Purposeful Tenant Selection a Key Part of Retail Rehab

HOUSTON—Visitors will now have a unique opportunity to experience the street level activity of the Texas Medical Center. That is because the entire block of restaurant and retail space at Main Street and Dryden Road bounded by Fannin Street has been redeveloped.

The 24,000-square-foot footprint is located at street level of the historic Medical Towers Building. This overhaul coincides with Pearl Hospitality's tower renovation into the recently announced Westin Houston Medical Center set to open in early 2020.

“The original storefront was built in 1954 and today, Pearl Hospitality has built a brand new one,” Prabhath Boya, vice president of development for Pearl Hospitality, tells GlobeSt.com. “The goal was to refresh and create a modern urban streetscape that would appeal to all visitors to the Texas Medical Center. Tenants were selected to create a purposeful development to meet a need in the market primarily for high quality food and beverage services. Previous tenants were selected at random and therefore kept the building from reaching its potential.”

Multiple national and local fast-casual restaurants have completed lease transactions. MOD Pizza, Roti Modern Mediterranean, Poke in the Bowl, Antone's, JuiceLand, SusieCakes and The Halal Guys have all committed to 10-year leases. These new tenants join existing staple tenants including Starbucks, Chipotle, Salata and Cliff's Grill, many of which have signed extensions and have either already remodeled or are intending to, in conjunction with the renovation of the building.

For new and existing tenants, the first-floor retail experience will include renovated storefronts wrapping the entire street-level facade and landscaping to go along with dedicated patio areas for tenants.

“The Texas Medical Center market brings a unique mixture of visitors, employees, students, physicians and patients that interact in a concentrated area every single day. Pearl Hospitality's creation of this sophisticated urban street level experience featuring high-quality food and beverage is the perfect amenity to serve such a diverse community and is unlike any other project in the city of Houston,” said Christie Amezquita, Shop Companies, landlord representative.

New tenant lease transactions:

MOD Pizza has leased 2,900 square feet at 6622 Fannin St. and is slated to open in third quarter 2019. Chris Reyes of Shop Companies represented landlord Pearl Hospitality, as well as the tenant.

Roti Modern Mediterranean, with multiple locations in Washington, DC, Illinois, Maryland, Minneapolis and New York, has chosen this project to open its first Houston location. Roti has leased 2,400 square feet at 6602 Fannin St. Chris Reyes of Shop Companies represented Pearl Hospitality and Debbie Adams of Edge Realty Partners represented the tenant.

“With the creative adaptive reuse of a historic building and addition of the Westin Houston Medical Center, the project serves as a unique destination for those who live and work in the area as well as the millions who visit the area each year,” said Carl Segal, CEO of Roti Modern Mediterranean.

Antone's has leased 2,000 square feet at 6618 Fannin St. and is slated to open in third quarter 2019. Christie Amezquita of Shop Companies represented Pearl Hospitality and Emily Durham of Waterman Steele Real Estate represented the tenant.

Poke in the Bowl has leased 2,000 square feet at 6611 Main St. and is slated to open in third quarter 2019. Christie Amezquita of Shop Companies represented Pearl Hospitality and Edward Le of Rubicon Realty Group represented the tenant.

The Halal Guys has leased 1,200 square feet at 6609 Main St. and is now open. Chris Reyes of Shop Companies represented Pearl Hospitality as well as the tenant.

JuiceLand has leased 1,000 square feet at 1703 Dryden and is slated to open in fourth quarter 2019. Christie Amezquita of Shop Companies represented Pearl Hospitality and Chris Reyes of Shop Companies represented the tenant.

SusieCakes has leased 900 square feet at 1705 Dryden and is slated to open its second Houston location in third quarter 2019. Christie Amezquita of Shop Companies represented Pearl Hospitality and Lunden McGill of Baker Katz represented the tenant. The first SusieCakes bakery opened 13 years ago in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles and since then, the company has steadily expanded with locations in California and Texas.

Neighborhoods on the edge of the urban core will become even hotter food and beverage destinations, according to a recent CBRE report. Much densification is occurring in inner-ring suburbs. In turn, restaurants, bars and grocery stores are ideal anchors for mixed-use complexes developed in these neighborhoods, serving as gathering points for residents and employees alike.

Due to these locations, inner-ring suburbs get the dual benefit of higher food-and-beverage spends by suburban households. Few first-ring suburbs have the higher lease rates typical of urban cores, says CBRE.

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Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.