Tag: Shopping Centers

Featured Posts
02/02/18 5:00pm

How Shake Shack Is Shaping Up on the Village Arcade Corner of Kirby and Amherst

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Renovations, Restaurants, Retail
16 Comments

Construction on Shake Shack’s new burger hub in Rice Village — next door to the coming Rice University clothing boutique on Amherst — looks about medium well now that the brick building has been blackened, stripped of its awnings, and shielded by a metal frame bearing all-caps signage. La Madeleine restaurant left the building last March ahead of renovations planned for the entire Village Arcade structure between Kirby and Kelvin.

A Rice Village property manager announced in 2016 that the born-in-Manhattan chain with current locations as far-flung as Bahrain was on its way to Kirby. Back then, Houston was completely Shack-less, but that changed when a debut location opened in a Galleria parking lot later that year. Since then, one other Shake Shack has cropped up in the city — behind center field in Minute Maid Park.

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Faster Food
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Featured Posts
01/12/18 4:00pm

Rice Village Yankee Candle Going Dark This Month

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Openings and Closings, Retail, Rice Village
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There’s some news about the space next door to Athleta in the Rice Village Arcade shopping center on University Blvd. where mannequins were spotted limbering up on the sidewalk the other day: it’s about to shut down. A source tells Swamplot that national retailer Yankee Candle will close the store — one of 8 locations in the Houston area — on January 28.

A sign in the storefront window announces its last big blowout:

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Leaving the Village
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Featured Posts
01/09/18 11:30am

West Elm Heading Out of Highland Village Shopping Center Before the End of the Month

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Openings and Closings, River Oaks
7 Comments

The blue dot stuck on the window of West Elm’s Highland Village furniture gallery announces the store’s plans to decamp from its spot below and next to RA Sushi, near the eastern side of the shopping center on January 21. Both West Elm and RA Sushi’s only other Houston locations are at CityCentre. That West Elm location opened in 2015, while the current spot at 3922 Westheimer has been in business for over 9 years.

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Furniture Move-Out
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Conroe
12/05/17 11:30am

The Mark of H-E-B Appears in Plans for a Harper’s Preserve Shopping Center

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Proposed Developments
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H-E-B is making a bright red appearance in a leasing brochure for The Market at Harper’s Preserve, a proposed shopping center that would go up along the entrance to the mostly-residential Harper’s Preserve development off Highway 242, 2 miles east of I-45. The site plan at top shows the supermarket anchoring a 28-acre retail area that would occupy the northeast corner of the partly-built, 800-acre community. Also included in the image: 2 buildings marked as banks, 2 as fast food, a gym, gas station, and 5 other structures.

A spokesperson for H-E-B said, “At this time it is premature for H-E-B to comment on specific plans for this parcel of land. However, we can share that we are excited about the prospect of building a new store to serve the growing Conroe community.” The site plan below shows one neighborhood of Harper’s Preserve called East Village, as well as the location of the shopping center, labeled “Mixed Use” at the top right corner:

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East of The Woodlands
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Featured Posts
10/25/17 12:30pm

When Café Ginger’s New West Gray Shopping Center Square Corner Tower Spot Will Take Over from Its Current Round One

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North Montrose, Restaurants, Shopping Centers
2 Comments

Café Ginger is already at work on its new outpost in its next West Gray St. shopping center corner, taking the places vacated by both Mama Fu’s and Verts Mediterranean Grill. The Chinese food and sushi restaurant arrived at its original and current spot at the eastern end of the northern half of the River Oaks Shopping Center 8 years ago, taking over from a restaurant whose addition to the center was marked by the tacking-on of a flying-saucer-like corner tower to the previously low-slung art deco center. At the new spot at 1574 West Gray, on the western end of River Oaks Plaza, the endcap corner tower is already in place — it was there when the center was constructed.

But inside, there’s more construction to do: As new signs on the doors announce, the new location is scheduled to open in March of next year. That’s the same month Weingarten Realty plans to hold the groundbreaking for the Driscoll tower — directly on top of Café Ginger’s current spot.

Photos: Margo (River Oaks Plaza); Katie Schon (River Oaks Shopping Center)

End Cap Tales
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Featured Posts
10/19/17 11:00am

Here’s a Big Sign That the LA Fitness on Yale Is Almost in Good Enough Shape To Open Next Month

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Houston Heights, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
7 Comments

Here are a few shots of 195 Yale St. just south of I-10 from yesterday afternoon, showing workers a few letters away from spelling out the long-delayed LA Fitness at the Yale Street Market shopping center. The sign, which faces the freeway, was completed by the end of the day:

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Fitn In
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Disaster Aftermath
10/02/17 1:30pm

Flooded Big Boxes at Meyerland Plaza Still Out of Commission

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Meyerland, Meyerland Plaza, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
6 Comments

Pet Supermarket in Meyerland Plaza has reopened after taking on water after Hurricane Harvey, but it appears to be an exception among big-box stores lined in a row on the former mall site. Signs in front of Old Navy, OfficeMax, and Dressbarn declare the stores are closed — and direct customers to other locations, according to these photos and a report from a Swamplot reader. Here’s the scene in front of Old Navy, where notes in the window declare the store is closed “until further notice“:

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Old Navy Underwater
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Featured Posts
05/10/17 11:30am

The Rice Village Plans To Remake Amherst St., Lure Shoppers Into an Alley

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Redevelopment, Renovations, Restaurants, Retail, Rice Village
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Remodeling along the lines of what’s depicted here is now underway on Amherst St. between Kelvin St. and Kirby Dr., according to a Rice Village District rep. A couple of newly released drawings shown here fill in details to some of the previously mentioned changes planned for the south side of Amherst, including the conversion of part of the roadway itself into more walking and sitting room behind some protective planters. And that narrow passageway in the building, running between Amherst and University Blvd., appears to be getting its own signage labeling it as The Alley (complete with light-up arrow directing shoppers inside).

The plans also call for some rooftop greenery and the chopping off of some pointy brick pediments — a swap which the District says will make all that 2-hours-free rooftop parking more visible, in the wake of the recent parking scheme changes:

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Retail Redistricting
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Featured Posts
05/09/16 4:30pm

Where the First of a Dozen Daiso Dollar Stores Will Set Up Shop

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Mason Park
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Daiso at 2540 Old Denton Rd., Carrollton, TX 75006

Japanese dollar and 100-yen store Daiso has signed a lease for a 10,998-sq.-ft. spot at 501 S. Mason Rd. in the Mason Park shopping center, east of Mason Creek and the Barker reservoir. NewQuest Properties says the retailer was drawn to the location on S. Mason south of I-10 because of its proximity to Asian grocery chain 99 Ranch Market, which is currently getting the former Kroger spot in the center ready for a summertime opening.

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Coming to Katy
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Featured Posts
03/18/16 9:45am

Before-ish and After Views of the Rice Village Design Overhaul Now Underway on University Blvd.

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Rice Village
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Renderings of redesigned former Rice Village ArcadeRice Village, Houston, 77005

Compare and contrast the 2 images above, which together show the former Village Arcade at University Blvd. west of Kelvin Dr. both as is and as it may become. The rendering above appears in a marketing brochure released earlier this year by Trademark Property, which manages Rice University’s Village-area properties. The brochure shows potential update plans to a number storefronts in the former Village Arcade buildings (which Trademark is collectively rebranding as just “the Rice Village“); the changes range from simple color swaps to major reshaping and remodeling.

The U-shaped patio above, which currently houses a fountain and a bronze copy of the Italian boar statue Il Porcellino, is shown in the corresponding rendering housing tables in front of a round kiosk ringed with bar-style seating. The drawing also depicts those PoMo-style pediments of the second floor facade replaced with a large sign labeling the structure as Rice Village Market. The building also appears to be painted white.

Earlier this year, a previously released rendering from the set got some grounding in reality when the former Sprint storefront on University west of Kelvin was whitewashed, to prep the space for beauty supply shop Blue Mercury:

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Shopping Fix-Up
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Featured Posts
01/13/16 12:30pm

Galleria Shake Shack To Be Served with a Side of Leafy Greens

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Galleria, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers
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Rendering of Shake Shack Houston, 5015 Westheimer Rd., Uptown, Houston, 77056

Shake Shack’s planned Galleria location made an appearance at the company’s quarterly investor presentation yesterday — the new rendering scraps the outdoor patio present in the previously released depiction, and an exterior wall appears to be covered in greenery. The Shack currently anticipates a late-2016 opening, depending on progress of the surrounding Galleria redo.

Rendering of Shake Shack planned for 5015 Westheimer: Simon Property Group

 

5015 Westheimer Rd.
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Featured Posts
12/17/15 9:45am

Fuzzy’s Tacos Will Snuggle into the Former Pesca, Tinto’s Spot Behind the River Oaks Theater

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Restaurants, River Oaks, Shopping Centers
3 Comments

2015 W. Gray St., River Oaks Shopping Center, Houston, 77019

The landscape of adorably-named taco shops grows ever denser — Baja fast-casual restaurant Fuzzy’s Tacos will continue its spread south from Cypress, creeping into the space at 2015 W. Gray St., in the parking lot behind the River Oaks Theater. The Fort Worth export will move into the freestanding building on Peden St. at the back of the shopping center, following the 8-month tapas act of Pesca World Seafood (which  shuttered in 2013 after replacing Tinto’s that same year).

The space itself is not quite taco-ready:

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Very, Very Soft Tacos
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Featured Posts
06/02/15 10:45am

Woodland Heights Bus Mappers to Metro: Your New Route Plan Misses the Target

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Public Transportation, Quicklink, Shopping Centers, Woodland Heights
38 Comments

WOODLAND HEIGHTS BUS MAPPERS TO METRO: YOUR NEW ROUTE PLAN MISSES THE TARGET Proposed New Bus Alignments Around Woodland Heights, HoustonMetro says it’ll be ready to go with its new bus network on August 16, but that hasn’t prevented various groups from petitioning the transit agency to make late adjustments to its route map. One group of Woodland Heights residents is trying to get the new 30 route, which late in the process was shifted east to parallel the new 44 route down Houston Ave into Downtown, shifted west to Watson, Taylor, and Sawyer streets between Pecore and Memorial Dr. before entering Downtown from the west. The current proposed alignment leaves the Sawyer Heights shopping center and its Target without a bus stop. [Not of It] Diagram: Philip Teague

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Demolitions
05/20/15 3:45pm

Where Bissonnet Meets Beechnut, and New Retail Defeats Old

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Redevelopment, Retail, Shopping Centers
4 Comments

Demolition of Robindell Shopping Center, 6711-6751 Bissonnet St. at Beechnut, Robindell, Houston

Can’t get enough of that old-shopping-center-knock-down action? Here, courtesy of the Brays Oaks management district, is a view of the carnage currently in progress at the Robindell Shopping Center, where the empty hulls of a slew of colorfully named businesses arrayed from 6711 to 6755 Bissonnet St. are meeting dusty ends. Hello to a new Aldi and company. But before that, a goodbye to Bigwick Liquor, Libreria Cristiana El Resplendor, Ana’s Multi Services, La Sultana Pupuseria, Delta X-Ray, Cute-Cut Salon $5, Eyebrow Threading Salon, and Trudi’s Birria de Chivo. Your ice cream at neighboring Baskin-Robbins will be spared.

Photo: Brays Oaks Management District

Make Way for Aldi
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Eminent Domain
05/05/15 4:45pm

HCC Grabbing All It Can Eat at Denny’s, Pizza Hut, Schlotzky’s, V Star Buffet, Entire Woodridge Plaza Shopping Center

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Gulfgate, Lawsuits, Shopping Centers
3 Comments

Woodridge Plaza Shopping Center, 6969 Gulf Fwy., Houston

Woodridge Plaza Shopping Center, 6969 Gulf Fwy., HoustonKing Dollar, Pizza Hut, Sherwin-Williams, Sun Loan, Mini’s Cleaners, Ruchi’s Taqueria, Schlotzky’s, Tiendo Rio Lempa, Denny’s, Hairtex & Nails, Nancy’s Cake Designs, Nationwide Insurance, Edible Arrangements, Todo Jewelry, Video Square, V Star (pictured here), and all of the businesses in the Woodridge Plaza shopping center at 6969 Gulf Fwy. — they’re all going away. The Houston Community College System wants to expand its Southeast College East Side Campus onto the 5.7-acre property to its south, on the north side of I-45 near Gulfgate. A reader who isn’t involved in the legal tussle, but who’s looked through the records on the county clerk’s website, describes the back-and-forth as laid out in the documents: “It looks like the special commissioners valued the shopping center at $12,500,000. Both the landowner, Compass Investors Group LLC, and HCCS objected and are seeking a trial for a higher, and a lower valuation, respectively. Texas Capital Bank is owed about $3.5 million on a mortgage on the property and also intervened. The landowner lawsuit is in Cause number 1043516 in County Court 4. HCCS also filed condemnation actions against all the tenants (cause 1057330 in County Court 4).”

Images: Moseley Commercial

The Taking of Woodridge Plaza
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