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Alabama Row: Retail Center At 1540 W. Alabama St.


Urbannizer

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Not a fan of the blue blocking on top. Otherwise it's fine

 

Me neither. I liked the clean lines of the original. My guess is that will be some sort of back painted glass and there will be lights behind it to make it glow. Just a hypothesis, but I honestly can't think of any other reason why that element is there. It's a bit naked just hanging on there so I imagine it has some use.

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I went by again today and they have put in a construction driveway with large rocks to knock off the mud on the tires of dump trucks and concrete trucks.

They have also erected a very low fence around the entire property so I am comfortable with saying that this is finally starting up.

Edited by bobruss
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Drove by yesterday and this is going to be a nice addition to the ever expanding Menil neighborhood mix of well scaled buildings for the neighborhood.

I like that they sited the building with parking in the back. 

When we lived across the street from this property a few years back I met the owner, a dentist or doctor, I believe who said that he was going to build a thoughtful strip center. He told the truth. 

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Houston Food Finder

 

Quote

Paul and Sara Burden are opening a second location of their restaurant, BuffBurger, in the Montrose District. When the original location opened at 1014 Wirt two years ago, it was one of the first independent burger joints in Houston to boast all-natural, sustainably sourced beef from 44 Farms. Construction on the new place at 1540 West Alabama is already underway, and it is expected to be open in the fall of this year.

 

 

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I really like how it feels when you drive by this project now. The siting of this building is excellent, and it creates a powerful influence on the intersection. This is going to look and work really well. Very urban feel. 

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On ‎3‎/‎13‎/‎2014 at 8:16 AM, swtsig said:

this is exactly how you do urban infill retail - somene needs to forward this to braun and remind him that his concept of 19th street is terrible. this also confounds me even further regarding fingers design (or lack thereof) of the "suzanne"... it's not very difficult to design something that matches the neighborhod assuming you don't completely cop-out and just copy an existing design of one of your other building.

 

Looks like y'all beat me to it.

 

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7 minutes ago, hindesky said:

I drove by Buff Burger on Friday around lunch time and noticed the chairs were all on top of the tables. Made me think they might be closing down, I mean who isn't open for the lunch crowd? 😥

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/restaurants-bars/article/Two-BuffBurger-restaurants-shutter-15007249.php
 

BuffBurger, a Houston-based burger brand, has apparently shuttered two of its three locations. A lockout notice for failure to pay rent was posted on the door of the restaurant at 1540 W. Alabama. And the location at 10550 Westheimer also is closed.

The company’s website lists only the location at 1014 Wirt as open. Instagram also lists only the Wirt store as open.

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20 hours ago, danielsonr said:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/entertainment/restaurants-bars/article/Two-BuffBurger-restaurants-shutter-15007249.php
 

BuffBurger, a Houston-based burger brand, has apparently shuttered two of its three locations. A lockout notice for failure to pay rent was posted on the door of the restaurant at 1540 W. Alabama. And the location at 10550 Westheimer also is closed.

The company’s website lists only the location at 1014 Wirt as open. Instagram also lists only the Wirt store as open.

 

That's not too surprising.  BuffBurger is ok, but not spectacular.  Houston is already overrun with middle-of-the-road burgers.

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21 hours ago, hindesky said:

I drove by Buff Burger on Friday around lunch time and noticed the chairs were all on top of the tables. Made me think they might be closing down, I mean who isn't open for the lunch crowd? 😥

 

Been like that for the past week. I work in the area. They were actually really popular, so its odd that they shuttered this location.

 

25 minutes ago, august948 said:

 

That's not too surprising.  BuffBurger is ok, but not spectacular.  Houston is already overrun with middle-of-the-road burgers.

 

While you might be correct. This location was doing pretty well, especially during weekends. It might be "middle-of-the-road", but there are nearly zero food options on this slice of W. Alabama. Its the only burger place on this street from Midtown all the way to Shepherd.

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1 minute ago, Luminare said:

 

Been like that for the past week. I work in the area. They were actually really popular, so its odd that they shuttered this location.

 

 

While you might be correct. This location was doing pretty well, especially during weekends. It might be "middle-of-the-road", but there are nearly zero food options on this slice of W. Alabama. Its the only burger place on this street from Midtown all the way to Shepherd.

 

It may have seemed to be doing well, but a failure to pay the rent notice argues the other way.  Could be they were raking it in, but the expenses were still too high.  No way to know unless we can see the books, but I've see this happen many times in the bar and restaurant industry. 

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4 minutes ago, august948 said:

 

It may have seemed to be doing well, but a failure to pay the rent notice argues the other way.  Could be they were raking it in, but the expenses were still too high.  No way to know unless we can see the books, but I've see this happen many times in the bar and restaurant industry. 

 

For sure. That is definitely not up for debate. Two things can be true at the same time as well. I could definitely believe the fact that overhead was probably too high to be sustainable. its also a very niche kind of burger establishment, and while it was a good concept in an area with low competition, its also a concept that probably was going to be a premium to run and keep running. Alternatively, you have places like Burger Joint, a superior burger, has more variety, and markets to a general clientele, and even though it is in a higher competition area, it is also doing a lot better. Though I don't have access to the books for that place, I have meet the operator and know his son, and the place is doing very well from what I hear. For Buff Burger it could be combination of a lot of different things which "doing well" is just not going to keep it afloat.

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2 minutes ago, Luminare said:

 

For sure. That is definitely not up for debate. Two things can be true at the same time as well. I could definitely believe the fact that overhead was probably too high to be sustainable. its also a very niche kind of burger establishment, and while it was a good concept in an area with low competition, its also a concept that probably was going to be a premium to run and keep running. Alternatively, you have places like Burger Joint, a superior burger, has more variety, and markets to a general clientele, and even though it is in a higher competition area, it is also doing a lot better. Though I don't have access to the books for that place, I have meet the operator and know his son, and the place is doing very well from what I hear. For Buff Burger it could be combination of a lot of different things which "doing well" is just not going to keep it afloat.

 

I guess we get to see what's next for that spot now.  I'm sure it will get filled with something sooner rather than later.

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