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Examining the neighborhoods
For nearly three decades, everyone who is familiar with the Gallery Furniture commercials has known the location as simply “6006 I-45 between Tidwell and Parker.”
Will the words Post Oak and Westheimer roll off the tongue as smoothly?
At some point later this year, Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale will be opening the second Gallery Furniture store in Houston, with a twist. The new store will be named Gallery Furniture and Rugs, and will be located at the corner of Post Oak Boulevard and Westheimer Road.
”We’re very excited about our new location,” McIngvale said. “It’s a great location, and we’re looking forward to having a store that our customers in River Oaks and the Uptown and Memorial areas will be able to get to a lot easier.
“It’s just a logical place to continue Gallery’s evolution.”
The new store was originally scheduled to open this month, but now the official start-up date is set for sometime before the Christmas holidays.
“The hurricane kind of threw us off schedule,” said McIngvale.
After having just one store in the same location for 27 years, the idea for launching another branch came after the success of his Highland Village Kreiss store, which opened a little more than six months ago.
“Our lease ran out there, but the store did very well, so we wanted to remain in that area,” said McIngvale. “We also needed a bigger location to make everything easier for our customers.”
McIngvale said he needed more space so customers could shop comfortably — also more parking.
“So that’s all resolved and we think the location is great,” he said.
The new franchise will feature an extensive rug and accessories department. It will be located in the Post Oak Shopping Center in the same space previously occupied by Pier One. The store will also have a new Kreiss Furniture showroom where the former Pier One Kids store was located.
Gallery Furniture and Rugs will be down-sized from the original grand store on Interstate 45 with its football field-sized parking lot and stadium lighting at night. But McIngvale said the customers will still find the wide selection that has always been his trademark.
“Obviously, you’re talking about our original store with its 100,000-square feet compared to this store, which has 22,000 square feet, ” said McIngvale. “This store will be a model of that store with all the conveniences we’ve always had for our great customers.
“And we’ve got a lot of new things we’re still working on. We’ll never stop promoting the best furniture we can find. That’s what we do.”
He said as soon as the final touches are put on Gallery Furniture and Rugs, the date of the grand opening will be announced. Kreiss will also unveil its 2009 line of furniture at that event.
Gallery Furniture is the nation’s largest furniture retailer by square foot.
Reported by Mike Tenney
for the Examiners
The city of Houston has begun moving toward the selection of two independent appraisers prior to setting a fair market value for the sale of Las Palmas Street between West Main and West Alabama streets.
The Joint Referral Committee recently approved the abandonment of the street in order to make way for a 62-home, gated-community.
The sale of the street will come before City Council, if the city and McCord Development can agree on a price.
Word of the possible street closure led about 100 people, many of them residents of the nearby Alabama Court and Lynn Park subdivisions, to meet on June 19 with Ryan McCord, executive vice president of McCord Development to air their concerns.
Some came away convinced that losing a traffic route in, even in an area that’s already tricky to navigate, was a small price to pay for avoiding another high-rise in the area.
“At this point, that would be hard to imagine,” McCord said to a resident, who asked if the project would go forward without the street closure. “We’d likely sell it (the land) to one of the competing bidders.”
If that had happened, in order to have a profitable venture, a multistory development would be almost inevitable as would the loss of the trees, which will survive in the current plans for what will be called Willowick Place at River Oaks.
McCord said his project could “avoid going vertical” with the street closure, because the added safety of not having public access could be factored into the site prices, which range from $900,000 to $2 million.
In a letter to neighborhood civic clubs dated Oct. 3, Andy Icken, deputy director of Public Works said while the department had considered the “substantial community dialog on the subject,” it had relied “heavily on technical analysis” in recommending the abandonment.
“The two traffic studies indicate that the closure of Las Palmas Street will not significantly impact traffic in the area,” Icken wrote.
The first study was submitted by McCord as part of the request to close the street. The second was requested by the city to address potential traffic issues that might arise from a Metro light rail line along Richmond Avenue and a Costco Warehouse megastore currently under construction at Weslayan Street and Richmond.
Among the terms of the proposed abandonment cited by Icken:
the developer will be required to convey a 65-foot-wide utility easement to the city;
existing mature trees within the current right of way must be treated as such even after the related new ordinance makes the land private property;
the developer must pay a nonrefundable deposit for the the abandonment parcels.
The property currently is the site of 171 Willowick Court apartment units.
Reported by Michael Reed
mreed@hcnonline.com
Historic Houston kicks off its 2nd annual Holiday Tree fundraiser this week but the stakes are much higher for the organization post-Hurricane Ike.
“This is mainly to keep our doors open,” said Lynn Edmundson, executive director of the nonprofit, 1214 Joe Annie St. near Montrose.
The group supports architectural and building preservation and operates a salvage warehouse of reclaimed architectural treasures, from fixtures to vintage building materials, to support its ventures and education programs.
Ike damaged the group’s warehouse of reclaimed flooring, eliminating its major funding source of operating income, Edmundson said. She estimated the lost flooring’s value at $150,000, not including the money spent to remove it from donor properties.
Another HH warehouse holds smaller inventory, but most items sell for about $5 apiece, meaning an awful lot of them would have to be sold to make up for the loss, she said.
Like many nonprofits, Historic Houston runs a lean organization. Lines of credit have been affected by market forces and the credit crunch, she said.
The tree promotion, which runs Oct. 15-30, was already on the calendar before the storm damage and before Houston Mayor Bill White launched the 1 million tree initiative. That effort urges Houstonians to not only think green but spend some green to help releaf the city.
Trees purchased through Historic Houston’s program counts toward that citywide total and can be donated to the parks department, neighborhood associations and Trees for Houston Inc., she said.
Newton Nurseries, a wholesaler in Alvin, Texas, is providing a variety of tree species, including live oaks, red maples and red oaks.
Trees ordered will be available for pickup Dec. 13-20.
For information, call 713-522-0542 or visit www.historichouston.org.
Reported by Cynthia Lescalleet
clescalleet@hcnonline.com
Will the words Post Oak and Westheimer roll off the tongue as smoothly?
At some point later this year, Jim “Mattress Mac” McIngvale will be opening the second Gallery Furniture store in Houston, with a twist. The new store will be named Gallery Furniture and Rugs, and will be located at the corner of Post Oak Boulevard and Westheimer Road.
”We’re very excited about our new location,” McIngvale said. “It’s a great location, and we’re looking forward to having a store that our customers in River Oaks and the Uptown and Memorial areas will be able to get to a lot easier.
“It’s just a logical place to continue Gallery’s evolution.”
The new store was originally scheduled to open this month, but now the official start-up date is set for sometime before the Christmas holidays.
“The hurricane kind of threw us off schedule,” said McIngvale.
After having just one store in the same location for 27 years, the idea for launching another branch came after the success of his Highland Village Kreiss store, which opened a little more than six months ago.
“Our lease ran out there, but the store did very well, so we wanted to remain in that area,” said McIngvale. “We also needed a bigger location to make everything easier for our customers.”
McIngvale said he needed more space so customers could shop comfortably — also more parking.
“So that’s all resolved and we think the location is great,” he said.
The new franchise will feature an extensive rug and accessories department. It will be located in the Post Oak Shopping Center in the same space previously occupied by Pier One. The store will also have a new Kreiss Furniture showroom where the former Pier One Kids store was located.
Gallery Furniture and Rugs will be down-sized from the original grand store on Interstate 45 with its football field-sized parking lot and stadium lighting at night. But McIngvale said the customers will still find the wide selection that has always been his trademark.
“Obviously, you’re talking about our original store with its 100,000-square feet compared to this store, which has 22,000 square feet, ” said McIngvale. “This store will be a model of that store with all the conveniences we’ve always had for our great customers.
“And we’ve got a lot of new things we’re still working on. We’ll never stop promoting the best furniture we can find. That’s what we do.”
He said as soon as the final touches are put on Gallery Furniture and Rugs, the date of the grand opening will be announced. Kreiss will also unveil its 2009 line of furniture at that event.
Gallery Furniture is the nation’s largest furniture retailer by square foot.
Reported by Mike Tenney
for the Examiners
The city of Houston has begun moving toward the selection of two independent appraisers prior to setting a fair market value for the sale of Las Palmas Street between West Main and West Alabama streets.
The Joint Referral Committee recently approved the abandonment of the street in order to make way for a 62-home, gated-community.
The sale of the street will come before City Council, if the city and McCord Development can agree on a price.
Word of the possible street closure led about 100 people, many of them residents of the nearby Alabama Court and Lynn Park subdivisions, to meet on June 19 with Ryan McCord, executive vice president of McCord Development to air their concerns.
Some came away convinced that losing a traffic route in, even in an area that’s already tricky to navigate, was a small price to pay for avoiding another high-rise in the area.
“At this point, that would be hard to imagine,” McCord said to a resident, who asked if the project would go forward without the street closure. “We’d likely sell it (the land) to one of the competing bidders.”
If that had happened, in order to have a profitable venture, a multistory development would be almost inevitable as would the loss of the trees, which will survive in the current plans for what will be called Willowick Place at River Oaks.
McCord said his project could “avoid going vertical” with the street closure, because the added safety of not having public access could be factored into the site prices, which range from $900,000 to $2 million.
In a letter to neighborhood civic clubs dated Oct. 3, Andy Icken, deputy director of Public Works said while the department had considered the “substantial community dialog on the subject,” it had relied “heavily on technical analysis” in recommending the abandonment.
“The two traffic studies indicate that the closure of Las Palmas Street will not significantly impact traffic in the area,” Icken wrote.
The first study was submitted by McCord as part of the request to close the street. The second was requested by the city to address potential traffic issues that might arise from a Metro light rail line along Richmond Avenue and a Costco Warehouse megastore currently under construction at Weslayan Street and Richmond.
Among the terms of the proposed abandonment cited by Icken:
the developer will be required to convey a 65-foot-wide utility easement to the city;
existing mature trees within the current right of way must be treated as such even after the related new ordinance makes the land private property;
the developer must pay a nonrefundable deposit for the the abandonment parcels.
The property currently is the site of 171 Willowick Court apartment units.
Reported by Michael Reed
mreed@hcnonline.com
Historic Houston kicks off its 2nd annual Holiday Tree fundraiser this week but the stakes are much higher for the organization post-Hurricane Ike.
“This is mainly to keep our doors open,” said Lynn Edmundson, executive director of the nonprofit, 1214 Joe Annie St. near Montrose.
The group supports architectural and building preservation and operates a salvage warehouse of reclaimed architectural treasures, from fixtures to vintage building materials, to support its ventures and education programs.
Ike damaged the group’s warehouse of reclaimed flooring, eliminating its major funding source of operating income, Edmundson said. She estimated the lost flooring’s value at $150,000, not including the money spent to remove it from donor properties.
Another HH warehouse holds smaller inventory, but most items sell for about $5 apiece, meaning an awful lot of them would have to be sold to make up for the loss, she said.
Like many nonprofits, Historic Houston runs a lean organization. Lines of credit have been affected by market forces and the credit crunch, she said.
The tree promotion, which runs Oct. 15-30, was already on the calendar before the storm damage and before Houston Mayor Bill White launched the 1 million tree initiative. That effort urges Houstonians to not only think green but spend some green to help releaf the city.
Trees purchased through Historic Houston’s program counts toward that citywide total and can be donated to the parks department, neighborhood associations and Trees for Houston Inc., she said.
Newton Nurseries, a wholesaler in Alvin, Texas, is providing a variety of tree species, including live oaks, red maples and red oaks.
Trees ordered will be available for pickup Dec. 13-20.
For information, call 713-522-0542 or visit www.historichouston.org.
Reported by Cynthia Lescalleet
clescalleet@hcnonline.com
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