Saturday, March 4, 2017 • Page 1B
Aztec Rental Services gets ready for new home Aztec Rental Services has called 34th street home for over 50 years By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com It has been 51 years that Aztec Rental Services has called 34th street home, but VicePresident Wesley Jackson said it was time for a move. “With the property values skyrocketing it was a different place,” said Jackson of the street, which he remembers as having a lot of mom and pop shops before the residential area became so affluent. “It was time to do something different.” Jackson said that Aztec’s growth was also an impetus for the move to 7721 Pinemont, where the company has purchased an old Baker Hughes building near Hollister and Hempstead. They hope to be in the new digs by late April. The company website says that Aztec is one of the largest independent equipment rental companies in South
Texas, offering many hard to find items. “[Pinemont] is a bigger location and we needed more room,” said Jackson. “We’ll have to do some but not much renovation. It fit our needs without having to build it out.” The Aztec land on 34th is sure to be of interest to developers who are looking to stake a claim to the area. “This area is undergoing a tremendous transformation, not only in new home construction, but also with re-development of older shopping centers in the area,” said W. Loch Cook with WLC Interests LLC, the company who is representing Aztec. “This property is a great opportunity for someone to re-develop for a new use.” The land is owned by the Eldon Sorsby Family Trust. Eldon Sorsby, who founded A to Z Rentals, which today is known as Aztec Rental Ser-
vice, died in 2010. HCAD’s 2016 appraisal for 1819 W. 34th Street was $730,400 with $546,180 of that total attributed to the land. Several Heights properties, such as the Heights Theatre and the Heights Waterworks, were sold for much more than their appraised value in the past few years. With the more upscale developments happening in Oak Forest and Garden Oaks – including the nearby Revive project at 34th and Ella - the likelihood is for the same dynamic to occur with Aztec’s sale. Cook says that there are two tracts of land available. Tract A is 2.0635 Acres and Tract B is 3.4655 Acres. He declined to give an offering price but did say he welcomes all serious inquiries. “The tracts are available together or separate,” he said. Cook notes that he’s had the property listed for about two months, although Aztec just put up their moving sign. “There have been a variety of inquiries,” said Cook.
Photos by Betsy Denson Left: Although Aztec Rental Center has been a staple on 34th street for more than 50 years, they have been a victim of their own success. Due to the need to expand, the company has found a better suited location on Pinemont. Below: Although the leasing agent has had signage up for a few weeks, Aztec put their moving sign up this week and it has been getting a lot of notice.
Blue tile works
Business Briefs
Clements’ N. Shepherd center finds first tenant
The new center at 2400 N. Shepherd Drive, formerly Texas Cafeteria, has its first signed tenant according to Chief Financial Officer of MFT Interests Glenn Clements. Jr. Krisp Bird & Batter, a fast-casual chicken sandwich concept, hopes to be operating by June. The Houston Business Journal said that another location on Richmond Avenue is expected to open in late February. Their Facebook page notes that they use no antibiotic and hormone free Crystal Ranch Farms chicken in their dishes. All of their buns are baked fresh daily and come from Kraftsman Bakery. Clements was hopeful after the new H-E-B on Shepherd was a sure thing that some of the parties he’d been talking to would make their interest official. “We have another lease under review, but not signed yet,” he said. “That leaves about 1,800 square feet available at the moment.”
The Crazy Car Seat Lady
Candlelight Plaza resident Megan Rasmussen, who is also known as The Crazy Car Seat Lady, just marked six months of certified child passenger safety inspections in Leader area driveways. She reports that out of over 100 seats checked, fewer than 30 percent were installed correctly. The Crazy Car Seat Lady will happily point you to resources for free inspections, but if these do not fit with your busy schedule, or if it’s easier to schedule an appointment at home around nap time, she will come to you at a charge of $30 for the first seat and $10 for each additional seat or base installation. The $10 charge extends to nannies and grandparents, as well as to future seats when it’s time for the next stage. For more information or to schedule an appointment, e-mail crazycarseatlady@gmail.com or contact her through Facebook at facebook.com/crazycarseatlady.
Photo by Christina Martinez Heights resident Paul Luccia installed a new sign for the Heights Library at the end of Feburary, located at 1302 Heights Blvd.
Heights resident makes ‘vintage’ sign for local library By Christina Martinez Christina@theleadernews.com Heights resident and neighbor Paul Luccia knows his craft, and is always finding ways to do some good with his handy work. His latest volunteer project: putting some life back into the Heights public library sign, by installing a brand new one that’s inspired by the Blue Tile Project, a project that is dedicated to documenting the blue tile art in Houston and preserving the history. Luccia lives just three blocks away from the Heights library, and noticed the poor condition of the sign nearly every day. Eventually, he decided he’d do something about it. “I turn on this corner a lot and I would see the sign, which was in pretty bad shape – beige on brown, hard to read, peeling apart and I thought we could really use a new sign,” Luccia said. “Being a part of the
blue tile project, which is a part of Keep Houston Beautiful, I thought doing it in blue and white tiles would be very appropriate for the neighborhood. So once I got into the design portion of it, that’s how we got to this sign and we spent nights and weekends putting it together.” A good amount of research went into the sign project, Luccia said. He ran into obstacles of figuring out how to construct a two-sided, free-standing sign out of tile – tile that doesn’t like movement. The sign also needed to be flexible, capable of withstanding freezing weather, but also the afternoon sun, which can get up to about 110 degrees. He had his work cut out for him. “We had to do a bit of research on how to construct the sign with our materials, and then how to install the tiles, how to grout the tiles and how to make it all stay in the air,” he said. It took a fair amount of research.”
When it came to the design, Luccia said that was the simple part. “The letters that we used for the ‘The’ and the address are the actual font that is used throughout the neighborhood, courtesy of the blue tile project,” Luccia said. “The font doesn’t have a name, as these fonts usually changed over times. The font for the ‘The Heights Library’ words are a font you can buy online called Subway, which is a conglomerate of a few fonts that looked appropriate for the genre and design.” Luccia blew the typeface up on a projector, a tactic he notes he used because he’s “old school.” When it comes to reasoning why he tackled a project like this, Luccia said everyone has a craft and this is his. “The sign was done to remind people that [the library] is here, and an active part of our community, but also to let people know that anyone can volunteer,” he said.
Chippendales Antiques to be divided into three stores
The Chronicle reports that the former Chippendale’s Antiques store on 19th Street at Rutland, which was purchased by Braun Enterprises, is being divided into three retail stores, including a specialty sneaker chain based in California called Proper Shoes. The other new tenant is Blue Whale Toys’ Vanessa Wodehouse who is opening a women’s clothing and gift boutique called Mary & Moss. That leaves space for one more tenant who Braun’s Zach Wolfe said might be a local dessert shop. Wolf also said the midcentury building’s exterior will undergo a “light redevelopment.” Construction will begin in the next 60 to 90 days. Do you have a business brief ? E-mail betsy@theleader news.com
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