Monday, November 4, 2024

Lost Retail at the Lofts

The stoplight at Holleman and Dartmouth I want to say was erected in 2002 or sometime around that time, formerly a four-way stop.
I know I haven't been doing much to the website recently, and part of that is the photos issue. I don't have a great source for photos and even then some of them are lacking. I have to watermark everything these days and my scans and stuff still turn up in places, even commercially published books (I'm not naming names, but stuff like the picture for Cattlemen's Inn & Steak House had its watermark cropped out.)

I've also been planning a big Post Oak Mall project but that's mostly stalled out, so let's move onto something else not too far from Post Oak Mall, namely the The Lofts at Wolf Pen Creek which stands out because it is one of the first mixed-use apartments in College Station. It opened in 2009 and while it contained all the trappings of high-end student apartments at the time (including an "Internet cafe", something I'm sure was repurposed fairly early on), it had several ground-floor tenants that all came and went. It was never fully leased, but at the most prominent of the corner started with Tutta Pasta Italian Market & Ristorante in January 2011, and after getting some bad reviews folded within six months. There was another restaurant, Arbano Cafe, that opened in April 2014 but also closed in six months; the signage remained up for a few years afterward.

Red Mango, a frozen yogurt place next to it, was arguably more successful and opened in late 2009 but closed at the end of 2015. A location of Honeybaked Ham & Deli also existed from around 2009 to 2011 as a third tenant but that closed and was replaced with Sabi Boutique, which ran for about six years before moving out as well.

The only tenant currently (and has been for the last several years) is "The Texas Bucket List Store and Studio" (associated with the "Visit College Station" facade but actually in Sabi Boutique's space). (A fourth tenant space was never developed. There were rumors Abercrombie & Fitch wanted to move to it from the mall but I can't confirm that).