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Braes Oaks: Retail Center At 5401-5413 South Braeswood Blvd.


brucesw

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Not surprising.

It would only have made sense to try to re-open it if they could double-decker it and that might not have been worth the investment.  From discussions on Next Door it seems quite a few homeowners in Meyerland are hoping for a Fema buyout offer and the population of the neighborhood is probably going to decline.

A thread on Next Door today says a new 85,000 sq. ft. location with Kosher bakery and deli will be announced by the end of the month.  Another poster says the deal is not final but close.  That's 'new' and 'to be announced' so presumably it's something other than the Bellaire store.  I'll be interested to know where they'll find that kind of space close to Meyerland.

When the store was closed after the Memorial Day floods in 2015 posters on ND said HEB would have abandoned the store then if they had not already known they'd be shutting the Bellaire store for months, leaving the nearest HEB stores on Buffalo Speedway, off 288 in Pearland, on Hwy 6 in Missouri City and Hwy 6 @ 90 in Sugar Land.  Another post on ND claimed HEB was trying to get the JC Penney space in Meyerland Plaza. 

Meanwhile, the WM Neighborhood Market on Hillcroft, between Meyerland and Maplewood, is undergoing upgrades.  Looks nice so far.  Probably already planned before Harvey but timely.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 10/5/2017 at 4:29 PM, brucesw said:

Not surprising.

 

It would only have made sense to try to re-open it if they could double-decker it and that might not have been worth the investment.  From discussions on Next Door it seems quite a few homeowners in Meyerland are hoping for a Fema buyout offer and the population of the neighborhood is probably going to decline.

 

A thread on Next Door today says a new 85,000 sq. ft. location with Kosher bakery and deli will be announced by the end of the month.  Another poster says the deal is not final but close.  That's 'new' and 'to be announced' so presumably it's something other than the Bellaire store.  I'll be interested to know where they'll find that kind of space close to Meyerland.

 

When the store was closed after the Memorial Day floods in 2015 posters on ND said HEB would have abandoned the store then if they had not already known they'd be shutting the Bellaire store for months, leaving the nearest HEB stores on Buffalo Speedway, off 288 in Pearland, on Hwy 6 in Missouri City and Hwy 6 @ 90 in Sugar Land.  Another post on ND claimed HEB was trying to get the JC Penney space in Meyerland Plaza. 

 

Meanwhile, the WM Neighborhood Market on Hillcroft, between Meyerland and Maplewood, is undergoing upgrades.  Looks nice so far.  Probably already planned before Harvey but timely.

 

I'd be surprised if they took the JCPenney space, they would have to do a tremendous amount of work to reconfigure the parking lot. The JCPenney was designed for parking on all three sides, not parking for one. Personally, I just don't think they'll replace it. They have a tendency to replace smaller stores with bigger ones, and I think the rebuilt Bellaire store will fit that bill.

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I'd like to see HEB actually design the store to look like Westbury Square - give it the Italian style, make the storefront look like the old development. If it became a part of a strip center (with other major store) why not rename it "Westbury Square"?

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Certainly would be ok with me if they took over Randall's - well, it's a little far, but I could deal with it.  But is that 85,000 sf? And did it flood at all?  It's still very close to the bayou.  I know water got up to the sign on W. Bellfort for the Kroger @ S. Post Oak but not in the store, which is on a rise. I don't know what happened on the other side of Post Oak but there was a lot of flooding in Willowbend back behind that Randall's.

 

Hadn't ever thought about Westbury Square.  Is there room for an 85,000 sf store and parking lot?

 

The mention of JC Penney was just a rumor on Next Door and I never thought it was likely. 

 

According to the Bellaire HEB thread, the store there is either going to be 70 or 75,000 sf, not 85. 

 

Wish they would come out closer to me -- take over the site of the former K-Mart on Beechnut @ 59/69, demolish it and start over.  I don't think that strip has ever been completely occupied since K-Mart closed and the only thing worth saving in there is Tau Bay Noodle House.  Of course, the surrounding neighborhoods are not as upscale as Meyerland and it's not very close to Meyerland, but .....

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7 hours ago, brucesw said:

Certainly would be ok with me if they took over Randall's - well, it's a little far, but I could deal with it.  But is that 85,000 sf? And did it flood at all?  It's still very close to the bayou.  I know water got up to the sign on W. Bellfort for the Kroger @ S. Post Oak but not in the store, which is on a rise. I don't know what happened on the other side of Post Oak but there was a lot of flooding in Willowbend back behind that Randall's.

 

Hadn't ever thought about Westbury Square.  Is there room for an 85,000 sf store and parking lot?

 

The mention of JC Penney was just a rumor on Next Door and I never thought it was likely. 

 

According to the Bellaire HEB thread, the store there is either going to be 70 or 75,000 sf, not 85. 

 

Wish they would come out closer to me -- take over the site of the former K-Mart on Beechnut @ 59/69, demolish it and start over.  I don't think that strip has ever been completely occupied since K-Mart closed and the only thing worth saving in there is Tau Bay Noodle House.  Of course, the surrounding neighborhoods are not as upscale as Meyerland and it's not very close to Meyerland, but .....

The Randalls there at Bellfort and Post Oak is far smaller than what H-E-B wants. To occupy it would basically involve tearing down the adjacent strip mall area at least and terminating those leases, and the actual store would be have to be gutted to a shell to begin construction, if that. I don't think they would. I think that an additional 80,000 square foot store in that neighborhood is wishful thinking, and they're just going to have to settle for the new H-E-B at Bellaire, or take the Kroger and Randalls down south. It's possible that some independent will look at it.

 

As for the old Kmart on Beechnut, I did find an article that it was purchased in the mid-1990s and converted into an Asian interior mini-mall that reached 80% capacity if briefly. (Yes, I am aware that the presumed replacement Kmart at Beechnut at Beltway 8 did ALSO become an Asian mall, but no, this is the one at the Southwest Freeway)

 

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13 hours ago, brucesw said:

Hadn't ever thought about Westbury Square.  Is there room for an 85,000 sf store and parking lot?
 

They could try to make a two story store. Many grocery stores in East Asia use a two story format.

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Quote
Fidelis to Build H-E-B Store at Meyerland Plaza Near Loop 610
 
HOUSTON - H-E-B Grocery Co. is expected to announce the construction of a new 100,000-SF store at Meyerland Plaza, a retail center at the southwest corner of Loop 610 and Beechnut.
 
The new Meyerland store will help H-E-B to fill a void that arose when the H-E-B at Chimney Rock and South Braeswood flooded in Hurricane Harvey.
 
Meyerland Plaza, built in 1957 and redeveloped by Ed Wulfe about 20 years ago, has a number of big box retailers and a J.C. Penney. Meyerland is currently owned by a partnership of Fidelis Realty Partners of Houston and BlackRock Realty Advisors of New York.
 
The new H-E-B is expected to be a two-story facility with a parking garage.
1

http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1102184342472&ca=bd596408-2aca-4e71-ba24-2b44ad02d0dc

 

rumor is they are putting a heb where compass bank is and will be a two-story store like the Bellaire store

 

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So they'll be adjacent to the JC Penney.  There was some truth to the rumor on Next Door last year.

 

A poster on ND who claimed to have talked to the property manager of the strip on S. Braeswood said HEB had less than 24 months on their lease and it was cheaper to pay it off than fix the store.  Since they didn't own the property they couldn't make the improvements they wanted to 'guarantee' the store wouldn't flood again.  So apparently they'd already been scouting sites well before Harvey.

 

FWIW, another poster said there were already plans for another HEB 'superstore' on the SW side not near Meyerland, too.

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Still gonna call B.S. on this one, and it's awfully convenient they have information so soon after the flood did the Braeswood store in for good. I suspect that had the store not flooded, they would've let the lease run out and then directed people to the Bellaire store. It could happen, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

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  • 4 months later...

A thread popped up on Next Door around the beginning of February concerning a drive underway to convince Trader Joe's to take over the vacant HEB space on South Braeswood at Chimney Rock.  Apparently the drive had been underway for some time.  It was claimed 600 letters/emails had already been sent to Brixmor, the property owners, and TJ's, requesting a store be located there and a meeting was due to take place between the two parties on February 19.

 

It wasn't until recently that any follow-up was posted and it isn't clear, at least to me, where the project stands.  One post has been interpreted by some to say that all that's needed now is to start pulling permits, but then some people seem to have concluded that just because a request had been made, it was a done deal.  I've been told verbally that TJ will be responsible for any elevation of the space to mitigate flooding issues; seems to me that would be the responsibility of the property owner?

 

There's nothing on TJ's website and I haven't seen anything anywhere else.  I'd be thrilled to have a Trader Joe's that close by but it seems a little too good to be true.  It's now asserted that over a thousand emails and letters were sent.  I was frankly surprised that that many people in this part of town had even heard of TJ's, much less shopped there.

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Unless there's a really strong compelling case and they were already considering it, petitions to have businesses locate in cities/areas are a lost cause (or petitions in general). The property is still leased by H-E-B if I recall and even if it is now closed, H-E-B keeps that lease, and they are often reluctant to lease it out to food and drug retailers. It also assumes that the demographics of the area will still hold and the flood didn't create/is creating a situation where potentially lower land value would allow less affluent residents to move in. Any "elevation issues" would require Trader Joe's to demolish the entire shopping center, too. Is the traffic count even that high where that H-E-B was?

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  • 1 month later...

Would be interesting to see this happen, however Iron Tiger's completely right. Chain Store locations are generally all approved by boards, and only decided on after tons of marker and consumer research has taken place showing this is a compatible area. Also as long as H-E-B owns that property they're not gonna give TJ's a chance at it. Just take a look at the former Fountain View location.

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Never having been in retail I have no knowledge of how these decisions are made but it does seem TJ's moves into a market pretty slowly.

 

HEB didn't own the property.  There is a 'for lease information' for Brixmor along S. Braeswood but there's no sign on the HEB space itself.  Another smaller space in the center does have a for lease sign in a window.  So maybe HEB is paying off the 2 years left on the lease month by month to prevent Brixmore from leasing to a competitor.

 

We could use another store in the area.  Plans were announced for the Fiesta on S. Fondren @ W. Bellfort to be remodeled/expanded, taking over space next door vacated by Anna's Linens (originally a Walgreens).  I was hoping for a much improved Fiesta, having seen what the new owners did to the Wayside store.  But nothing has happened for months and now the chain has been sold again.

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16 hours ago, brucesw said:

Never having been in retail I have no knowledge of how these decisions are made but it does seem TJ's moves into a market pretty slowly.

 

HEB didn't own the property.  There is a 'for lease information' for Brixmor along S. Braeswood but there's no sign on the HEB space itself.  Another smaller space in the center does have a for lease sign in a window.  So maybe HEB is paying off the 2 years left on the lease month by month to prevent Brixmore from leasing to a competitor.

 

 

They usually do, but having a store that's been flooded twice in the last five years is a tough sell. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire center was wrecked and rebuilt 12 feet higher.

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  • The title was changed to Braes Oaks Center
  • 2 months later...

This is the corner section.  Used to be a Shell station as I recall. Only thing I've seen there in the last few days is a Mr. Softee truck.  I've seen other trucks there on a sporadic basis in the past, nothing that was there regularly so far as I know (I don't usually go across on S. Braeswood).

 

Brittmore owns the strip center - right?  I wonder if they control this corner of it.  There's a Subway, Saba's (Kosher) Wok and Grill and Old Hickory Inn in the strip; across the bayou, El Ranchero, Genesis (Kosher steak house), a Hunan place, I think, and a pizzeria; around the corner on Chimney Rock is Fioza, a coffee house. 

 

I don't have high expectations for this working out but we'll see.

 

There once was a Kosher food truck, Sub-on-the-Way I think it was called, but I don't think it lasted.  I wonder if a Halal food truck would go over in Meyerland?  There are several of those.

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  • The title was changed to Braes Oaks Shopping Center

Braes Oaks Shopping Center is for sale. Total Land Area is 3.96 Acres. Loopnet listing created 5 days ago.

https://www.loopnet.com/Listing/Braes-Oaks-Shopping-Center/20945450/

 

Quote

 

Executive Summary

 

Urban Infill Covered Land Play with Future Redevelopment Opportunity


45,008 SF Shopping Center | 32% Leased
- The site can be bought as a dual-purpose property, allowing an investor an income stream from the existing retail, while also providing time to plan future development
- ± 3.96 acres on a signalized hard corner with exposure to nearly 41,000 vehicles per day, simultaneously allowing for increased current asking rents, and also more value-add opportunity than a mid-block piece of real estate
- Consistent in-place cash flow with value add opportunity
- For investors not looking to capitalize on re-developing the site, the property represents an outstanding opportunity for purchasers looking to re-tenant the former HEB space with another user
- Easily accessible from Loop 610, the Southwest Freeway, and Beltway 8, the Property is located in one of Southwest Houston’s most densely populated suburbs
- Captures an expansive trade area of more than 531,000 residents within a 5-mile radius, a population that spends an estimated $16 billion in consumer expenses annually

 

 

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  • The title was changed to Braes Oaks Shopping Center Developments

They moved indoors yesterday 'due to the weather.'  Looks great.  They're now operating Wed afternoon as well as Saturday AM so apparently doing well, but I haven't seen anything explaining the relationship between the Farmer's Market and the indoor plans.  What I recall is that the indoor operation was going to be artsy-craftsy stuff, not produce.  But hey, Canino's-on-the-Bayou - why not?

 

https://www.facebook.com/braeswoodfarmersmarket/

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  • 4 weeks later...

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We will function as a charity to such tenants.
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  • The title was changed to .
  • The title was changed to Braes Oaks: Retail Center At 5401-5413 South Braeswood Blvd.

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