Where Will the Alamo Heights Post Office Go?
The pending move of the Alamo Heights Post Office branch at 4801 Broadway St., adjacent to H-E-B Central Market, was announced in April 2018. At that time, there was no word on a new location.
Recently rumors have run rampant through Alamo Heights, including among postal service employees, that the new location would be where Astro Super Bowl sits, at 3203 Harry Wurzbach Rd at Austin Highway. Indeed, a supervisor at the post office branch told 78209 Magazine, “Astro Bowl is the site.”
And while that may have been the postal services’ hope, the manager at the bowling alley told this reporter it’s not going to happen.
She said, “The post office made us an offer to purchase the property, but it was way under what we would ever consider.” She added, “They also said they needed the property behind us, which is currently home to some older apartment buildings.”
The post office branch in Alamo Heights has been open since the 1970s. The current lease expires in January 2020. Stay tuned.
New Construction at Seidel and Austin Hwy
The new building, under construction next to the Taco Cabana on Austin Highway at Seidel, will house a Smoothie King and Aspen Dental, according to Leon Capital Group’s Daniel Morales.
The property sits across Seidel from the old Earl Abel’s which moved (again) to 1639 Broadway St. The original Earl Abel’s had moved to the Austin Highway location after the original owner sold the property in 2005 at Broadway and Hildebrand.
Gentrification Overtaking E. Sandalwood
New homes are planned, under construction, or completed all along East Sandalwood between Everest and Teak Lane.
Excavation and construction on the newest homes on the street are at the corner of E. Sandalwood and Teak Ln. The property sits across the street from Green Heights, which features homes priced from $569,000 and up.
Additional work has begun at the other end of E. Sandalwood, closer to Everest. Slowly but surely the original cottages that populated the street are being demolished.
Where Do Unclaimed Leather Goods Go
Most of us have heard the story about the person who drops off a pair of shoes to be repaired and leaves the next day on an extended trip to Europe. Two years later, upon their return to Alamo Heights, they spot the repair claim ticket on their dresser and go to the store to pick up the shoes.
The cobbler looks at the ticket and says to the customer, “Oh, these will be ready by noon tomorrow.”
In real life that doesn’t happen. What does happen at Cobblestone Shoe Repair Hospital, 6314 N. New Braunfels, after a year and following several emails to the customer, the unclaimed items left for repair are donated to Austin, Texas nonprofit organizations helping low to no income folks.
William Withrow, manager of the Sunset Ridge Shopping Center shoe repair shop, told 78209 Magazine, “We make every effort to contact our customers to remind them to pick up their item or items. But we only have so much storage space.” [Checkout the shelves behind Withrow in the accompanying photo.]
“We end up donating 60 or so pairs of unclaimed shoes and other leather goods to our headquarters in Austin.
Battle At The Bark Park
Reportedly someone cut and capped a water line in the Bark Park of Alamo Heights, the dog park located near the baseball fields, off La Jara and Alamo Heights Boulevards.
The line fed a concrete basin where owners could walk their dogs in to clean and cool their paws. The battle erupted over folks who were unhappy; some dogs were using the cooling feature to “do their business.” While some dog owners regularly cleaned the feature, others were unhappy with the “mess.”
The City of Alamo Heights does not oversee or manage the park.
New Bakery and Cafe to Open
The Hearthstone Bakery Cafe is closing its location at the Forum at Olympia Parkway and moving to the former Crumpets Restaurant and Bakery on Harry Wurzbach Road. The bakery has plans to open in April. The bakery will sell delicious fresh baked pastries including Danishes, turnovers, bagels, muffins and scones.
The cafe will serve hot breakfasts daily until 10:30 am weekdays and until noon on the weekends and lunch until 3pm. For breakfast they will offer breakfast bowls croissant, bagel or panino breakfast sandwiches, housemade oatmeal and yogurt parfaits along with coffee, lattes, cappuccinos and espresso. For lunch they will serve sandwiches, wraps, soups and more.
By Ron Aaron Eisenberg
