The Woodlands edition | May 2022

Market Street has announced multiple new openings for 2022 to replace stores and restaurants that have closed or did not renew their leases. INWITH the new

2

9

11

12

17

MAP OF Market street

Nowopen

4

1 El Tiempo Cantina (opened March 2022) 2 Mastro’s Ocean Club (opened December 2021)

4 Sweetgreen (opened 2021) 5 Tonal (opened late 2021) 6 Herman Miller (opened late 2021)

8 6

5

13

16

7

14

10

3

3 Robert Graham (opened April 2022)

15

1

7 Sixty Vines (November 2022) 8 Crumbl Cookies (summer 2022) 9 Gucci (October 2022) 10 Nike (September 2022) Coming soon

11 Bosscat Kitchen (November 2022) 12 Entertainment venue (202) 13 Cava (late 2022) 14 Faherty (summer 2022)

N

Renovations &expansions

15 Hyatt Centric (2021) 16 Kendra Scott (summer 2022)

17 Lululemon (2021)

SOURCE: TRADEMARK PROPERTIESCOMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER

Nike will take over after the expira- tion of The Gap’s lease this year. “The Gap has vacated the market; they’re also leaving [The Woodlands] Mall,” she said. “The lease expired, and obviously we can’t leave a space vacant, so as soon as we know a tenant has a year left we actively start working on the space.” Two popular restaurants were also replaced in the past year due to vary- ing circumstances, Gonzalez said. “Grotto and Jasper’s [leaving] were two completely dierent scenar- ios,” Gonzalez said. “[Grotto] was an internal company decision within the Landry’s corporation. …They thought they could make better use of the space. Jasper’s, they had a really good run, … and then the pandemic hit.” Grotto was replaced by Mastro’s Ocean Club, which opened in Decem- ber. The location has a dress code and serves seafood and steak. Jas- per’s closed in early 2022 and will be replaced by Sixty Vines in November following a renovation, Gonzalez said. Sixty Vines features cuisine “inspired by the wine country,” according to its website. Bill Hyde, Abacus Jasper’s Restau- rant Group CEO, said in a statement in February that Trademark Proper- ties did not oer Jasper’s rent relief at the start of the pandemic. Instead, Jasper’s was oered a rent deferral through 2020. According to Hyde,

Jasper’s revenues were down 52.6% in 2020, which was the rst year since the restaurant’s inception that money was lost. “Jasper’s, like all other restaurants in this great nation, sought every means by which to stay open, keep our sta employed and help The Woodlands community with their meal needs in what was a truly scary and unprecedented time,” Hyde said in a statement released to Community Impact Newspaper. Hyde said as the company was not able to provide the full payment of the deferred rent in a 12-month time frame, Trademark Properties termi- nated the lease. He said the restaurant plans to open another location in The Woodlands in the future. Among shopping locations, Mar- ket Street continues to court luxury brands: Tiany and Louis Vuitton are among the current tenants, and Gucci is coming in October to replace Ann Taylor and Michael Kors, whose leases were up this year, Gonzalez said. However, the goal is not to be exclusively a high-end, luxury shop- ping center, she said. “We never [intend] to go full lux- ury; we are a family-oriented center and community,” Gonzalez said. “I love seeing families out here. … The local team here—we take pride that people are coming to Market Street to make memories. Full luxury is not

family friendly.” To that end, the center continues to oer seasonal events, such as a Con- cert in the Park series in May, Memo- rial Day festivities and a quarterly Change for Charities program that collects money for four area charities each year through parking meters. Retail recovery Despite changes among tenants, retail spaces in The Woodlands have seen fewer vacancies in the past year, down to a 4.8% vacancy rate in the rst quarter of the year compared to 5.5% at the same time in 2021, accord- ing to information from real estate rm Caldwell Cos. This is lower than vacancies throughout the Houston region, where as of the fourth quarter of 2021, the overall vacancy rate was 5.8%, down from 6.2% the previous quarter, according to commercial real estate rm Colliers. Jason Gaines, a retail analyst at the commercial real estate agency NAI Partners, said increases in sales tax revenue have been consistent due to “nearly absolute” business stability. “Most of the tenants that were at risk of business failure endured, and for certain there is net positive retail commerce in The Woodlands now moving forward,” Gaines said. Sales tax receipts in the township have also grown with revenue coming in 22.7% above budgeted amounts as

CONTINUED FROM 1

course we lost some tenants,” Market- ing Director Noemi Gonzalez said of some of the closings that occurred in 2020-21. Closings included Gina’s Tees and Levure Bakery, who could not be reached for comment as of press time. Despite the recent inux of luxury brands such as Gucci, Gonzalez said the center is not exclusively seeking out luxury tenants. “Having some of the luxury ten- ants is nice—you don’t have to drive into the city—plus … this helps the community, keeping dollars here,” she said. Changes on theway Gonzalez said changes in the cen- ter have largely been due to three reasons. Some businesses struggling before the pandemic did not survive the 2020 shutdowns; other businesses chose not to renew their leases for strategic reasons; and for some, Mar- ket Street ocials chose not to renew the lease because they were looking to move in a dierent direction. Market Street opened in 2004, and many of the anchor tenants joined the center in the years immediately after it opened, meaning those leases are now approaching the 15-year term and some re-evaluations are taking place, Gonzalez said. For example,

38

COMMUNITY IMPACT NEWSPAPER • COMMUNITYIMPACT.COM

Powered by