

Turnaround firm Gordon Brothers Group has acquired computer manufacturer CompUSA for an undisclosed amount. As part of the deal, Boston-based Gordon Brothers is closing all 103 CompUSA stores, which will remain open through the holiday season.

Sound familiar? CompUSA shut down 176 locations nationwide this past February, including stores in Sugar Land, Baybrook, Willowbrook, and another on FM 1960.

Photo of empty Willowbrook CompUSA: Ailona Gellert

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Buying and Selling
12/07/07 10:38am

They’re Otto Here

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Commercial Real Estate, Demolitions, Highrises, Land Prices, Land Sales, Memorial, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Otto’s Bar B Que and Hamburgers on Memorial Dr., Houston

The owners of Otto’s Bar B Que and Hamburgers — a Houston institution since the early days of air conditioning — are retiring, closing up shop, tearing down their building at 5502 Memorial Dr., and putting it and the shopping center they own next door (including Biba’s Greek Pizza) up for sale, reports Allison Wollam in the Houston Business Journal:

Word of the end of Otto’s has already been circulating among customers, many of whom Sofka says are saddened to hear about the impending closure.

“If those people like it so much, where have they been?” she asks. “Why don’t they frequent our restaurant more? We still have our faithful that come in three times a week, but other than that, we’re stressing out each and every day to pay our bills.”

Maybe folks stopped coming by because there’s no chance they’ll run into Marvin Zindler there anymore? Anyway, it’s likely June and Marcus Sofka won’t have to stress about their bills for too much longer:

Real estate sources predict the land will sell for a minimum of $150 per square foot and say the highest and best use for the land would be a high-rise residential tower.

The Otto’ses in Sugar Land and Downtown are franchised, and will not be affected, reports Wollam, who also leaves us with this strange — but quintessentially Houstonish — image:

Another franchised Otto’s is scheduled to open next year in Chase Tower, and Sofka says the barbecue pits behind the original restaurant will be moved to the new Chase Tower location.

Photo: Flickr users Bob & Lorraine Kelly

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Apartments
11/29/07 8:56am

Going Up in Midtown: The Calais’s New Neighbor

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Midtown, New Construction, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Construction at Intersection of Elgin and Louisiana, Midtown

A reader who frequents Midtown sends photos showing the progress of the new building at 3201 Louisiana, along with comments.

Took this from near the corner of Elgin and Milam. Steel’s all up, and then some. 24 Hour Fitness is supposed to be moving into the top floor. The parking garage [in the foreground] was already there but was shuttered for a long time, has been painted and dressed up. Will be great to have an actual new three-story building with retail in midtown, instead of the usual strip centers and drug stores.

After the jump, plans and fancy renderings of the finished building, plus: our correspondent gets snarky!

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

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Commercial Real Estate
11/16/07 1:23pm

Sugar Land Whole Foods: Water on the Roof, Sweet Peas Inside

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First Colony, Retail, Shopping Centers, Sugar Land, Uncategorized
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Whole Foods in First Colony, Sugar Land, Texas

Is all that blue stuff that looks like it’s on the roof of this drawing of the new Whole Foods Market in Sugarland supposed to be water, or are those architects just coloring outside the lines again? The giant leaf-shaped structure in front is part of a rooftop rainwater-collection system, but with gravity and all, you’d expect the water to spill into that non-blue-colored round area of the roof to the left.

Oh, but maybe we’re looking at this picture the wrong way . . . that’s right, the blue stuff isn’t water on the roof, it’s the water in Brooks Lake, right behind the store. D’oh! That’s where rain that misses the roof will go. Brooks Lake is shaped a lot more like a river than a lake, but that sure comes in handy when you’re hawking waterfront property.

The 50,000-square-foot Whole Foods will anchor Planned Community Developers’s Lake Pointe Town Center at the intersection of Highway 59 and Highway 6 in First Colony. The store opens December 5th.

The rain collected from the roof will be used for watering the extensive parking lot and plaza landscaping. The store’s Sweet Peas Clubhouse will take children aged 3 to 7 off your hands while you shop.

Update, 12/5/07: It’s open. Anyone wanna send us a report?

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