SpaceGhost

There's a new Goodwill going up next to Canyon Gate, and another off Reading Rd and 59. Anyone know when they're going to open?

I mean it's not really historic, or about Houston.. but here it is https://www.google.com/maps/place/Kirby+Dr,+Denton,+TX+76210/@33.1649455,-97.1036562,16.69z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x864dcb48ee861c6b:0x2069921d1912bf02 Kinda wonder who did it.. and more so, why?

My understanding on the reason they wont, is it is difficult to get a new sign permit/license. I've heard that with some of the much taller ones, the city classifies them as billboards, and won't issue new permits. That's second hand however.

Something tells me they're much more likely to sell off the land, rather than expand the park. The ticket price is already very high for a park of that size. The only thing they've got over Schliterbahn at this point is convenience. What's the draw to expand if you can't raise your price to justify it...

This thing is looking much smaller than initial renderings made it look. Two major complaints would be the tiny lazy river, and tiny parking lot! So far it's not looking worth $45/day..

Yeah but when comparing it to the closest store it's easy to see which one would get the axe. Also you are correct, I was looking at the wrong Neighborhood Market, which was next to a Randalls. I guess in this case HEB ran Neighborhood Market out of business.

The Willowbrook store is quite old. HCAD reports it as being built in 1994. The building was converted to a Super Center, report by HCAD as occurring in 1999. So the oldest part of the building is 22 years old. My guess would be sales at this store plus rising maintenance costs led to the choice to sell this store. I would also assume that the distance from 249 along with the Costco right on the highway helped to influence the decision. Also I'm calling the new tenant right now, it's gonna be a flea market! Walmart will probably lease out the property. The Neighborhood Market is in a crappy area, It was one of the first built in Houston, if not the first. It drove the Randall's across the street out of business (although Randall's didn't need much help with that). I'm surprised Neighborhood Market stuck around for as long as it did. I've been told that Walmo doesn't make much money off groceries and uses them to draw in shoppers to buy other things. So making things cheap enough to entice shoppers in that area must of been a horrible idea for them. By the way, other than The Hispanic Project (Mas Club, and Supermercado) has Walmart fully abandoned and any other stores in the area? All the other ones I can think of were moved.

Yeah the separate cashier station is similar. This location however was much more ornate. It had this wood paneling which I can only describe as decidedly 60's. (huge insets in them). The picture you linked to actually looks similar to the Luby's at Westheimer and Old Westheimer. Was it off 43rd, or 34th? The 34th and 290 location still stands, and looks a bit similar to the shuttered Buffalo Speedway location.

I've got some great memories of this location. I found a blog referring to it as the "old people's Luby's" even before the old folks home was built behind it. This was spot on! Some other info points to the fact that it was built as a Romana's (the original concept that Luby's launched in Houston). I was very sad to see this location go. Some of the things I remember include, the driveway/ramp in front of the entrance. Those HUGE wooden doors, but IIRC you actually used smaller doors, which may have been glass? Inside the line started at the right side of the building. They had a huge board, some menu/restaurant information was posted on it. I think other information might have been pasted on it, but I'm not 100% sure about that though. There was a small lobby directly inside which bordered the serving line. They had a gigantic clock, must of been 2 or 3 feet in diameter. This location did not have a soda fountain, they did have it in bottles however. When you finished grabbing food, you were given a receipt, but didn't have to pay. The cashier was a separate endeavor, that you had to go through when you exited. The dining room was huge and segmented, there were floor to ceiling glass panes, and I believe they had live plants indoors. (I also believe that there was a sun room on the edge of the building but could be wrong). This location did not have the modern waitresses that Luby's now has. They had the women that pushed the carts around. These carts had Ice, Water, Tea, Silverware, etc.. on them. If you needed sauce it was kept in a bookshelf like space in between each dining room segment. So what does everyone else remember about this location, and does anyone else have anymore pictures?

The Andrau Airpark extended from Richmond down to Westpark. It was sold and demolished in 1998. A tiny piece of road from the airpark still exists. It was the roadway that led from Westheimer to the runways. It was eventually bisected by Richmond Ave. It's possible that the road might of been signed as S. Kirkwood due to the close proximity. (Just a guess though) As for Phoenicia, it indeed was originally across the street. It was in the corner of the brown brick shopping center. The original store was bought by a ballroom called "The Bougainvilleas" The inside was completely redone and is unrecognizable except for the general shape which was a distinctive L. My family gave, and continues to give tons of business to Phoenicia. According to my dad who has shopped there as long as I can remember, the owner put in tall shelves to take advantage of the small store space. This was carried over to the new store, which sort of gave it a warehouse store feel, without truly being a warehouse store. There was a spot called "Phoenicia Cafe" located in the strip center to the right of the main store. The cafe lasted in its original spot longer than Phoenicia. It stayed there for I think, around a year after the store moved. It was moved and renamed as Arpi's. Got Banh Mi & Pho? moved into the old spot, and kept the same layout.

Crazy! Keep us updated if they change anything else!

Yeah I guess this all makes sense.. HEB could do pretty well if it is over by the Cinemark and more easily accessible from Rose-Rich instead of having to drive all the way through Brazos Town Center. By the way slightly off topic, but what's going on in the old Kroger/Randalls? I know they opened up a gym in the old movie theater, but it looks like a new grocery store is taking over the spot Kroger vacated.

Appears to be an 80's KFC sans cupola. Referencing this image. HCAD says the building was built in 1968. No idea if it was a KFC that was remodeled, or an error on HCAD's part. Streetview shows that 2011 and prior it was Smokey's BBQ. The building has been modified, but the original roof line looks intact. Also, are they using a Chick-Fil-A Drive thru menu board/cover?

Wow I had no idea Taco Bueno operated in the Houston area.. does anyone know how/why the chain failed down here? Can't find anything in The Chron about it..

Riverpark West is finished and has been for quite a few years. It's possible that new development has started recently that I don't know about. However the new homes are for sure being built in the area are part of Del Webb Sweetgrass.

I don't think River Park Chili's was in an odd location. Checking out Yelp it seems that the service there was extremely poor. The Chili's in Rosenberg does have more around it, but is further away from Greatwood etc.. I also wonder why the Joe's Crab Shack failed..

That would make more sense, but it seems like they would just evict Spec's because AFAIK they're not really in the property management business, except with vacated spaces. It should be noted that in the City of Houston link provided earlier in the thread, the HCAD ID's given include, both the property and building.

The first result is just a guy reusing We Ain't Playin' by Lil' Flip with the words swapped out. I think you're looking a bit too much into this. It's probably just something some kids started doing around HS and gave up on later in life.

Any update on this? I haven't been up in that area recently, and I'm curious to know what CVS is doing to the building. I also did some research, CVS still owns the former Eckerd's across the street, so I would assume this means they're either planning to make money by sub-diving the building into a strip mall, and anchoring it, or by opening a huge store. If they wanted a standard sized store, with drive-thru etc.. they could just evict Spec's and take the building back..

The amount of time they're taking makes me wonder if 7-11 might want to consider selling Tetco.. If they don't fully convert it'll make the chain more marketable to possible buyers. AFAIK 7-11 isn't doing bad financially, but maybe they're unsure of the future?

Seriously? There's one just up the road in River Park.. Maybe they're planning on moving it? The Brazos Town Center Chili's managed to kill River Park Chili's.

Make it free and then I'd be willing to do it. Right now, no advantage to beta testing, especially when I don't end up with interest for paying cash.

I can confirm this is correct. Builder's Sqaure was demo'd and the Hobby Lobby building was a Pace Membership Warehouse (both stores were owned by Kmart and later leased by them) Hobby Lobby moved into the building after it was vacated by Pace. Here's an except from The Chronicle from June 6, 1996 on the subject. The Kmart location was across the street, where Target now stands. It was a former Venture Department Store.

A bit of research on the topic says that the reason they used these gigantic vents was that the air handlers were directly connected to a single vent. This allowed them to use single vents and not have to install duct work, and multiple vents. The downside was that all the nasty dirt that built up around one single point.

Ah yes I do actually remember the building as Houston 420! Also was the location ever a Charlie's? I only remember as a Luke's when they still sold burgers.