5 Essential components of a Houston-area strip center

no, but your condescending attitude is very transparent and very annoying.

 

I believe that's your own inferiority complex rearing its ugly head. I love where I live and I'm happy that others love where they're living. I feel a need to stick up for the suburbs in general because I don't understand why people who don't live out here feel a need to bad mouth it. Where I choose to live my life shouldn't concern you. Your choice certainly doesn't mean one iota to me.

 

cellphone retailer, preferably not a major chain

 

Well said.

Further, I don't understand why people hate strip centers so much. They are a relatively low cost way to bring goods and services into a market. If all you had were malls and stand alone buildings, and the higher rent associated with them, they may find it cost prohibitive to enter that new area. It brings new competition in, and that is a good thing.

 

I agree. I love the suburbs and wouldn't want to live in town. I like the peace and quiet we can get in our neighborhood yet we are close enough to pretty much everything we need and\or want. I guess I'm not "cultured" enough to appreciate the city.

 

That's what I dig about Kingwood. You can barely see the strip centers because of all the trees.

 

This can be true, for sure. But it doesn't have to be. Areas that retain property values have strip centers that last for years. There are strip centers all down Memorial Drive which are surrounded by neighborhoods with properties inflating like crazy. Those strip centers are sitting on extremely valuable land, now and are leased out. They're retaining tenants for years and years. There is no room to build a new one without knocking something else down.

The success of a strip center is tied to the area surrounding it. As long as its doing well, the strip center can too...or it will be knocked over and turned into something else.

 

I hear ya...but that's not a strip center. It's a stand-alone building.

 

Exactly. It's a cycle: build, after 10 years or so remodel, and at some point later, tear down & rebuild. It all depends on the area they're in.

And isn't saying "they're convenient, but don't do anything else for the surrounding community" kind of like saying "sure, that auto shop fixes your car, but..." Like refman said, that's their sole purpose.

 

The Woodlands excels at this as well.

 

I like strip centers, but damn there are too many opening up. Near my parent's place off 2920, there is one with a mexican restaurant, barber shop, and school uniform place. The entire center is only half occupied, has been that way for years. So what does the developer do? Build a new one right across the street! Why have one half full strip center when you can have two? What is that all about?

I too am concerned with all the trees being cut down in the city. Seems like there is regard for keeping the city green. I am not a enviromentalist at all, but damn can we keep some trees?

 

i agree with you there, but that rarely - if ever - happens in the suburbs, which was one of the reasons i hated living there (spring). shopping centers everywhere with no regard to the natural surrounding or community impact. as soon as their uselfullness is through in 5 or 10 years, it's cheaper to just tear down some trees and build a new one than renovate the old one. next thing you know you have shopping centers right next to more shopping centers right next to more shopping centers. it's wasteful (destroying natiral land, encouraging automobile usage), kills any sense of community, and is an eyesore... all in the name on convenience.

granted, this happens everywhere in houston where zoning is a foreign word.

i just find it hard to believe that there's anyone out there that just "loves" shopping centers.

 

The newer ones out in the Cinco Ranch area in Katy are nice because they have limits on the height of the signs, much like Kingwood and The Woodlands.

I guess I'm using the term strip center and shopping center interchangably, if that's even a word. The new Market Square in The Woodlands or La Centerra in Katy are great and yes, I love them. Good restaurants, shops, and sitting areas.

I've noticed the newer more stereotypical strip centers are looking a lot nicer than they ever have too.

Now, I'll go back to dodging the inner-city snobs.

 

I like how they die the fake ponds a nice artificial blue in places like Fairfield etc. Some of those places just feel like some bizarre science experiment. It creeps me out.

 

My girlfriend used to live out there and took me buy her old house since I had never been out there. Other than the abandoned crap at the entrance and the fact that it's on 290, I wouldn't mind living out there. I certainly never got the feel of a "bizarre science experiment".

 

You have been successfully assimilated to living quadrant 34Xbi.

 

Your mom's been successfully assimilated to living quadrant 34Xbi.