Boognish

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There is not enough land to build a decent sized HEB, no bigger than the one at Ella & W 18th. The Food Land site is only 3.3 acres. Your medium sized HEB stores are around 80,000 square feet and due to their parking needs generally require an 8 to 10 acre site (new HEB Plus! stores are around 100,000 sf). I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for any new HEB stores inside the loop due to the lack of available sites and high land prices.

I doubt it, $6,000,000 would be extremely high for the area. The site is 2.98 acres and a $6,000,000 price tag for the land would be $46.16 per square foot before any adjustments for demolition. The only land sale remotely comparable within a 3 mile radius is a 3.3 acre site on W34th that sold in February of 2007 for about $10.00 per square foot. If you were REALLY generous and applied a $15 per square foot price tag on the dirt you are looking at around $1,950,000 for the land. I doubt someone bought it for the improvements, you're talking about a dilapidated supermarket built in 1960 at the end of its economic life. In Houston there are vacant supermarkets built in the 1990s like Albertson's that aren't selling for more than $50 per square foot. $6,000,000 for the 32,596SF supermarket would be equal to $184 per square foot. There's no way. I'm with jm1fd, I believe the losing money story. Not buying the $6,000,000 story.

Hmmm...I know they are putting a free standing WAMU branch in the shopping center at 43rd & Ella. Seems silly that they would be building another WAMU branch at 34th & Shepherd (I guess if they are in fact building 2 new branches less than 2 miles from each other, they have done their research and the think they will make money, in which case it would not be silly for them). I hope this is not the case, though it would not suprise me. If it has to be a bank branch, I wish it was going to be a Bank of America. I hate having to go to the other side of the freeway to the drive-thru branch on Hackett Dr. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it is going to be a Chic-fil-a, though I know it won't be. I just like to think that it will be.

Anybody know what is going in at the southwest corner of 34th and Shepherd? A foundation has been poured, but there are no signs. There was an old gas station before, but it doesn't look like it is going to be. I am sure it will be a bank branch of some sort.

Well the Starbucks finally opened and it appears the center is making some progress. I checked Page Partners website last week and it looks like there are a few other tenants that have signed leases in the center. Of course, they will be building a free standing Washington Mutual between Kroger and Starbucks. Other confirmed leases are Massage Envy and a nail salon. According to the center's marketing flyer, they are in negotiations with a restaurant for the end-cap space closest to Ella. Let's hope it's something good. They claim to be in negotiations with a wine bar for the oposite end-cap space near Kroger. I am pretty excited about that, lets hope it works out. I just hope they don't put any more dollar stores in the center, there are already two across the street. I am hoping this will be a little more high-end.

Thanks, we are loving the neighborhood. We will have to give Petrol Station another try. Any idea what time they close?

My wife and I just moved to Garden Oaks, and I have been exploring the neighborhood while jogging in the evenings. The first time I ran down Wakefield I was suprised to see several icehouses. We tried out the old gas station at Wakefield & Golf. We liked it, $1 can beer if you're wearing flip-flops, can't beat that. The patio was nice and we liked the layed back atmosphere of the place, but there were way too many kids running around. I was wondering if anyone had been to the other places on Wakefield? One place is called the Catty Corner (Wakefield & Alba), then there is The Dutchman and a red building across from The Dutchman, think is called the Country Place. Has anyone been to any of these places? Can you tell us a little about them? Are these cool icehouses or are they a good place to get a bottle broken over your head? Do they have nice neighborhood charm, or are they watering holes for the trailer parks down the street and the people with cars in their yard?

There is plenty of good music made today, you're just not going to find it on the radio or MTV. But you know that.