How is it that Garden Oaks residents are so sure that the former Food Land supermarket at the corner of Ella and Judiway is going to be turned into a storage facility and not, say, a long-rumored H-E-B? Well, there’s this sign up on the property, which pretty much makes it clear what’s happening to the 32,596-sq.-ft. space.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
If only this were true about the “Future Mini Storage” sign at the corner of Binz and Almeda.
Glad to finally see this eyesore repurposed.
ugh, another storage facility…b/c there aren’t enough of those around the oakforest/garden oaks/shephered forest area already! a REAL heb would have been so much better. oh well :(
OK whiners … this building is a) NOT big enough and b) too OLD to be any kind of decent grocery store now. It would have to be torn down and a new structure built. The lot is not big enough to support anything HEB or any other grocery store developer would want to construct from the ground up. As a resident of Shepherd Forest, I am grateful that the store stood as long as it did. The alternative was to tear it down and create an empty lot that would be another gathering place for trash and critters.
I second the remarks of CDL – the area along the tracks here is a development problem until a “quiet zone” is in effect.
If townhomes were built, we would all be pointing and laughing, wondering “who would buy that”?
In my experience, storage is generally considered a “transitional” use, so perhaps we can expect better things both north and south of the tracks sometime in the future.
If HEB had opened there, the noise from the train would cease, the humidity would lift, and the mosquitos would die in the flood of humanity and love.
It could be worse – a bank or gas station!
Nooooooooooooo! Not another storage facility in the GOOF (Garden Oaks/Oak Forest)?!?! One of the boutique/micro-grocery store concepts that Whole Foods & HEB have been adopting lately would have been REALLY nice (or frankly, anyting other than another self-storage unit – there are already SO many of those on 34th). :( I had such high hopes that – with the development of the new Pink’s Pizza, Five Guys, Plonk, Octane, etc. in our area – this development would have been something exciting as well. Hope Garden Oaks Al is right & that this is just a transitional thing. Even something like Wabash Feed Store on Washington or another nursery-type business would have been awesome. Sad day. :(
There are way too many self storage places in this city. I am so sick of seeing these places everywhere. Is there really enough demand to warrant so many?
Totally agree with LaLa. While I’m glad it won’t be standing there empty anymore, I am sooo disappointed it will be another big ugly storage facility. I too had fantasies that it could be maybe a mini-whole foods :) Oh well. Maybe next someone will tear down that eyesore old shopping plaza on the other side of the tracks (sparing the Shipleys, of course). And I’m not trying to start another Shipleys debate…
Don’t touch my Shipley’s!
Mini Storage facilities are almost always limited partnerships designed to last 7-10 years and put on strategically poised land the developers/LLP’s have determined will increase in value. The facilities are generally inexpensive to build and maintain and are easy to demo once the property has gained enough value to where it is sold for development. The area all along 34th street is just not ready for redevelopment yet. It’s currently a dump. Additional years of creeping development from the Northern Heights will be required to eventually turn the 34th St. blight into the redevelopment gem many hope for.
Actually this is a block away from 34th. Some of the stretch along Ella between Judiway & the Loop (and 34th itself) could be called blighted; most is just occupied by older blue-collar businesses that no one would blink at if they were housed in a new stucco & toothpick strip center. A couple of trendy shops to go with the antique store next to Heights Cleaners (which better not be touched either!) and it would start looking like 19th Street.
Hellsing-
I would certainly not be sorry to see the pawn shops on that stretch of Ella go away. But even with a few more trendy shops, it would be hard to see it as another 19th Street since it lacks an inviting appeal to pedestrians–nearly all the businesses require those on foot to trudge across a parking area or drive-thru lane to get to the entrance.
why cant we get an HEB over here? give kroger some competition!
True, matx. Personally I could deal with that, being a veteran of the 19th Street Parking Space Search Parade, but some would consider that a drawback.
I was pulling for a roller rink. Maybe in 7-10 years I can break a hip there.