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M-Bar At 402 Main St.


tigereye

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Get ready for this........last night, got to see many of my peeps who used to work at MBar. It did officially close on Saturday (1/13) BTW. Most of them landed gigs in midtown. Well, last night, I saw the former GM of the place, Carlos. He told me why the club went down.

It had nothing to do with business.

It had everything to do with who was gonna replace MBar at the old Citizens Bank site.

MBar is gonna be replaced by a WAL-GREENS

For those who dont know, the Site is at the corner of Main and Preston

Alot of us have campaigned for a grocery store downtown. Now while Wal-Greens is a CVS-Clone, in reality, its also the closest thing downtown has ever had to a full fledge grocery store. I guess the transformation of Downtown into a more friendlier residential component has begun. So how do you feel about this? You against the CVS-Close raiding the Downtown nightlife scene. Or are you for this mini grocery store helping downtowns residential aspirations?

Discuss.

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MBar is gonna be replaced by a WAL-GREENS

For those who dont know, the Site is at the corner of Main and Preston

Alot of us have campaigned for a grocery store downtown. Now while Wal-Greens is a CVS-Clone, in reality, its also the closest thing downtown has ever had to a full fledge grocery store. I guess the transformation of Downtown into a more friendlier residential component has begun. So how do you feel about this? You against the CVS-Close raiding the Downtown nightlife scene. Or are you for this mini grocery store helping downtowns residential aspirations?

Discuss.

I guess it must be a small Walgreens because i didn't think MBar was big. And if it's small, I don't think they'd have a grocery section but one never knows. For years, there used to be a small "neighborhood" grocery store on Fannin/San Jacinto (kind of near Christ Church Cathedral) but they closed sometime during rail construction if i'm not mistaken.

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I think it will be a good thing and it's sorely needed in that immediate area. while the CVS is only a few blocks away, it's a good distance from quite a few of the residents.

How this affects what mainstreet should be like will be interesting. I wonder if there will be fewer people wandering the street and more going into the clubs?

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While I think that we have more than enough pharmacies in Houston (is the population really aging that much...or are we just a bunch of wussies that depend on a panacea for every ache?), this is certainly better than just another club moving into the space. I know the location and I agree that it doesn't look very large. But at least something is going to be there. I guess the CVS just a few blocks down the street isn't sufficient??? I'd much prefer a small grocery moving there. You know, fresh produce, flowers, sundries. Like other cities have...

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I think that's sucks seeing MBar turn into a Walgreens/CVS. I remember seeing a couple vacant spots right there on the Main Street Square. Why would they want to close down a club when they could have gotten the same size space in vacant spaces across the street? Now we still have vacant spots on the supposedly hottest clubbing area in Houston, a popular club is closed, and we have a drugstore to show for it. It's not even a grocery store. That's not the answer to a Flagship or Signature store downtown, if needed.

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I think they wanted a prime "corner" location and it seemed to fit the bill.

I'm sure that if you lived downtown and you felt crappy, getting out of your loft to go a block as opposed to several blocks, would be more appealing. now the question is, will it be 24hrs? If only another residential tower/loft would open up! that would certainly provide more people for the area.

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I guess it must be a small Walgreens because i didn't think MBar was big.

Not actually. MBar had 3 floors, as well as an unknown 4th floor.

1. You had the main floor ground level.

2. You had the basement, complete with a bar and restrooms. The was also a secret lounge behind the bar, this was where the old vault used to be for Houston Citizen's Bank. The boilers were also back here as well, but they were to the left and down the hall. The vault is still intact. Some very wild things happened back there ...hehe, I'd rather not elaborate. But if you open both areas up to eachother, you have a very large area.

3. You had the upstairs balcony level overlooking the main floor. Now if you get rid of the balconies for one complete floor level, you have an area exactly as large as the main floor, which is very large.

4. The level no one ever saw. Offices and another lounge. Its above the balconies. Only accesible via the back right corner staircase thats on the way to the basement. Most took this staircase to get to the balcony level. The stairs continue form there....but most were too drunk to realize it and go up further.

I feel this area is large enough for a full scale Wal-Greens including grocery section - mius the drive through of course. Sadly enough, the only way this happens is with the grand ornate architecture of the interior of this building being gutted for the bland cookie-cutter acrchitecture you would expect to find from a grocery store. That would be the real loss. Everyone associated with Mbar, myself including, have pretty much vowed never to go in there when it makes its transformation to Wal-Greens...its just goona be sad. If anything, I would have prefered MBar to be bought out by someone who would have preserved the all aspects of the architecture of this building, interior included. Tillman Fertita would have been great. Imagine a Vic & Anthony's with seating in that grand lobby... An excellent opportunity to creat something grand, will instead go by the wayside.

And then there's the block itself, which, has taken a hit. Gone are Mbar and Opus. Infact, IIRC, that whole block is shuttered, except for tha one small club in between MBar and Opus that's still in operation.

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Not actually. MBar had 3 floors, as well as an unknown 4th floor.

I know about the various floors but i sincerely doubt Walgreens would build a multi-level store. I liked the interior of the building, i just hope it isn't gutted to build some sterile store with cheap shelving.

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I think they wanted a prime "corner" location and it seemed to fit the bill.

I'm sure that if you lived downtown and you felt crappy, getting out of your loft to go a block as opposed to several blocks, would be more appealing. now the question is, will it be 24hrs? If only another residential tower/loft would open up! that would certainly provide more people for the area.

Ding. Ding. Ding. We have winner. ^^

As a downtown resident, I couldn't be happier to hear this. Several people mentioned that there is already a CVS a few blocks south of MBar, which is true, but it's not that simple. This type of redundancy is essential for a bona fide pedestrian neighborhood. Case in point, I live seven blocks north of the Main St. CVS, but I rarely walk there. It's a 15-20 minute walk, which translates into a 30-40 minute round trip, making it walkable (if barely) but less efficient than driving to the CVS on West Gray. The Mbar/Walgreen location is only three blocks away. This translates into translates into a 10-15 minute round trip, which is quicker than driving to W.Gray. It does sound like a big deal, but it is. The tipping point is somewhere within those extra 4 blocks.

Why does this matter? First, I would pay 5-10% more in rent for this conveinece, and I suspect I'm not alone. Not using your car can become very addicitive. Second, this means one more person (that isn't homeless or club hopping) is on Main St after business hours, which in turn makes all those other Main St. store fronts a little more valuable. While bars and resteraunts are great, it is impossible to understate the value of having everyday necessities within 5 minutes of your front door.

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Ding. Ding. Ding. We have winner. ^^

As a downtown resident, I couldn't be happier to hear this. Several people mentioned that there is already a CVS a few blocks south of MBar, which is true, but it's not that simple. This type of redundancy is essential for a bona fide pedestrian neighborhood. Case in point, I live seven blocks north of the Main St. CVS, but I rarely walk there. It's a 15-20 minute walk, which translates into a 30-40 minute round trip, making it walkable (if barely) but less efficient than driving to the CVS on West Gray. The Mbar/Walgreen location is only three blocks away. This translates into translates into a 10-15 minute round trip, which is quicker than driving to W.Gray. It does sound like a big deal, but it is. The tipping point is somewhere within those extra 4 blocks.

Why does this matter? First, I would pay 5-10% more in rent for this conveinece, and I suspect I'm not alone. Not using your car can become very addicitive. Second, this means one more person (that isn't homeless or club hopping) is on Main St after business hours, which in turn makes all those other Main St. store fronts a little more valuable. While bars and resteraunts are great, it is impossible to understate the value of having everyday necessities within 5 minutes of your front door.

Whoa... not using your car in Houston? Can't even get the concept. But you guys have fun with walking and the train. :rolleyes:

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It's good news when downtown can start attracting retail business that isn't strictly aimed at the tunnel crowd. It's the little conveniences like this that may help attact more residents over time. They do more to improve downtown as a neighborhood than a lot of clubs.

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It's good news when downtown can start attracting retail business that isn't strictly aimed at the tunnel crowd. It's the little conveniences like this that may help attact more residents over time. They do more to improve downtown as a neighborhood than a lot of clubs.

Ditto. There's nothing like it in the area. These are the type of businesses that will have you seeing actual residents walking around on a Sunday night.

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Does anyone remember a Walgreens on Elgin at Main, I think? My doctor was in the red brick house on Caroline @ Elgin, and I remember going to a Walgreens a few blocks away.

When my sister & I were cleaning out after my father passed away in 1997, I looked in a box of ancient electric blankets and found a bottle of paragoric prescribed for me in 1967!! This was when some strength of it was available over the counter, so I must have been really sick. I remember that it was from that Walgreens - wish I had saved it just for the bottle. I'm sure I hid it there so I wouldn't have to take it. :P

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