Houston Retail

Its Doc's motorworks (I think thats who you meant). Their facebook page confirms:

This property is under contract by a residential developer who is not adverse to retail on the ground floor, so keep your fingers crossed. 

I rode by it tonight on the way home from dinner at GrumBar. The liquor license notice said it was for "Byrd Market/Grape Wine Bar".

The license is actually for two concepts. The wine bar will be next to Byrd's. Byrd's should be open in a few weeks. Everyone should check it out and help make it a permanent institution.

Heres a pic I took of it.

Anyone got any information on this piece of land? There was quite a buzz when the demolition was carried out but it's sort of lain fallow since then. I'm really keen to see what they put here.

The Origin deal died mid last year when the market fell apart (or even just before). The owner has assembled more dirt together, I think its about 45 or 50,000 sf now. But his cost basis is high and simply put, nothing makes sense to build here right now. Especially if its not a dense project. Even if he had a 50% leased building its hell to get a loan right now.

Trader Joes would be great anywhere in the inner loop, but they wont come to Houston unless they do Austin, Dallas and San Antonio at the same time and retailers are trying to survive, not expand right now.

However, email them and tell them you would like to see them in Houston. They do read and listen to input from (potential) customers.

Check out Winter Street Studios. They have over 80 local artists in the space.

http://www.winterstreetstudios.net/

Cool, how did you guys know to go to the top of the parking garage?

From this thread of course! Thats how I heard about it also.

You should put the building demo video to Koyaanisqatsi soundtrack! (great movie if you haven't seen it)

Yep, Im in those pics.

My girlfriend and I showed up late to the party. We had gotten in from the bars/Tacos a gogo around 4am, so waking her up at 6:30 was not fun! I don't think she actually woke up until the explosions went off.

Thanks for the viewing tip! There was only 10 people on top of the garage and it looked like a few hundred at the "official" viewing area. My camera buffer filled up on all of the "pre-blasts" before it fell down, but I got a few good shots.

You can see all of them here

I do love the beef ribs at Pappas. Goode company is a houston classic. Ive got to add Beavers to the list, especially if you like the Carolina pulled pork with vinegar.

Beavers just hired Jonathan Jones (who was the head chef for Maxs when they opened and recently worked for Cordua) as the head guy. Hes really cooking up a storm. If you havent been, check it out. If you have been and didnt like it, give it another shot. The sweet potatoe fries are getting a makeover as well.

Take 2 min and watch the video review below.

Kristen 2 Go's video report

Beavers has been cooking up food and serving drinks since Monday. www.beavershouston.com

Beavers on Washington has been cooking up good BBQ since Monday!

With a new head chef, the foods better than ever.

www.beavershouston.com

I finally made it by the last day of the show today. Some of the photos were really great! This looked like a cool event for the first one, but I would really like to see it take over more of the gallery next year, as there are lots of great amateur photographers in the 600 sq miles of our city.

I am in the process of creating a startup retail concept and I am looking for an assistant who has a personal passion for green design and seeks to take meaningful steps things to change the world. Up for a challenge??

Some retail / design experience is a plus. This is a green startup and I need someone organized, efficient in Microsoft suite programs, extremely enthusiastic, adaptive, good with paperwork.

This startup has the opportunity to become a large scale rollout and this person would be involved on the ground floor with the possibility of upside in the future.

About the Company

This is a privately owned startup green retail concept, currently seeking an Administrative Assistant to work full time, standard business hours, (8:30-5:30pm) or part-time, depending on the hours. This office is located in Downtown and/or Rice Village.

QUALIFIED CANDIDATES SHOULD POSSESS THE FOLLOWING SKILL REQUIREMENTS:

* 2+ years working in a professional/corporate environment as an Administrative Assistant

* College degree required

* Professionalism and adaptability is a must!

* Excellent communication/writing skills

* Strong organizational and time management skills

* Positive, outgoing attitude

* Detailed oriented; able to multi-task and prioritize projects

* Flexibility and adaptability to deal with various types of client personalities

* Strong MS Office skills, including Word, Excel, Outlook, and Database experience (MS Works or other)

* Knowledge of Graphics, Website design (i.e. FrontPage, Dreamweaver) would be a plus

Please PM me with your thoughts / resume

I called the owner/developer

Its going to be 30 townhomes by Waterhill priced in the low to mid 300's.

(im speaking to the shoe warehouse).

We are losing the war on sleeping in, I can assure you of that! I just moved into the Bel-Air and my unit faces the demolition. Metal sure makes a screeching sound as its folded for hauling off. On the bright side, the call to worship might be able to replace my alarm clock...

I bet it will be a well designed building. With the price that they paid (north of $80 psf), it surely wont be tiltwall construction.

In short, Landco did buy it with seller financing and did recently give it back to the Marharishis. The building does have its problems with structural integrity, but perhaps the prior owners did as well.

I've heard that the store is planned to not only be suburban style, but to face Fannin and Elgin, with its back towards Main Street. I don

So shopping occupied ALL the levels in the building in downtown? How in the world did they convert it into parking? What a waste!

easy cowboy, this building was saved from the wrecking ball only because it was converted into a garage. Otherwise, it would have been torn down and a garage would have been built in its place in the 80's

the land for this project is actually on a 75 year ground lease. probaly valued around $65-$70 a foot. The costs are prohibitive, but the players in this arena do know how to do a project right. Its exciting to see how many quality developments are in the works for houston.

we all thought that the shamrock was a big go as well.

Im not saying that the sakowitz is not going to happen, to the contrary, Im confident that sakowitz is happening, im just saying not to believe anything until it has happened. sorry for the circular logic, but you know what i mean.

I may have gone into too much detail about the structure of the deal, but it should only make sense that the landlord needs to have signed leases before he spends out of pocket money to convert the space. But not to worry, as I said the other leases are close to execution.

And yeah, im sure sakowitz will have some surprises, some of which, i dont know about!

lastly, thanks for respecting the fact that some of us on the board do work in the "industry" and cant always reveal privledged information.

Im just glad to see something happen to the 800 block. This block is key in connecting Main St Square to the entertainment district as it now exists. There have been alot of false starts on the 800 block. A bar was attempting to build out the ground floor of Battlestiens and ran out of money (they actually tried to build a dance floor that would raise on hydrolics!), the west building with it proposed plans, stowers with its potential and the mafridge building in the middle of the block... hopefully something will happen with one of those as well.

And yes, these things all take time. The wheel is in motion. Just be a bit more patient. Or go do it yourself

i guess in the world of instant commumication you could expect a response in 2 hours, but i was in a meeting, sorry.

The project is moving slowly forward. In order for the landlord to give up the revenue from parking and convert the space back into retail, there needs to be several leases in place, which AA is one of. There are several other leases that are close and I expect the momentum to really pick up with construction starting sometime Feb and a store opening July/August.

the walgreens is actually mor urban thatn it would have been. it was going to be put smack in the middle of the block, like CVS, but a few key people got involved, including the developer, and saw that it was brought to the street, leaving room for more development on the block when density will allow for it, and creating a nice blockface for the project pictured to go up next to.

ok that was a runon...