New stores with more in store
Lots of changes at Highland Village, with more to come
New additions to Highland Village include Paper Source, with green storefront,and Sprinkles, in brown.Photo by Clifford Pugh
The upscale shopping center has recently added Pierre Deux on the first floor ofthis building and Impressions Bridal Salon on the second floor. A third-floorrestaurant, Up Bistro, is planned to open in fall.Photo by Clifford Pugh
That massive yellow box of construction in the middle of Highland Village is starting to show some signs of life.
Sprinkles Cupcakes, the yummy Beverly Hills cupcake shop, plans a Houston outpost in the upscale shopping center, with a grand opening Monday. From 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Houston Rockets star Shane Battier will be behind the counter serving cupcakes. Sprinkles will donate $25,000 — the estimated equivalent of opening day sales — to Battier's Take Charge Foundation.
Next door, workers are putting finishing touches on Paper Source, a Chicago-based retailer that has bucked the Internet trend by successfully selling invitations, stationery, gift wrap and greeting cards. It will officially open July 24, although a soft opening is planned before then.
Both stores are marked by distinctive storefronts. Sprinkles has a modern, chocolate-colored exterior while Paper Source is marked by a green storefront and distinctive logo. As other space is leased, new tenants will continue to add a personalized touch with grand facades, according to a shopping center spokeswoman.
Diagonally across the street, in a space vacated by Waterworks, the French country home good store Pierre Deux has opened, along with Impressions Bridal Salon, which recently featured the 2011 Monique Lhuillier collection. As previously reported on CultureMap, Highland Village owner Haidar Barbouti plans to open a new restaurant, Up, on the third floor of the building.
Once Tootsies vacates a large space on the south side of the center in late December (the venerable fashion retailer is decamping to West Ave.), Barbouti plans to replace it with a modern two-story structure for up to four tenants and an underground parking garage.
With all that prime space in a prime location Houston, real estate circles have been buzzing that a flagship Apple store may be destined for the center. A Highland Village official declined to comment and Apple is notoriously secretive about store openings, often declining to acknowledge a future store until about a week before the opening.
A website that details upcoming Apple stores lists no further Houston sites at this time. (There are currently six area Apple locations — at the Galleria, Baybrook, Willowbrook, Memorial City, The Woodlands and First Colony in Sugar Land.)
But we can always hope.
