Saturday, October 28, 2017 • Page 1B
First new tenant opens at Grove Heights By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com When Braun Enterprises purchased the strip center at 1900 West 18th Street in the Timbergrove/Lazybrook area in the fall of 2016, they branded the center as Grove Heights. Braun’s Zach Wolf told The Leader at the time that it was an underserved retail area and they were in discussion with some new, potential tenants. The first new tenant, opening next week, will be iLoveKickboxing. The business will occupy a 2,600 square foot space next to Kojak’s Café. According to Dana Kantara, who will own and operate three franchise locations with husband AC, getting into the Heights was a priority. Eighty percent of the Houston franchise opportunities for iLoveKickboxing were taken – with seven open so far – but remarkably, the Heights was still available. Kantara said that the option for a location
in this area was held and released a number of times by other interested parties, but when the last option fell through, the Kantaras were ready to stake their claim. “After that, the biggest struggle was to find a property,” said Kantara. “We wanted a place where the other tenants made sense and that there was a lot of parking. We liked that [Braun] was renovating this property. We also met Mark [Oster] at Kojak’s and some of the other tenants really liked them.” Kantara, a former physician’s assistant who also did some outside consultation with clients on health and nutrition, got the “entrepreneurial bug” after joining a iLoveKickboxing in League City where she lives. “For me, it just made sense,” she said. “I’m following my passion.” The classes are an hour long. Participants don’t spar with a person, but with a bag. There will be an introductory
offer for $20 which includes three workouts and a free set of gloves. “We want people to come see what we’re about,” said AC Kantara. Another big get for Grove Heights is Sola Salon Studios which also leases space from Braun Enterprises on West 20th. Sola will take the place of the laundrymat which has vacated the center. This will be the third Heights location of Sola for franchise owner and Colorado resident John Platten who said that he keeps opening salons because there’s a lot of demand in the area. “It’s a great location,” Platten said, who noted the space at 5,000 plus square feet will be similar to the size of the 20th Street salon. “We get a lot of stylists who used to work downtown. It’s a big benefit to have a place with free parking.” See Tenant P. 2B
Contributed photo iLoveKickboxing becomes the first new tenant to move into the renovated Grove Heights center. The business will occupy a 2,600 square foot space next to Kojak’s Café
Real Estate Roundup
19th and TC Jester By Betsy Denson betsy@theleadernews.com
Launched the week before Hurricane Harvey, the Houston History Bus is a project of Mister McKinney’s Historic Houston.
Contributed photo
Making the Classroom Mobile By Cynthia Lescalleet For The Leader
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Gone is the vintage chewing gum under the seats. So is the massive nest of angry wasps below the roof – as well as much of the roof itself, peeled back to open up the drive-by view for school-age passengers. In its recent conversion, more of an upgrade, really, the decommissioned 1988 school bus has rebooted and rebranded as an open-air mobile classroom for students to learn about Houston’s history, starting on the streets of their own neighborhoods. Think of the info imparted to students as “micro-history,” says R.W. McKinney, who as Mister McKinney’s Historic Houston has been presenting local tales of yore at local schools for about 15 years. He’s trying to instill a love of history in young people -and perhaps inspire the next generation of preservationminded Houstonians. Or at least ones more aware of the city’s origins and evolution. Taking the lessons to the streets in the customized
bus is a way to make history awareness more interactive, more real, he says. The trip’s narrative strives “to humanize the buildings” by sharing stories of who built them or lived in them and what came before. “I want kids to connect with the everyday history around them,” he says. The drive-by lesson format allows them to view their neighborhood differently and to apply what learn about local history to their Texas or U.S. history classes. Basically, the ride brings about having “an appreciation for the past, their past,” he says. Launched the week before Hurricane Harvey, the Houston History Bus is a project of Mister McKinney’s Historic Houston. The rolling classroom is a free program for teachers and students. It’s intended to be an educational tool, not a tour, he says. Harvard Elementary School pupils have been early adopters of the opportunity to hear about their Heights haunts. On a jaunt earlier this month, they were especially intrigued by Heights street names’ back stories and the firehouse, says its principal, Laura Alaniz. “Children learn by attaching information to what they know,” she says. Lessons on the road are a novel way to do so. Leader neighborhoods have many tales to tell, McKinney says. Before the many subdivisions were platted, there were the bayous, small farms, saw
Hamid R. F. has owned the building at 1430 W 19th Street for almost 18 years. Most recently, it was home to the Golden Café. But the person who was leasing it closed the restaurant recently and moved back to China, so Hamid put up a sign with his number on the building. And that’s when his phone started ringing. “I have been bombarded with offers to buy it,” Hamid says, noting he gets three to four calls a day. He is open to leasing or selling the property. Hamid says that the building itself is 3,724 square feet and the land, including the hard corner, is 30,188 square feet. He said he would be willing to sell the property for $65 per square foot. His asking price for a lease is $2.50 per square foot which comes to just over $9,000 a month, but he said that’s somewhat negotiable and believes it a deal, considering that other properties in the Heights lease for much higher. There are some other for lease signs nearby as well. An-
corian who leases the building that houses both King’s BierHaus and I Cycle Bike Shop had three spaces but they say that they have now been signed for. There’s currently 12,265 square feet available in the building next door that houses Restaurant Depot. It was occupied until Hurricane Harvey by SSQQ Dance Studio. The owners recently reached out on social media to share that they have financing secured for a new building and are enjoying drawing up plans for a new dance studio. “Keep sending your ideas for a new location: about an acre of land, near major roads, safe neighborhood; and our team will check it out,” wrote the owners. Jazz Hamilton with CBRE says the space next to Restaurant Depot is suggested for retail and that he’s not aware of any restrictions for use. The structure was built in 1967. For more information on 1430 W 19th Street contact Hamid at 713-498-4320. For more information on 1431 West 20th, e-mail Jazz.Hamilton@cbre.com.
Home sales dip, but prices rise post-Harvey Contributed photo The rebranded as an open-air mobile classroom began as a decommissioned 1988 school bus.
mills, woods, railroad lines, small factories and early settlements by various immigrant groups. Wheels on the Bus Before its recent do-over, the mid-size bus had an unremarkable history of its own, though not local. It held 24 to 28 students when it served Dallas ISD and it had been sold a decade ago or so to a Houston-area private bus company. In addition to opening up the bus roof, the $3,000 conversion reduced the seating a tad to accommodate McKinney’s podium, built-in cooler, flat-screen television for presenting archival images of “then and now” and a double sound system. Ironically, the open air design meant removing the vehicle’s two air conditioning systems. While the bus had been cared for, upgrades for backto-school uses meant new brakes, shock absorbers and a
water pump—standard tweaks for an aging bus, he says. Three new batteries ran down, however, in the process of diagnosing the apparent short in the electrical system. The bus purchase, transformation and licensing has been a GoFundMe effort with an initial goal of $8,600. There’s an ongoing wish list of further improvements, such as installing a new radiator. A retractable roof would be awesome to have some day, given Houston’s steamy weather, he says. “When you’re on a budget, you do the best you can,” he says. Meanwhile, the bus rolls at 10 to 15 miles per hour with its own driver and mechanic on board. “Always,” he says. Teachers seeking info about school tours can find Mister McKinney’s Historic Houston on Facebook. To share your renovation survival story, contact cynthia. lescalleet@gmail.com
By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com After the city was torn apart by Hurricane Harvey during the final week of August, the Houston real estate market demonstrated its resiliency during the four weeks that followed with a rebound in home sales. In our local areas however, home sales strayed far from the greater area growth with striking downturn from last year’s September numbers, and that was accompanied by a spike in home prices. According to the latest report produced by the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR), single-family home sales in the greater Houston area climbed 4.2 percent compared to last September, coming back from a nearly 24 percent plunge in August. All segments of the housing market enjoyed gains except for homes priced below $150,000, with the greatest sales volume reported among homes in the $500,000 to $750,000 range. On a year-todate basis, home sales remain 2.3 percent ahead of the 2016
volume despite Harvey’s rampage. Per the HAR report, however, home sales in the 77008 (Greater Heights/Lazybrook/ Timbergrove) zip code saw one of Houston’s sharpest declines. The area came out with just 70 homes sold in Harvey’s wake during September, compared to 89 in the same month in 2016 – a downturn of nearly 22 percent. Our 77018-zip code (Garden Oaks/Oak Forest) fared slightly better than its neighbors to the south, but still came out behind last year’s numbers with 41 homes sold, slightly less than the 44 homes sold in September of 2016. On the whole, the singlefamily home average prices of a home for the greater Houston area saw a slight spike of 5.4 percent according to the HAR report, coming in at $291,767 for 2017 compared to $276,700 during the same time frame in 2016. Comparatively, homes in the local neighborhood mostly mirrored the greater area See HAR P. 4B