Spring in the Energy Corridor - Lush green and colorful wildflowers

Energy Corridor branding and street name signage

Enclave Place - New Office Development coming to Enclave Parkway in prime Energy Corridor location

A newly planted project sign by Colvill Office Properties (which will lease the space) announces the forthcoming start of construction of a 300,000 SF Office Building on Enclave Parkway on open land just North of 1430 Enclave Pkwy Building currently occupied by Technip and Nationstar Mortgage.

The land is located to the West of Enclave Parkway South of Olive Hill Drive. Rusty farming equipment sitting on the corner of the field provides an apt reminder of the area's not so distant agricultural past.

THE PAST AND THE PRESENT

Enclave Emblem

From Sharky's American Grill to Silvia's Third - New Tex-Mex Restaurant to open in Energy Corridor location on Eldridge near Enclave Parkway

According to a Houston Chronicle news item last week, Silvia' Casares of Silvia's Enchilada Kitchen fame, will open a new restaurant in the corner space with patio that was previously Sharky's American Grill (and something else not too long before that) on Eldridge Parkway near Enclave. A Merriott, a Staybridge, and a Holiday Inn are nearby. Since Silvia already has brand recognition in the greater Houston area, she should have a much better chance to succeed in a location where others have failed, in part perhaps because there are several other dining options nearby. The new restaurant will bring her total to three. Silvia opened her original enchilada kitchen only a few miles away on Westheimer near Dairy Ashford. Her first expansion, a few years back, took her to Woodway near Voss. Silvia's forthcoming Energy Corridor location will carry her name and will feature enchiladas on the menu, but not in the name.

Sharky's was short-lived - Grand Opening in 2011;
locked out by landlord early in 2014

Silvia's to open in Energy Corridor on Eldridge Parkway near Buffalo Bayou
(click on map to enlarge)

There are quire a few lunch and dining options in the immediate neighborhood, the last arrivals being a Chipotle and a Cafe Express on opposite sides of Eldridge Parkway. In addition to serving those working the in the nearby office buildings, these restaurants cater to the culinary needs of visitors staying at Holiday Inn, Staybridge Suites, and Residence Inn-Merriott, all of which are located within walking distance.

Cafe Express at Enclave and Eldridge Parkway

Jimmy John's next door to Chipotle's Burrito Shop

Petit Cafe Mediterranean /Middle Eastern Grill in same retail center
as Poblanos (below), which offers Mexican fare

Poblanos, another Mexican eatery down the street

Residence Inn -Marriott on Eldridge

Staybridge Suites on Eldridge

Eldridge Parkway signage at Katy Freeway feeder intersection

New Construction on Enclave South of Briar Forest, including new apartments and another Village School building

On foot in the neighborhood: 

ENCLAVE PARKWAY SOUTH OF BRIAR FOREST 

What’s on and going on on Enclave Parkway?

While the winding stretch of Enclave Parkway North of Briar Forest is dominated by modern Class-A office buildings occupied by well-known corporate tenants, the Southern part is lined by apartment complexes, including a new one that  saw completion early in 2014. It is helpfully named by its street address: SEVENTEEN15 Enclave.

The City of Houston has recently improved walkability in this residential area with sidewalk construction on Enclave.

Metro’s Bus Line 53 (Briar Forest) serves this neighborhood, with stops at the school campuses, and provides service all the way to Downtown, though it is a fairly long trip.

Enclave Parkway ends at The Village Primary and Elementary School.

Tarrytowne Estates, a senior living/care facility sits on the corner on the left. It has had an under-renovation sign posted on the fence for at least a year.

Turn to the left at The Village Primary and Elementary School and you can continue on to Dairy Ashford via Westella Drive, which is lined with single-family residences. Or you can turn right and then left to reach Dairy Ashford via Whittington. You will pass through apartment properties that are a bit older than those on Eldridge Parkway and eventually reach the Whittington Post Office that serves this neighborhood. It will be located on the right, shortly before you get to the intersection at Dairy Ashford, which has a gas station on one corner and a flower shop on the other side.

If you turn right at The Village High School onto Gentryside Drive, you will get deeper into the neighborhood and have two neighborhood streets available that connect to Westheimer. You can either continue southward on Gentryside or turn at Avenida la Quinta Street and, eventually, get to Westheimer via Briar West Blvd. On the latter route you will also have a good chance to get lost if you have not consulted the map beforehand or navigation equipment with you because these residential streets wind their way through the subdivision like a meandering bayou.

After completion of the new apartment complex at 1715 Enclave, construction activity continues in this neighborhood. The Village School (High School) has another building under construction on the Western lot (see photo of steel frame above). Nearby, in an area that was until recently undeveloped and partially wooded, another residential project just broke ground: 13115 Whittington Dr.

13115 Whittington Drive Construction project site as of Feb 2014

Metro Bus 53 - Briar Forest Limited (map)

Link to 53 Bus Schedule

New and recently opened retail shops and restaurants in the Energy Corridor - Jan-March 2014

Floba Home Goods

European Wax Center

New Chick-fil-A location on Briar Forest at Eldridge Parkway

Droubi's Mediterranean Grill 

1635 Eldridge Parkway Ste 200. Houston, Texas 77077

Restaurant and retail commercial properties: Vacancies, Space for Lease (Feb 2014)

1140 Eldridge Parkway at near intersection with Enclave Pkwy
Houston Texas 770077 USA

Energy Ten Office Park North of Katy Freeway at Old Katy Road
and SH-6 

Restaurant property North of Katy Freeway at Highway 6 Northbound Feeder Road

End Cap Space on Corner of Park Row and Teas 6
For Lease Sign at Park 10 Plaza - SH-6 Southbound feeder at Park Row

Umami Sushi at Park 10 Plazas near TopGolf and Texas 6 Katy Freeway Overpass

1029 Highway 6, Houston, Texas 77079

between I-10 and Park Row

Restaurant Closings: Making a go of a restaurant venture is tough, even with ongoing West Houston construction boom

Notwithstanding the current construction frenzy, and the bright prospects for growth in the Energy Corridor and surrounding areas, numerous restaurants have failed or otherwise closed in this part of town too.

PLENTY OF DEFUNCT RESTAURANTS IN AND AROUND THE ENERGY CORRIDOR TOO 

The restaurant business is a tough business to make it in, even in an area like the Energy Corridor, which is booming with construction and bracing itself for the influx of thousands of more workers and residents. Several large luxury apartment developments are under way, in the preleasing state, or already open for business and move-in. Others are breaking ground or about to. Cranes dot the horizon everywhere one looks as new office tower sprout from what was until recently overgrown vacant land North and South the Katy Freeway.

The population in the areas must have been increasing for a while because the addition square footage is not a novel phenomenon. Domain on Eldridge opened last year, and before that luxury residential development there was Eclipse, and Broadstone Memorial a bit farther North past Memorial Drive.

Numerous new restaurants have opened over the course of the last couple of years, especially on Eldridge Parkway, the last addition being a Chick Fil A in the parking lot of the Kroger Store at Briar Forest and Eldridge, right across one of the new apartment complexes that is nearing completion there. Not to mention the increasing congestion on Eldridge, Briar Forest, and Highway 6 during rush hour, -- a tell-tale sign of the economic vibrancy of the local employment market.

But it seems an equal, if not larger, number of eateries and dining establishments have folded. Here is the RIP or-shall-we-say memory-lane list:

Benny's Mexican Cafe on Eldridge Parkway just North of the intersection with Westheimer (vacant for many months, but currently being remodeled for some other purpose).

Alma Cebiche, a Peruvian concept, made a brief appearance in what was Chatters Cafe near the CITGO campus. Now it is back to Chatter's.

Sharky's American Grill on Eldridge at Enclave, took over space from Enclave Sports Grill in 2011, but did barely lasted for a couple of years as the landlord's lockout notice posted on the door early this year attests.

Lockout notice (2/14/2014 pic)

The Cattle Guard Texas Restaurant between Drury Inn and the Wyndham hotel on Highway 6 Northbound between Katy Freeway and Park Row. As of Feb 2014, the property is posted for lease. The iconic Astroworld duck-on-wheels (with flat tires) is also gone from the parking lot fronting the highway.

What used to be Cattleguard now for Lease

On the other side of the Katy Fwy overpass, the restaurant that used to occupy the end-cap space of the corner of Park Row and Highway 6 Southbound. The space too awaits a new entrepreneur. 

Sombreros, the Mexican Grill and Cantina on Park Row just West of Highway 6.

Timmy Chan, a fast-food Asian food joint with drive-through on Highway 6 North of Westheimer (boarded up and posted for lease).

TIMMY CHAN ASIAN FAST FOOD ON SH 6 (before it shuttered)

Timmy Chan's Sign at Hoover Complex on SH6 - No more

Nardino, the Italian Restaurant on Westheimer across from West Oaks Mall in the Strip Mall/Retail Center along the route to Westheimer Parkway and George Bush Park  It's now something else.

Nardino Ristorante Italiano before it closed

The Mexican Restaurant behind the Wendy's Westheimer location between Eldridge and Highway 6 appears to be under new ownership or management: there is a new name up again, the third in just a few years. It used to be Mi Luna or Dos Lunas, and a Tapatia franchise before (if I recall correctly); now it's something else, but still Mexican or Tex-Mex.

Hibatchi Buffet, the Asian all-you-can-eat venue designed for high-volume traffic on Westheimer between Synott and Eldridge is history. The building, which abuts Westheimer is boarded up and the letters of the signage on top wrapped in super-ugly blue tarp. A veritable eyesore. What was the landlord thinking?!

Cloud over Hibachi Grand Buffet

La Prima Grill on Westheimer Rd. in Houston near the intersection of Westhurst Lane and Ashford Hills Drive. It was a brief interlude. The space, in which others have previously failed, now features a make-shift banner declaring its transformation into an "Urban Cafe". 

And while we are on Westheimer, we note that the Slick Willie pool hall, though not an eatery, closed too, and is looking for a replacement tenant.  

La Prima Grill when it opened (now closed)

And then, for good measure, there goes Chuck-E-Cheese on Memorial at Dairy Ashford. That's gone too now. Sorry kids.

CHUCK E CHEESE on Memorial Drive at Dairy Ashford CLOSED