News

NewQuest Properties bought this former Randalls grocery store on Westheimer and Dairy Ashford.
Gary Fountain: For the Chronicle

Gigantic 24 Hour Fitness on the way

By KATHERINE FESER
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

A former Randalls grocery store on Westheimer and Dairy Ashford will get new life as the biggest 24 Hour Fitness in town when it opens next year.

NewQuest Properties has purchased the Westheimer Market Place from a joint venture between Regency Centers and Macquarie CountryWide Trust.

"Westheimer is always a very appealing retail address," said George Cushing of Grubb & Ellis Co. "There's a lot of population density and freeway-like traffic conditions. It had a lot of merit for a property to be repositioned with another tenant."

Built in 1993, the center features a brick exterior with contrasting lighter brick accents on the columns. More than 60,000 cars pass by the center each day, and 430,000 people are located within a five-mile radius. The asking price for the 136,235-square-foot center was $12.5 million.

The 24 Hour Fitness will take up more than 68,000 square feet. It will include weight training fitness equipment, cardiovascular workout equipment, locker rooms, baby-sitting accommodations, swimming pools and basketball and racquetball courts. The fitness firm has 32 locations in Houston and four more under construction. The new location will be almost double the typical size of 35,000 square feet.

The Randalls store closed in December and was one of 16 Houston-area locations that shut down last year. Randalls has sold the locations it owned but still has lease obligations on others, according to the grocer. Other shuttered Randalls locations now house Foodarama, Conn's Electronics and Ace Hardware.

PetSmart is a second Westheimer anchor with 24,000 square feet. Other tenants include Dots, Artteaz Hair Salon, My Amigos Restaurant, Natural Nails and Skin Care, Royal Oaks Flowers and A-1 Cleaners.

Westheimer Market Place is situated between two major employment centers — Westchase and the Energy Corridor. It is three miles west of Beltway 8 and 3.5 miles south of Interstate 10.

Jay Sears represented NewQuest Properties. George Cushing and Wendy Vandeventer of Grubb & Ellis Co. represented the seller.

NewQuest Properties has about 2.5 million square feet of projects under development in Texas that will be added to its leasing portfolio of approximately 7 million square feet.