BELLAIRE, Texas – (By Michelle Leigh Smith for Realty News Report) – What began in the 1950s as one of Weingarten’s most modern grocery stores survived hurricanes, the Great Recession, and multiple rebrandings—from Apple Tree to Safeway and ultimately Randalls.
Located on Bellaire Boulevard in the compact commercial core of the independent City of Bellaire, the Randalls grocery will close within a month. Albertsons Companies, the Boise-based parent company that owns Randalls, says the store underperformed in Houston’s competitive grocery market and is being shuttered.
The closure frees up about 3.1 acres of land and 136,517 square feet of valuable property between Bellaire and Bissonnet streets, across from a problematic 1.2-acre METRO transit station. The site sits roughly a half-mile west of Loop 610 at South Rice Avenue.
Under the City of Bellaire’s zoning code, the property falls within the “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 Randalls 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 parcel are owned by Weingarten Realty Investors, a Houston-based real estate investment trust that manages more than 160 shopping centers nationwide.
“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.”
Weingarten has pursued denser, mixed-use projects elsewhere; at its River Oaks Shopping Center on West Gray Street the company is developing a high-rise residential tower. However, Bellaire’s zoning limits building height to roughly 55 feet, or about five stories, so a 30-story tower would not be permitted without a formal process to request exceptions.
Local Realtors and community leaders envision mid-rise infill that serves Bellaire’s existing residents. Lisa Barnes, a Coldwell Banker agent and board member of the Bellaire Business Association, says a six-story mid-rise offering no-stair, right-sized units priced between $300,000 and $600,000 would meet strong local demand. “They love the community, they want walkability and they want to be close to the Texas Medical Center,” Barnes says. She suggests ground-floor retail or restaurants to support neighborhood life, plus amenities such as a pool. “If I had a two-bedroom with no stairs, I could sell those all day long,” she adds.
Bellaire, home to about 19,000 residents, has a high-end housing market: the median list price is around $835,000, according to Realtor.com.
The city does enforce height limits, but Karen Bright, Bellaire’s Community Relations Administrator, notes that interested parties may request higher development through the proper city approval processes.
Weingarten could also seek another grocer to occupy the building. The company has experience with grocery-anchored centers and adapting historic or unique retail spaces for modern chains. Any new supermarket would face nearby competition, including a two-story H-E-B that opened directly across the street in 2018, another two-story H-E-B that opened in 2020 at Meyerland Plaza, Sprouts Farmers Market, Walmart on South Rice, and several Hispanic-market grocers in the area.
“The only information we have on Randalls’ property is that they are closing,” says Chavonne Sampson, Bellaire’s Director of Development. “There have not been any development or permit applications filed with the city at this time.”
Bellaire’s Urban Village district is designed to promote a small-town downtown feel while accommodating a mix of uses—shopping, services, dining and entertainment—intended to encourage more pedestrian activity. The code emphasizes more visible landscaping, green elements in off-street parking areas, and higher-intensity residential or mixed-use development where appropriate.
The district’s design guidance aims to support a transition to a more urban development character: smaller block sizes or pedestrian routes, intensive site development, reduced reliance on surface parking, and stronger architectural enclosure of streets to encourage walking and longer visits. The code encourages land assembly and master-planned redevelopment, as well as vertical mixing of uses with residential or office space above street-level retail. It also acknowledges that unusually shaped and undersized sites—caused by the diagonal orientation of Bissonnet—can make redevelopment more challenging, and therefore sometimes favor vertical solutions.
Randalls has been a long-standing neighborhood fixture. Teachers from nearby Condit Elementary often stopped by for school supplies or groceries. The store is associated with local memories, including items once bought by Juanita “Nita” Quaid for her sons Dennis and Randy Quaid, and regular shoppers who relied on its deli and ready-to-eat offerings.
Longtime residents share small, personal memories. “They had the most delicious soup—my favorite was the bacon and potato soup,” says J.J. Smith, recalling quick trips to the deli. Bellaire Police Chief Byron Holloway remembers a labor dispute from the Apple Tree era when off-duty officers escorted customers safely past picket lines, and employees and officers sometimes joined for lunch at a nearby fried chicken restaurant.
Randalls store #3064—often referred to simply as “64” within the company—will close after serving the community for many years. Before the doors close, the store plans to coordinate with local nonprofits to ensure leftover prepared and perishable food is rescued and redistributed.
Barbara Bronstein, founder and president of Bellaire-based Second Servings, met with store manager Cindy Fletcher to arrange pickup of unsold food. Second Servings is Houston’s only prepared and perishable food rescue organization focused on redirecting surplus food to nonprofit charity sites the same day it’s collected.
“We pick up unserved and unsold food from distributors, retailers, manufacturers and other food businesses and deliver it the same day to 90 approved charity sites,” Bronstein says. “Randalls’ food will help nourish veterans, adults in recovery, abused women and children, at-risk youth, homeless and disabled seniors, developmentally challenged adults, and many others.”
Jan 18, 2021 Realty News Report Copyright 2021
File: Randalls Leaves 3-Acre Opportunity in Downtown Bellaire