Downtown Bellaire: Randalls Leaves 3-Acre Opportunity

In Bellaire, Texas, What began as one of Weingarten’s most modern grocery stores in the 1950s has survived hurricanes, the Great Recession, and a series of branding transitions that renamed the store Apple Tree, Safeway and finally, Randalls.

Located on Bellaire Boulevard in the small commercial core of the independent municipality of Bellaire, Randalls will be closed within a month. It’s the end of the line for Randalls, an underperforming store in the competitive Houston grocery market, says Albertsons Companies, the Boise-based grocery firm that owns Randalls.

The departure of Randall’s places 3.1 acres of land into play. Its 136,517 SF of prime property, between Bellaire and Bissonnet streets, across from an ill-placed 1.2-acre METRO transit station. The Randalls site is about a half-mile west of Loop 610 at South Rice Avenue.

As stated by the City of Bellaire zoning regulations, the Randall’s site is classified as part of a “Urban Village, downtown district.”

“It’s very premature at this stage to speculate what might happen with the property,” says Bellaire Mayor Andrew Friedberg. “While we’re all saddened to see our Bellaire Randall’s closing, the turnover does present an exciting opportunity to continue fulfilling our commercial redevelopment objectives on a site that’s appropriate for it and can further enhance the residential character and quality of life in our community.”

The Randalls building and surrounding land is owned by Weingarten Realty Investors, a Houston-based firm that owns 162 shopping centers around the nation.

“We are looking at several different alternatives which could include re-leasing the building with the addition of some pads (freestanding restaurants or small stores),” says Drew Alexander, President and CEO of Weingarten Realty. “Alternatively, we could look at a denser multi-story development. It’s a great location and we are confident we can do a nice project but it’s quite early.”

At one of Weingarten’s upscale centers, the River Oaks Shopping Centers on West Gray street, Weingarten is building a 30-story apartment tower called The Driscoll.

A 30-story residential tower would not be allowed under Bellaire zoning, which limits building heights to about 55 feet or five stories.

Lisa Barnes, a Coldwell Banker Realtor and a board member with the Bellaire Business Association, says she would like to see a six-story mid-rise community for people want to remain in Bellaire. “They love the community, they want walkability and they want to be close to the Texas Medical Center,” Barnes says. “If we could have a development that offered right-size housing with no stairs for them, priced between $300,000 to $600,000, I think that would be the highest and best use of the land now. If they wanted to do multi-use, they could do something on the first floor but it’s really important to have walkability to the monthly concerts in the park, restaurants, and to a coffee shop. They would also need to have a swimming pool. People want to stay in the neighborhood and they don’t want a 1970s townhouse with stairs.”

“If I had a two-bedroom with no stairs, I could sell those all day long,” says Barnes.

Bellaire, which has a population of 19,000, has a median home listing price of $835,000, as stated by Realtor.com.

Would the City of Bellaire allow a tall building? “The city does have height requirements on buildings in Bellaire, however if an interested party wanted to build higher, they could request this through the proper process,” says Cheryl Bright, Bellaire’s Community Relations Administrator.

Weingarten Realty could opt to place another grocer in the vacated Randalls building in Bellaire.

Weingarten’s owns many grocery-anchored centers, including the center on Shepherd Drive where the historic Alabama Theater has been transformed into an Art Deco-flavored Trader Joe’s grocery.

Another grocer would face competition from Houston’s first two-story H-E-B which opened July 27, 2018, right across the street from the soon-to-be-vacated Randalls.

Other stores in the wide area include Sprouts Farmer’s Market at 1212 Old Spanish Trail, the Wal-Mart at 5405 S. Rice, and El Ahorro Supermarket on 5859 Bissonnet. Another double decker H-E-B opened in January of 2020 in the nearby Meyerland Plaza.

“The only information we have on Randall’s property is that they are closing,” says Chavonne Sampson, Bellaire’s Director of Development. “There have not been any development/ permit applications filed with the city at this time.”

The City of Bellaire’s Urban Village district code provides for a mix of uses and style of development intended to reinforce the “small town downtown feel desired by Bellaire residents, including opportunities for shopping, services, dining and entertainment. While they may frequent the area for convenience shopping and multi-purpose trips, “it has not offered the typical experience of a destination downtown given how this primary commercial area in Bellaire developed over time without a traditional Main Street or other focal point for typical downtown amenities. The district is also a high-profile area of the community given its proximity to busy Bellaire Boulevard and its bifurcation by the Bissonnet diagonal. District standards require that more visible landscaping and green elements be incorporated on all sites, including within off-street parking areas and any higher-intensity residential or multi-use developments that emerge within the district.”

Secondly, the code addresses the character of design within the Urban Village district. “This district is intended to support a transition to a more Urban development character through redevelopment in the core downtown area. This could provide the critical mass the area has always lacked to spur greater foot traffic and extended visits that are essential to a vibrant mix of retail, service and hospitality businesses. Encouraging housing options adds another important element by putting full-time residents in the area with expectations for a safe and hospitable environment in which to live, recreate, and host guests and visitors. Keys to an Urban character are relatively small block sizes (or pedestrian routes through larger blocks), more intensive site development and coverage, reduced reliance on off-street surface parking, and greater architectural enclosure of public streets and spaces to support a pedestrian orientation.

Under uses, the guidelines provide for a mix of commercial, office, civic and entertainment uses appropriate for an urban character setting, and especially for new residential presence to add built-in demand for local shopping and services. “Land assembly and large-scale planned development is encouraged, as is vertical mixing of uses in buildings that accommodate upper-floor residential, office or other uses above street-level retail and services,” reads the code, noting that the “unusually shaped and undersized building sites, caused by the diagonal orientation of Bissonnet through the community, pose a particular challenge in some parts of the district, which is also good reason to encourage more vertical development where appropriate.”

The Randalls store has been an important place to the Bellaire community for many years.