Tag: Upper Kirby

Leasing
01/23/09 11:39am

Design Source at West Ave: What’s Cooking?

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New Construction, Retail, Upper Kirby
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Bruce Wolfe, who owns Houston’s Ligne Roset furniture showroom — and is about to open one in Austin — tells Houston Business Journal reporter Allison Wollam that business at the sleek and modern 3,500-sq.-ft. store in the strip center just north of the Rice Village at 5600 Kirby Dr. was better this holiday season than last, despite problems in the economy that have hurt other home-furnishings retailers:

“It’s not unusual for one of our clients to come in and show us their floor plan and hand us a $40,000 check to furnish their entire home,” he says. “When it comes to furniture, if you pay with peanuts, you’re going to get a monkey. And you can’t pay for a Pontiac and expect to drive away with a Mercedes.”

The Houston Ligne Roset store was one of the few in the chain to carry the entire catalog in Spanish, which Wolfe says that also helped attract new clients.

Wollam goes on to report that Ligne Roset will be expanding and moving up Kirby in April, to the new West Ave development — where the store will be 1 of 5 showrooms Wolfe will operate under the name Design Source:

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Apartments
12/23/08 12:00pm

Going Away: Wakeforest Apartments

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Demolitions, Parks, Proposed Developments, Upper Kirby
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Tenants have already begun moving out of the Wakeforest Apartments just north of 59, reports the Michael Reed in the River Oaks Examiner. The Upper Kirby District TIRZ board voted last week to buy the 101-unit complex, tear it down, and build a new “civic complex” on the property, which sits at the eastern edge of Eastside St.’s Levy Park.

A few farewell views sent in by a reader:

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Green Design and Development
12/22/08 5:12pm

Coming to This Site: Haven

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Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Upper Kirby
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The used-restaurant parts yard at the northeast corner of Kirby and 59 will sprout a new upscale neighborhood restaurant by late spring, reports Cleverley Stone. Rhea Wheeler and Debbie Jaramillo hope to open Haven in a brand new building at 2502 Algerian Way. No transfats will be used in its construction:

“Houston does not have a restaurant like this yet. We want to make the building as green possible. Since we are building a new structure we have the opportunity to incorporate many green concepts in the construction and design, from the building materials to the interior textiles, surfaces and lighting.”

For instance, Randy will have a garden on site that will be irrigated with rainwater collected by cisterns.

Randy is executive chef Randy Evans, formerly of Brennan’s.

Haven’s neighbors will be the shuttered Bennigan’s, Mai Thai, Lupe Tortilla, the Mucky Duck, and Taco Cabana — plus a small 6-plex apartment operated by would-be methadone-clinic proprietor Jared Meadors.

Photo of 2502 Algerian Way: Swamplot inbox

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Land for Sale
12/12/08 5:49pm

Curtains for Kirby Court?

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Real Estate Marketing, Trees, Upper Kirby
5 Comments

What will happen to the Kirby Court Apartments just west of Whole Foods? The 1949 garden apartments on oak-lined Steel St. make up the major portion of a 5.744-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Kirby and Alabama being offered for sale or ground lease, the River Oaks Examiner reports. Also included in the parcel being sold by the Dickey Estate: retail properties facing Alabama, Kirby, and Kipling.

Cushman & Wakefield’s flyer for the property brags that there’s “potential to abandon Steel Street for an additional 33,750 sq. ft.” How much abandonment could those oaks survive?

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Openings and Closings
12/05/08 12:36pm

The Corner of Kirby and Enchilada

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Restaurants, Upper Kirby
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Westheimer near Montrose is becoming late-night central. What about Westheimer near Kirby?

Allison Wollam reports in the Houston Business Journal that Cantina San Miguel will be the latest in the growing list of Mexican or Mexican-ish restaurants near that intersection, joining Chuy’s, Taco Milagro, Armandos, and Pan y Agua just down the street. The restaurant, which until last week owner Beau Theriot apparently planned to call Beau’s Hideaway, is a remake of the Theriot’s Brownstone Restaurant at 2736 Virginia, which closed in July.

. . . Cantina San Miguel will feature a large outdoor patio, a margarita bar, flat-screen televisions, a wine room and a station that churns out fresh flour tortillas.

The restaurant will also feature The Red Room Lounge, which will have its own separate entrance.

Any lineup changes coming for West Ave?

Photo of Chuy’s, 2706 Westheimer: Flickr user transposition [license]

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Ferndale
11/25/08 12:08pm

Design Diagrams: Brown Bags the Charts and Big Lanterns

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Home Decor, Interiors, Upper Kirby
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“Brown finds itself at the epicenter of two major design styles that [have] swept the country,” declares Cote de Texas’s Joni Webb. And those would be? “The Belgian and Industrial looks.”

In Houston at least, Jill Brown appears to have cornered the market on large lantern-style lighting fixtures and European instructional charts. On separate recent visits to her last-name-only shop on the corner of Ferndale and W. Alabama, Webb and fellow design blogger Paloma Contreras documented the finds:

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Quicklink
11/11/08 1:03pm

A Long Holiday Break for Kirby Construction

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Streets, Upper Kirby
7 Comments

A LONG HOLIDAY BREAK FOR KIRBY CONSTRUCTION Good news! The drainage work that’s turned Kirby Dr. between Westheimer and Richmond into a dusty obstacle course is almost over — for the year, at least: “Construction work will pause from Nov. 21 through Jan. 2, said Travis Younkin, capital projects coordinator for the Upper Kirby District. Work along side streets will continue, though. ‘We can’t have construction crews working on the street during the busiest shopping season of the year,’ Younkin said. The $18 million project, managed by the Upper Kirby District Tax Increment Reinvestment Zone, is scheduled to be completed by next November.” [Houston Chronicle, via BlogHouston]

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Condos
08/27/08 1:50pm

2727 Kirby: Enough with the Crane

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Highrises, New Construction: Residential, Upper Kirby
7 Comments

Condo Tower at 2727 Kirby Dr., Under ConstructionThe crane at 2727 Kirby is coming down today and tomorrow, reports a reader who’s been watching the construction.

A larger version of this up-to-date photo showing the incredible shrinking construction crane — and a rendering of the completed condo tower — are waiting for you after the jump.

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Leasing
08/01/08 10:31am

Avalon Drug: Gone in 2 Weeks

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail, Upper Kirby
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Avalon Drug Store and Diner, 2417 and 2427 Westheimer Rd., Houston

No word yet about the diner next door, but the West U. Examiner reports that the Avalon Drug Store on Westheimer just east of Kirby will be calling it quits in 2 weeks:

Pharmacist Bill Morris, who has run the independent pharmacy for 36 years, said “a confluence of events” prompted his recent decision.

Morris is 67 years old — for one thing — and insurance “has made it harder” on independent pharmacy operations, which have low profit margins.

He also pointed to leasing rates that are rising due to the plethora of new construction in the Upper Kirby area.

Update: As owner Coy Ramsey notes in the comments, Avalon Diner is not going anywhere. More from the River Oaks Examiner and Houstonist.

Photo: Flickr user Houstonian [license]

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Neighborhood Disputes
07/29/08 9:12am

Those Aren’t Live Oaks on Kirby Anymore

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Quicklink, Streets, Trees, Upper Kirby
2 Comments

THOSE AREN’T LIVE OAKS ON KIRBY ANYMORE “Overnight, crews cut down dozens of trees lining Kirby between Richmond and Westheimer as part of a controversial construction project.” With chainsaws and backhoes in the middle of the night — what excitement! [11 News, previously in Swamplot]

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Trees
07/16/08 2:21pm

The Kirby Street Trees Are Officially Toast

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Upper Kirby
5 Comments

Street Trees on Kirby Dr. Between Richmond and Westheimer

At last — maybe now we’ll actually be able to see the store signs on Kirby between Richmond and Westheimer:

TIRZ President Buddy Bailey said the new high-rise oaks, which can reach a height of 40 feet, “grow straight up and straight down,” which will reduce problems with root systems and underground infrastructure.

The plan calls for the exiting 135 trees to be replaced with 148 trees.

“We will match the old trees caliper for caliper,” he said.

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New Construction
05/12/08 9:39am

Via Las Vegas: New West Ave Spa, Italian Style

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Retail, River Oaks, Upper Kirby
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View of West Ave from Second Story

More imports for West Ave! A tidbit from the Chronicle:

Rome, a resort-style day spa and salon, plans to open at West Ave. in the summer of 2009. Conceived by Las Vegas-based spa operators, Resources & Development, the spa will encompass more than 10,000 square feet in the mixed-use development at Kirby and Westheimer.

West Ave rendering: Urban Partners

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Apartments
04/08/08 12:17pm

West Ave Food and Drink Details: Imported Beers and Restaurants

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Mixed Use, New Construction, Restaurants, Retail, River Oaks, Upper Kirby
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View of West Ave, Kirby and Westheimer, Houston, by Looney Ricks Kiss, Architects

Houston restaurant reporter Cleverley Stone has names and details of four new restaurants and a bar slated to open at West Ave, the multistory mixed-use development now under construction on the corner of Westheimer and Kirby. All are culinary imports from Dallas, San Antonio, or California, though one has already moved nearby:

  • Cru, a wine bar with food, was founded in Dallas but already has a location open in The Woodlands.

    With the ambience of a European café, indoor and alfresco options will be available with dining areas separated by a wall of French doors. The décor will incorporate custom built wine racks and handpainted fresco wine labels on canvas. The menu will offer a contemporary collection of French-Continental, Asian Fusion and Wine Country

  • The Social House, a gastropub that will actually call itself a gastropub. Presumably this will be much like the Syn Group’s Social House in Dallas, although here it will be in West Ave, not in West Village.
  • Pie Bar, a 1,500-square-foot gourmet pizza place — also from the Syn Group — that’s also a bar and will stay open until 2 a.m. On the second floor.
  • Swig, a cigar-and-martini bar with locations in San Antonio and Memphis.
  • Wildfish Seafood Grille, an upscale seafood and steak house, already has locations in San Antonio and Scottsdale but was founded in Newport Beach by the owners of Eddie V’s and the Roaring Fork.

Though a number of the 390 luxury apartments upstairs are scheduled to become available this August, the restaurants and stores below them in West Ave’s first phase won’t open until August 2009.

After the jump, two more newish images of West Ave from the architect’s website.

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Apartments
02/05/08 1:02pm

Obstacle to Building More Apartments in Houston: Distinctive Details

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Openings and Closings, Proposed Developments, Upper Kirby
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How poetic is it that the lone holdout in a 2-acre plot on West Alabama that Gables Residential wants to tear down so it can build up to 150 more apartments — and maybe some street-level shops — is called . . . Distinctive Details?

Little Woodrow’s will be shutting down March 2nd, but Distinctive Details, which rents linens and party supplies, wants the Atlanta REIT to triple its $150K lease buyout offer.

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Streets
01/29/08 1:21pm

Kirby Casualty Forecast: 161 Street Trees, 1 Realtor

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Trees, Upper Kirby
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Green Ribbons on Kirby Dr. Trees

A real estate agent writes in to report that the grand compromise to save all those Live Oaks lining Kirby Dr. between Richmond and Westheimer isn’t going to save anything:

Despite a compromise that reclaimed 7 feet of paved width from a plan to revamp Kirby Drive, it now appears that all of the trees between Richmond Avenue and Westheimer Road will be lost to construction.

Houston foresters told a group of about 30 residents Thursday that after walking the site Dec. 7, it was determined that even with a roadway that is 73 feet across, the majority of trees will be unable to survive.

City Forester Victor Cordova said only eight trees within the area have a “realistic chance” of surviving, and that is because they are relatively small rather than in a viable location. He called moving those trees “a very expensive venture.”

Our agent-informant is aghast, and tells us that either the trees stay or she leaves Houston. That sounds kinda drastic, and doesn’t give much credit to the real improvements to Houston’s quality of life the Kirby Dr. reconstruction will likely achieve:

The City insists that the street be widened not to increase capacity but to increase the lane widths. A Public Works engineer told me recently that drivers of Hummers and some large SUVs find the current Kirby lane width “uncomfortable.”

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