Shopping center, restaurant planned for Texas City

Pushing dirt: Look for crews any day now to start shoveling dirt at the site of a proposed 26,000-square-foot retail center on the northeast corner of FM 1765 and Amburn Road, in front of the Amburn Oaks subdivision in Texas City.

David Cottrell Investments is developing the center, set to be home to Mexican restaurant Las Americas, a child-care center, that can accommodate 150 ankle-biters, and a tobacco shop.

David Cottrell III, CEO of the development firm, is in talks with other tenants to inhabit the Three Palms Shopping Center, of which construction is scheduled for completion in six months.

Stores and restaurants are set to open in about eight months.

Other prospective tenants include an insurance company and a seafood restaurant, to name a few, Cottrell said.

The Las Americas restaurant marks a fifth in Texas for the growing chain. A California family, which sold the Ruchi’s Tacqueria chain, popular in Houston, owns Las Americas.

The developer, which has built 4 million square feet of shopping centers in Florida and Texas, already has lined up financing and permits for Three Palms Shopping Center, Cottrell said.

The all-brick center, in an area that hasn’t seen a lot of retail development recently, will have concrete parking and heavy landscaping. The brick color is red, Cottrell said.

New investment in a down economy is unusual.

“With all the doom and gloom every day in the national headlines about job losses, we’re creating more jobs and retail for the community,” Cottrell said.

Corsair Investments Inc., headed by Jon Arledge, is a partner in the Three Palms Shopping Center project.

Bell ringing: Remember the pre-Ike days when the demolition of a building could cause a stir?

Just days before Hurricane Ike hit Sept. 13, Gordita Supreme fans were crushed when crews, without warning, turned Taco Bell, 5701 Broadway, into rubble.

Heartburn subsided after city officials revealed that all the activity was to make way for a bigger, better Bell, which officially opens Wednesday.

B&G Food Enterprises, a franchisee of Taco Bell, KFC and licensee of Pizza Hut, have scheduled a ribbon-cutting ceremony to mark the grand reopening of the eatery.

The ribbon cutting, 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, is open to the public.

The new Taco Bell will employ 40 people in full- and part-time positions.

The new, bigger concept, which B&G Food Enterprises describes as “bold,” is meant to invite patrons to visit and stay and is “representative of the bold future for the city of Galveston,” owner Gregory Hamer said.

Taco Bell has done business on the island for 20 years.

Sad farewell: After Buzz reported last week that New York Dress Outlet, 2228 Mechanic St., would not return to the island’s downtown, readers gently pointed out, and The Daily News also noted in a news story, that the store’s owner, Robert Harold “Bob” Albright, a well-known island businessman, had died Jan. 5 at his Clear Lake area home. He was 80. Albright’s store carried formal, casual wear and accessories for women.

“He was a dear man and will be greatly missed by all who knew him,” a reader e-mailed to say.

Biz Buzz appears Mondays and Thursdays. We welcome your tips and suggestions. Call 409-683-5248 or e-mail laura.elder(at)galvnews.com.