Biggest Box Store Ever

[77017]

I heard today they're planning on building the biggest home depot ever right here in houston. It immediately reminded of a few of u on here and how yall hate this type of thing. Who were yall and why is this not good again? I'm not pro-box store or nothin I just forgot why these things suck.

[Trophy Property]

I heard today they're planning on building the biggest home depot ever right here in houston. It immediately reminded of a few of u on here and how yall hate this type of thing. Who were yall and why is this not good again? I'm not pro-box store or nothin I just forgot why these things  suck.

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Where did you hear this and where are they planning on building this store. I am not a big fan of power centers, but I understand the need for them in suburban communities (Sugarland, Pearland, and Woodlands come to mind).

[2112]

I don

[dalparadise]

Maybe we'll get lucky and this will be one of those deals where they open a fast food joint inside the big box store, too! How about Raising Cane's?

[LTAWACS]

Im going to burn it down in the middle of the night.

[Trophy Property]

Im going to burn it down in the middle of the night.

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Tilt wall does not burn very well. Of course all the merchandise will burn up.

[LTAWACS]

Tilt wall does not burn very well.  Of course all the merchandise will burn up.

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I will find a way to halt construction of this montrosity.

[pineda]

Im going to burn it down in the middle of the night.

Fire Danger at HD: Clouds of Hazardous Smoke

Communities considering a Home Depot application need to seriously examine their fire-fighting capacity.

In May, 1995, a fire broke out at the Home Depot in Quincy, MA. The Patriot Ledger described the fire this way:

"Burning stacks of fertilizer, pool chemicals and plastic lawn furniture at Home Depot created billowing clouds of toxic smoke that sent dozens of firefighters to local hospitals last night... The fire created a toxic mix of hydrogen chloride and other gases...Every firefighter who went into the building was washed down at a decontamination station in the parking lot...two school buses and 15 ambulances were called to take firefighters and police officers to hospitals."

The smoke was considered hazardous enough to call the 26 members of the regional hazardous materials team. The firefighters were fighting chemicals that could have caused burns on exposed skin. The crush of customers in the parking lot hindered the arrival of fire engines and ambulances."

According to reports, because of the way HD stacks its merchandise, much of the material continued to burn because water could not reach it. "You had about a minute to get out of the store--it happened that fast, " said the Quincy Wiring Inspector, who said it was a matter of seconds before the heavy, thick smoke spread through the store. "I would say that anybody that lingered more than a minute wouldn't have got out," said the Inspector.

City Council President Mike Cheney said he was worried about the smoke danger. "It's scary, because you know there are a lot of chemicals in there. There was a blanket of smoke rolling through the neighborhood." "People were panicing," said a HD cashier. "What would you expect? The building was on fire."

(as seen on www.sprawl-busters.com website)

[LTAWACS]

This is why sprawl is evil,

[Heights2Bastrop]

The inability to sprawl is why some cities die.

[pineda]

The inability to sprawl is why some cities die.

such as......

[Heights2Bastrop]

There is a natural proclivity for many urban dwellers to escape to the suburbs. The reasons are varied, but a major factor often is to avoid city taxes. Houston is most fortunate to have the ability to annex, basically at will, and that has kept our tax base strong.

There comes a point oftentimes where the commute to the inner city is not worth the advantages of living outside of it. That is why we are having this revitalization of the Heights and so many areas inside the Loop. That is a how sprawl keeps itself in check to some degree.

[pineda]

The reasons are varied, but a major factor often is to avoid city taxes.

I'm sure this is just your own opinion about this being a major factor, but I would have thought the reasons people leave the inner city lifestyle are mainly child-centered, such as the need for good schools and safe neighborhoods. The Woodlands would be considered a far-flung suburb, but it's taxes would probably rival those of most inner-city Houston neighborhoods, don't you think?

There comes a point oftentimes where the commute to the inner city is not worth the advantages of living outside of it.

I don't think this is really a valid reason these days, as opposed to 20 or 30 years ago. The trend nowadays is for companies to locate their offices near nice suburbs, so that their workers don't have long commutes into the Houston CBD. There seems to be many areas of the city that could be considered "work centers" now, rather than just the CBD, wouldn't you agree? I think that the revitalization of the Heights and other similar areas is wonderful to see, but sometimes I wonder if it's due in part to the pendulum effect of "everything old is new again", how some areas formerly neglected catch on in the gentrification trend.

[N Judah]

I'm pretty sure this Home Depot won't be the "biggest big box store EVER." I mean, I can't imagine anything being bigger than that Auchan that's lurking around the outskirts somewhere, wherever it is.

[pineda]

Speaking of "super sites", the following is a wrap-up of super-sites within the United States. Scroll down to Texas for information on some located here.

Super-Site Round-Up

[Trophy Property]

Speaking of "super sites", the following is a wrap-up of super-sites within the United States. Scroll down to Texas for information on some located here.

Super-Site Round-Up

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That is very interesting. The one east of Houston by Baytown has really seen some activity in recent years. I knew about the Wal Mart districution center but I did not know that Home Depot had one as well. I drove the area about 8 years ago and was amazed at the size of the industrial park.

[elecpharm]

[Trophy Property]

[tw2ntyse7en]

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[westguy]

That's outside the loop anyway.

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[kjb434]

The last we need is some power hungry government body to restrict the ability of a company to provide jobs and goods everybody wants. The limitation of store size is just futile attempted anyway. This would just mean they'll have to built more locations instead of a few large ones.

I'll take the large ones.

[tw2ntyse7en]

...

[MidtownCoog]

but a major factor often is to avoid city taxes.

Dude, throw in MUD taxes and livining in the city of Houston is a bargain, tax wise.

Most people leave the city for better schools.

[pineda]

"How big is our new IKEA? And does parking lot space count too?"

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Ikea gets ready for huge expansion

300,000-square-foot store to add 150 employees

By DAVID KAPLAN, Houston Chronicle

At a time when many retailers are scaling back, Ikea Houston broke ground Tuesday on an estimated $55 million project that will create one of the city's largest retail spaces.

Scheduled to open in early August of next year, the 300,000-square-foot store will enable Ikea to showcase the entire range of its home furnishings for the first time and make aisles less crowded.

The new parking lot will have more than three times the current number of spaces, said Ikea Houston franchise owner and manager Harald Witt, noting that insufficient parking space has been a big problem.

The current store will be demolished one month before the new one opens. Ikea will have to close for a month to allow time to tear down the original store, since it will be less than six feet from the new structure.

The new store will require an additional 150 employees, bringing the total to 350.

The number of checkout lanes will double, and a more ambitious restaurant will seat 300 people.

The 300,000-square-foot space will make Ikea one of the largest retail buildings in the city, said real estate developer Ed Wulfe of Wulfe & Co.

Foley's Sharpstown, Houston's largest Foley's by square footage, has 367,000 square feet, Foley's spokeswoman Priscilla Thorne Tinsley said.

Ikea is on the Katy Freeway about a mile west of Loop 610. The new Houston store was designed by Hermes Architects. Like the current structure, it will be two stories tall and sport a blue and yellow exterior.

The major expansion decision "was based on our needs, not the economy," Witt said.

One reason Ikea is not publicly held, Witt said, is "we don't want to be pushed by short-term profitability. When we go in, we do it for the long term."

Jerry Epperson, a furniture industry analyst and columnist with the trade publication Furniture Today, is not surprised.

The Houston store is one of 18 Ikea stores in the United States. It has 185 worldwide.

"Almost everywhere they've got stores, they're expanding because they can't meet the demand in their old format stores," Epperson said. He predicted that in the United States, Ikea will be more successful in the next 10 years than it was the last 10.

One reason he is bullish on Ikea's future is that over the next decade the 74 million to 78 million members of Generation Y, Americans now aged 7 to 25, will be looking to furnish college dorms, apartments and first homes, and Ikea is "perfectly positioned for them," Epperson said.

Along with home furnishings, Ikea offers a wide array of practical, affordable and multifunctional furniture suitable for relatively small living spaces.

The Houston expansion project has been challenging. Ikea expanded its property to 17 acres by purchasing 5.5 acres from adjacent Helfman Dodge and won permission to close a city road, Afton Street.

Initially some Afton Village residents expressed opposition to the closing. The Afton VillageHomeowners Association held a referendum in which a majority of the residents approved the closure. Ikea has agreed to build a $500,000 sound wall for the neighborhood.

Carolina Witt, Ikea Houston's manager of furniture and marketing and daughter of Harald, is project leader for the new store.

Along with negotiations with Afton Village, she said, the company held internal debates on issues such as: Should the company build a multilevel parking or an underground garage, like many other Ikeas have done, or design a huge street-level lot?

They decided to go with street-level parking, she said, because it will create nicer site lines for the store and be more pleasing to nearby residents. An underground garage was nixed because of flooding concerns.

The current facility was built by Stor, an American-owned Scandinavian-style furniture chain Ikea bought in 1992.

The Houston Ikea will not be the chain's largest. An Ikea in Chicago has 375,000 square feet, and a Stockholm store, styled after the Guggenheim Museum, is almost 600,000 square feet.

Visit their website at IKEA

[MidtownCoog]

IKEA has a one-million square foot store in Sweeden.

Maybe you sprawl-babies should head over and protest!

[tw2ntyse7en]

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[Trophy Property]

No kidding - to both your comments...

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So back to the original post. Where is this new Home Depot suppose to go?

[H-Town]

So back to the original post.  Where is this new Home Depot suppose to go?

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I saw they're building at the infamous old K-Mart location at Dunvale and Westheimer. I wonder if that's it?

[bruce_oneal]

This is why sprawl is evil,

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houston has sprawl ... are we inherently evil because of it?