This week’s edition of Business Leaders looks into what will happen with the Select Specialty hospital off 19th Street and the first tenant in the White Oak Bayou Village shopping center among other news. Saturday, August 6, 2016 • Page 1B
Select Specialty Hospital calls it quits, seeks new tenants By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com When the Houston Heights location of Select Specialty hospitals closed in July 2015, it left a gap in the health care needs of the area. It’s currently available for lease, however, so perhaps that may change. Melissa Fox, senior manager of communications for Select Medical, said that the Houston West location closed earlier this year too and the Houston Memorial City location was part of a hospital swap between Select Medical and Kindred. “This was a business decision to cease long-term acute care services within the Houston market,” Fox said, noting that they still operate 107 Select Specialty Hospitals and
Regency Hospitals in 27 states across the United States. Plant operations manager Dennis Reynolds is still working full time at the former Select site at 1917 Ashland St. “The kitchen is still functioning 24/7,” he said. “We’re still here.” That’s because Select Specialty Hospital – Houston, L.P. owns the building, according to Fox. And St. Joseph Medical Center in the Heights (SJMCH) still operates on the first, fifth and sixth floors. “We will have some employees providing security and maintenance services until it is occupied,” she said. Fox said that once there is a new tenant in place, Select will not maintain a presence in the building. The flyer from Transwest-
ern, who is the agent for the lease, says that of the 6-story, 192,077 square foot facility, 15,000 square feet is available on the first floor and 27,000 square feet on the second through fourth floors. The anchor tenant is listed as St. Joseph Hospital in The Heights and other comments include mention of an onsite Emergency Department, with seven patient rooms, a 1.22/1,000 square foot parking ratio, a former 244 bed, long-term acute care facility and a cafeteria servicing all tenants and visitors. Transwestern Vice-President Scott Carter said that while it isn’t a necessity for the new tenant to be a medical one, usually medical tenants like to be around medical tenants.
Raspado Xperts, first tenant at White Oak Bayou Village By Christina Martinez
Christina@theleadernews.com
Walk down the streets of Mexico and find peddlers pushing freshly picked fruit, shaved ice, and fresh juices to fight off the heavy heat. Many times, you can find all of these products combined into one beverage – un raspado. This traditional treat is something Angelica and Juan Carlos Ruelas have built a business off of, put their family recipes into and brought their newest location into the neighborhood at Raspado Xperts. The business is a family business, originating in California with Juan Carlos and his sister setting the first stone. The sunny state is also where Angelica and Juan Carlos met 26 years ago. In 2003, the couple moved to Texas and eventually agreed they’d bring the family business to Houston. Little York and Airline hosts the original location of Raspado Xperts, and now the family has opened six total in Houston; three directly under the direction of the Ruelas. “Everything that comes in here, we discuss with the family,” Angelica said. “Everyone gets a say or gets to give ideas.” “It’s not a new concept, we didn’t create the idea, we just made it cleaner and healthier,” Juan Carlos added. From the menu, the couple says their best sellers are the Chamango, Fresas con Crema and the Bionico. The Chamango is traditionally made with shaved ice, mango, assorted chili spices (Raspado Xperts make their’s in-house) and lime juice. Fresas con Crema is a very traditional Mexican treat, being the direct translation of strawberries and cream. Bionico is a fruit salad, with toppings of granola, shaved
“There’s so much in infrastructure,” he said. “Medical tenants can get the most use out of it because of all the infrastructure. Medical tenants like to be in same area.” Carter said that Select will entertain a lease or a sale. While the anchor tenant SJMCH is staying put, they aren’t currently looking to expand. “At this time, St. Joseph Medical Center in the Heights plans to maintain our current leased space within the Select Specialty Hospital building,” said Jeff Bielik, Administrative Director of the SJMCH campus. For more information about a potential lease of the building contact Transwestern Vice-president at Scott.Carter@transwestern.com.
Photo by Betsy Denson While the new tenant at the former Heights Specialty Select location doesn’t have to be a medical one, Transwestern Vice-President Scott Carter said it makes sense.
Business Briefs
Orangetheory Fitness to open in Heights Orangetheory Fitness will open its ninth location in the Sawyer Yards building, 2313 Edwards Street, Suite 135. Led by franchise owner Jim Potesta, the new studio will be the second location inside the loop and will feature 16 treadmills, 16 rowing machines and 16 strength floor stations. The Sawyer Heights studio is expected to open by the end of 2016, but the pre-sale office is currently open in the parking lot at the Sawyer Heights studio for the public to sign up for memberships before the studio officially opens its doors.
concrete vegetables for farmer’s markets around Houston, a project funded by a Houston Arts Alliance individual artist Grant. “It will be a regular giant concrete vegetable factory at my studio at 507 W 8th St. for a while this fall,” he told The Leader.
coconut and usually drenched in cream. “When we first opened up our location on Airline, there was a business down the street that did ice with the sugar syrup,” Angelica said. “So the neighborhood wasn’t used to our product, or the price, so we handed out so many free samples to show them what we were doing; to show we didn’t have just sugary ice.” When it came to picking a new location for their family business, the Ruelas said they actually weren’t looking. In fact, the White Oak Bayou Village shopping center management team sought out the Ruelas and their family business. “We’re really working on bringing in quality tenants and showing them the plans we have to redevelop the shopping center,” Joanna Laufer
with Nankani Management said. “Our vision is to integrate the White Oak bike trail with the shopping center to make it a gathering place for the community.” The Ruelas and Raspado Xperts are the very first tenants to embark on this new redeveloped vision and the couple says it’s something their family can stand behind. “It promotes health and it promotes family,” Angelica said. “This location will be the first out of all of our family’s locations that will have something like this. We even have a drive-thru.” The grand opening of Raspado Xperts will be from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. on Saturday, August 6 at 5627 W. Little York. The community is invited to ride their bikes out, try new treats and meet the family business.
Sale of Exxon Mobil Corp. campus, retail coming
A partnership affiliated with Fidelis Realty Partners and Houston real estate investor Khaled Salem of Williamsburg Enterprises bought Exxon’s Brookhollow campus, located at 4400-4550 Dacoma St., for approximately $11 million earlier this this year and now they announce plans for a retail development according to Realty News Report. Alan Hassenflu of Fidelis Realty Partners told Realty News Report the energy giant’s former Brookhollow campus would be a “dominant” community and retail center in the area. Construction could begin as early as next year.
A new look for White Oak Bayou?
Houston Public Media recently highlighted a study currently being conducted by the Flood Control District with the Memorial-Heights Redevelopment Authority to explore whether White Oak Bayou could be returned to a more natural state. Chief Operations Officer of the Harris County Flood Control District Matthew Zeve said that an engineering firm will conduct that study, expected to take at least six months, to determine feasibility for the design which would be some form of channel section, with more curves to it. “Any alternative that increases flood hazards along White
The Giant Mushroom Forest lives on
Photo by Christina Martinez Angelica Ruelas presents one of Raspado Xperts’ top sellers: The Chamango.
Oak Bayou, [then] we won’t do a project,” said Zeve. “We will not allow a project to go forward that will increase flood hazards on White Oak Bayou.”
Artist Bill Davenport says that the Indiegogo campaign raising money to rebuild the Giant Mushroom Forest at 1236 Studewood St. ended in June with a result of almost $2,000 from 40 supporters, some in the neighborhood, some who support his work in general. “This is more than enough to pay for materials, so the rebuild is definitely going to happen, and I’m still accepting direct contributions to help pay for labor, via check, or credit card, or Paypal at www.billdavenport. com,” he said. Davenport initially created the Giant Mushroom Forest in 2009 as a temporary installation by Ladybird Lake in Austin. He said he’s probably going to begin building the new giant Mushroom Forest II in September, when he’s also going to be making some other giant
News for briefs? E-mail betsy@theleadernews.com.
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