Redeveloping a 1950s Center: Transforming Bellaire’s Downtown
Bellaire Town Center, which opened in 1950, is located on Bellaire Boulevard, two miles south of the Galleria. Photo by Ralph Bivins
BELLAIRE, Texas – Redeveloping one of the Houston area’s oldest shopping centers means saying goodbye to some familiar tenants and welcoming new ones.
Bellaire Town Center, owned by the Shears family’s SDI Realty, has occupied the corner of Bellaire Boulevard and South Rice for nearly seven decades. The centrally located shopping and office complex first opened in 1950, with design and construction overseen by the William G. Farrington Company.
The project expands the center from roughly 39,000 square feet to about 71,000 square feet.
Marketing materials from Edge Realty Partners list the center at 70,880 square feet and note strong local household incomes: a median of $140,879 and an average of $199,693 within a one-mile radius. Ground-floor asking rent is $46 per square foot, second-floor space is $30 per square foot, and the triple net charge is $11.51 per square foot.
“I think the redevelopment will have a very positive impact on the City of Bellaire, and I believe it will spur other redevelopment to happen too,” says Bellaire City Councilmember Trisha Pollard.
Brooks Shanklin, vice president at Edge Realty Partners, adds, “There’s nothing like this in Bellaire. The first building—referred to as Building A—is ready for delivery now. Several tenants should be opening this month. Coldwell Banker, on the second floor, is scheduled to open in March.”
The center’s relaunch arrives as the shopping-center market remains stable but not rapidly expanding. “Retail rents and occupancy are pretty stable; they haven’t grown over the last 12 months the way they did in prior years,” says Jason Gaines, Senior Vice President for Retail at NAI Partners. “Vacancy absorption hasn’t been as fast over the last year, but very little space returned to the market, so net occupancy is steady or slightly higher year over year.”
Two long-standing restaurant tenants—Lemongrass and Costa Brava Bistro—are relocating within the center to newly developed spaces.
Costa Brava Bistro’s Kitty Bailey says the restaurant’s new space is being designed by Boucher Design Group.
Fah Vorarittapa, owner of Lemongrass, expects an April opening. “We are in the final stages of signing with the general contractor,” she says.
Lemongrass, previously at 5109 Bellaire, will move into 2,500 square feet in Building A. Costa Brava Bistro will relocate into 2,846 square feet in Building A as well. Dream Dinners has signed for 1,500 square feet and will share the retail row between the two long-time Bellaire restaurants.
Building B contains four spaces: two at 2,500 square feet, one at 2,822 square feet noted as under negotiation, and a largest unit of 5,610 square feet listed as available and divisible. Building C, the former home of Auntie Pasto’s for more than 28 years, includes a 4,285-square-foot front space, a 3,001-square-foot midspace occupied by a nail salon, and a 2,501-square-foot rear unit available. A parking garage with 223 spaces—97 of them on the first level—is planned for the south side of the property. Buildings B and C were listed with a July 2019 delivery timeline.
New tenants include a Club Pilates studio among other businesses drawn to the refreshed center.
Some long-time tenants relocated to nearby retail property at 5200 Bissonnet, owned by Sion and Michael Saghian; those moves included Marble Slab, Salon Stephan and KNails, which moved out in July.
Auntie Pasto’s, a family-oriented restaurant long associated with the center, reopened at 5419 Bellaire near Bernie’s Burger Bus on Dec. 3. The menu remains largely the same, with a reduced price on the dinner salad and two new appetizers—spinach dip and fried mozzarella sticks. Regular customers report no notable price change for popular main dishes. Wine is now sold by the bottle rather than carafe, though prices are comparable, and the new location appears to seat roughly the same number of patrons as before, according to Condit Elementary teacher Janice Donalson.
Night manager Maddie Tunchez says she prefers the new Auntie Pasto’s location. “There is plenty of parking for our customers and it’s nice to start fresh,” she says.
The redevelopment’s construction activities initially reduced customer parking and created an inconvenience for loyal patrons. Some residents on Linden Street threatened to tow cars parked on the street during the work.
Night manager Paul Hill says the restaurant is working on new specials and additional menu items. A portrait of Sophia Loren was damaged during the move but will be restored to the walls before Valentine’s Day.
SDI Realty submitted a site plan to Bellaire’s Development Services department in March 2017 requesting approval to redevelop Bellaire Town Center.
SDI is a commercial real estate firm that leases the center’s restaurant, office and retail space. For many Bellaire residents the center has been a place for rites of passage: anniversary dinners at Auntie Pasto’s, family meals after school performances at Condit Elementary, and weekly gatherings at Lemongrass have long been part of the community’s social fabric.
Many residents remember first jobs and first dates tied to the center. “We’ve had wedding receptions, birthdays, even life celebrations after a memorial service,” says Gary Cunningham, general manager of Auntie Pasto’s. “We moved in in April of 1991. This space was originally a corner grocery and later a menswear shop.”
This is not the first time the Shears family pursued redevelopment of the property. A previous proposal was rejected by the city amid neighborhood opposition.
“They attempted that before and it was rejected by the city,” Cunningham recalls. “There was a neighborhood drive from Linden residents who objected vehemently to the center being moved to the back of the property.”
Former councilmember—and now Mayor of Manvel—Debra Davison remembers earlier discussions: “I remember concerns over costs and residents wanting assurances about certain elements. I recall suggestions of condos at one point, but that was just in the dreaming phase. Nothing came to pass.”
A project of this size involves permit review, relocation of parking and a construction schedule, topics that city planning officials were not willing to discuss in detail at the time.
“I found letters from late 1999 and August 2000 from the residents of the 5100 block of Linden to Shears Investments asking for their proposed plans to be made more ‘residential-friendly,’” says Councilmember Trisha Pollard. “Our primary concern then was their plan for additional curb cuts onto our residential block.”
Pollard adds, “We believed then, as now, that the existing access—three entrances off Bellaire Boulevard, two off Fifth Street, three off South Rice Avenue and the entrance at the eastern end of Linden—provided sufficient entry and exit. Residents of the 5100 block of Linden planted 17 oak trees in 1994 and any additional curb cuts would have harmed those trees.”
