Mysterious Vacancy of Fairbanks Plaza

[IronTiger]

Every time I go to Houston, at a place called Fairbanks Plaza, there's a store near Burlington Coat Factory that's vacant. It's been that way for a few years and drives me nuts every time! What is it?

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source...017037&z=16

[Dagnabbit]

Every time I go to Houston, at a place called Fairbanks Plaza, there's a store near Burlington Coat Factory that's vacant. It's been that way for a few years and drives me nuts every time! What is it?

http://maps.google.c...e...017037&z=16

The large vacant store in the corner of the plaza was originally a Service Merchandise catalog store. Around christmas time it occassionaly houses a "close out" store of some kind. The Burlington Coat Factory building was originally a "Big K" K-mart store, but was closed within months of opening when K-mart closed all of its Texas stores.

Hope this info restores your sanity.

[IronTiger]

I thought it might've been Service Merchandise. It was about the right size.

Thank you.

[Highway6]

I thought it might've been Service Merchandise. It was about the right size.

Thank you.

From the freeway, there's no way you can see how deep that one store is, which means as you drive by, you're determining the size of the store based on half the information you'd need to actually determine the size.

Furthermore, most anchor stores all fall within a certain range of square footage. So saying a certain size anchor is indicative of one particular tenant is a bunch of hooey.

If you had said " I thought it was Service Merchandise because the store still has the big red arch, indicative of Service Merchandise entries in Texas" ... this would have been more plausible.

Edited July 15, 2009 by Highway6

[IronTiger]

It seemed that every single time my family went down to Galveston (when I was younger) there were two, three, Service Merchandises visible from the highway. Until the "STORE CLOSING" banners went up, anyway. Foley's and AstroWorld would last a bit longer.

[Bubba]

The large vacant store in the corner of the plaza was originally a Service Merchandise catalog store. Around christmas time it occassionaly houses a "close out" store of some kind. The Burlington Coat Factory building was originally a "Big K" K-mart store, but was closed within months of opening when K-mart closed all of its Texas stores.

Hope this info restores your sanity.

Actually, the Burlington location was originally a Venture Store. When they pulled out of the market, K-Mart scooped up several of their locations, including this one.

[IronTiger]

Turns out I was kind of wrong. The center with Burlington Coat Factory is NOT the same one I was thinking of. While the BCF center is interesting (the Fallas Discount Store is an old Toys R Us), Fairbanks Plaza is further north and has King Dollar. But based on the fact that "Fairbanks Plaza" is in a certain quasi-oval shape I can conclude with near certainty the real mysterious vacancy was H-E-B.

[arisegundo]

Turns out I was kind of wrong. The center with Burlington Coat Factory is NOT the same one I was thinking of. While the BCF center is interesting (the Fallas Discount Store is an old Toys R Us), Fairbanks Plaza is further north and has King Dollar. But based on the fact that "Fairbanks Plaza" is in a certain quasi-oval shape I can conclude with near certainty the real mysterious vacancy was H-E-B.

Good eye. The bf and I ate at Larry's BBQ on Saturday and were wondering what could have been the anchor at that plaza.

[Highway6]

But based on the fact that "Fairbanks Plaza" is in a certain quasi-oval shape I can conclude with near certainty the real mysterious vacancy was H-E-B.

A quasi-oval site layout determining the anchor tenant ?? I don't even see an oval, but regardless, to claim you can determine what tenant anchors a retail center based on what geometric shape the buildings make up... that is so unbelievably out there... are you kidding? Did I misread your post?

And by the way.. you are 100% wrong again. There has never been an HEB on 290 inside the beltway.

This center at 290 and Fairbanks was anchored by a Krogers. It was my family's primary grocery store from the mid 80s until it's recent closing, so I can speak with absolute certainty that you're wrong. Sorry.

Since you just love box retail so much.. here's some more tidbits on this location. Larrys BBQ was a Red Lobster for at least 12 years. The 3 amigos restaurant near the Exxon has been there for maybe 10-15 years and has sucked the entire time, but the Shanghai Inn at the opposite corner, if its still there, was one of the better Chinese take-out places around.

But based on the fact that "Fairbanks Plaza" is in a certain quasi-oval shape I can conclude with near certainty the real mysterious vacancy was H-E-B.

Dude..... Go click on your quasi-oval google map link... then move the little orange guy from the freeway to the feeder... The streetview image even still has the old Kroger sign up !!

You are just messing with us at this point.. right. This is all a joke, right ?

Edited November 30, 2009 by Highway6

[IronTiger]

A quasi-oval site layout determining the anchor tenant ?? I don't even see an oval, but regardless, to claim you can determine what tenant anchors a retail center based on what geometric shape the buildings make up... that is so unbelievably out there... are you kidding? Did I misread your post?

And by the way.. you are 100% wrong again. There has never been an HEB on 290 inside the beltway.

This center at 290 and Fairbanks was anchored by a Krogers. It was my family's primary grocery store from the mid 80s until it's recent closing, so I can speak with absolute certainty that you're wrong. Sorry.

Since you just love box retail so much.. here's some more tidbits on this location. Larrys BBQ was a Red Lobster for at least 12 years. The 3 amigos restaurant near the Exxon has been there for maybe 10-15 years and has sucked the entire time, but the Shanghai Inn at the opposite corner, if its still there, was one of the better Chinese take-out places around.

Dude..... Go click on your quasi-oval google map link... then move the little orange guy from the freeway to the feeder... The streetview image even still has the old Kroger sign up !!

You are just messing with us at this point.. right. This is all a joke, right ?

Well, I was mostly referring to the Fairbanks Plaza's sign above the Kroger sign. See, I thought that since there was no "labelscar" and that the "Fairbanks Plaza" sign seemed to be squeezed into what looked like an H-E-B sign, I wrongfully assumed that the H-E-B had gone O.O.B. and that a cheap remodel was done by writing "Fairbanks Plaza" into what said H-E-B and painting it beige.

But you're right. I'm wrong.

[Highway6]

Well, I was mostly referring to the Fairbanks Plaza's sign above the Kroger sign. See, I thought that since there was no "labelscar" and that the "Fairbanks Plaza" sign seemed to be squeezed into what looked like an H-E-B sign, I wrongfully assumed that the H-E-B had gone O.O.B. and that a cheap remodel was done by writing "Fairbanks Plaza" into what said H-E-B and painting it beige.

If you saw the Kroger's sign below the oval sign in the first place... why would you also think there was an HEB there?

[IronTiger]

Because when I first noticed it there was nothing. I only recently found the Street View and did not really pay attention to it. I think it closed around 2008. My initial mistake was thinking that the BCF and the old Kroger were in the same plaza.

[H8S 4 LIFE]

Because when I first noticed it there was nothing. I only recently found the Street View and did not really pay attention to it. I think it closed around 2008. My initial mistake was thinking that the BCF and the old Kroger were in the same plaza.

Hwy 6 is right on the money. This was a Kroger's, and one that I was surprised lasted as long as it did. I half heartedly expected the Fairbanks Krogers to close once they bought the Weingarten's/Safeway/AppleTree building on Lil' York @ 290. Ended up that the Fairbanks Kroger outlasted the newly acquired Lil' York store by a couple of years. Speaking of the Red Lobster in that plaza, to quote the comic guy on The Simpson's, it was "the worst restaurant ever". Horrible service, subpar presentation of the food. Red Lobster at 18th and Dacoma was so much better in its heyday.

[N Judah]

If that's the Red Lobster I'm thinking of, it seemed like it was closed more often than it was open because it caught on fire so much.