Bellaire Gets Its Hardware Store Back First. Trader Joe's Is Next in Line.

Two empty storefronts near Bellaire Boulevard and Bissonnet are being refilled right now. Which one opens first?

The Trader Joe's got most of the headlines, but it isn't first. The former CVS at 5430 Bissonnet St. is becoming an Ace Hardware, and its owner expects to open sometime between late 2026 and early 2027. The grocery store a short drive east at 5130 Bellaire Blvd. is targeting mid-2027. Both projects are underway, but they move on different schedules. One is a renovation of a building that's already standing. The other is a new center going up on a demolished site, and it has a second round of interior work still to come.

The smaller store is already ahead

The Ace Hardware will fill nearly 12,000 square feet in the Bellaire Triangle, according to Community Impact. Owner Brian Brown already runs a family-operated Ace at 7840 Long Point Road in Spring Branch, with his wife, Virginia. Bellaire will be his second store.

The Bellaire Triangle itself is a midcentury center: four buildings on about four acres, bordered by Bellaire Boulevard, Chimney Rock and Bissonnet, as the Houston Chronicle described it. Since the store is moving into an existing building, the work is a conversion. A Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation filing describes turning the 11,516-square-foot retail space into a hardware store. It estimated the work at about $500,000, running from Sept. 7 to Oct. 30, 2026. Filing dates are estimates. The public opening window Brown gave is still late 2026 to early 2027.

The store will carry more than nuts and bolts. Brown told Community Impact that, like the Spring Branch store, it will have a gift boutique attached. He also plans to bring over the monogramming service his current store is known for, which engraves YETI tumblers, cutting boards and corporate gifts, along with local jams and honey. He gave the publication his reason for choosing Bellaire:

"Bellaire hasn't had a hardware store in a while, and people here love their yards. So, I think it's going to be great."

Why the grocery site runs on a longer clock

The site at 5130 Bellaire Blvd. was a Randall's until the store closed in 2021. That date comes from a city report included in the March 16, 2026 City Council agenda packet. The same report says Trader Joe's signed a lease and demolition began in 2025. Construction on two new retail buildings started in March 2026. The builder, CTC Contractors, told Community Impact in early June that it expected to finish by the end of December. Kimco Realty owns the property.

The contractor's finish date covers the buildings. Each tenant's interior finish-out runs on its own schedule, which can start before the shell is done and continue well after it. The Chipotle planned for the site shows how long that phase can take. Its TDLR filing describes a tenant finish-out inside a new shell, with a projected start of Oct. 19, 2026, and a projected completion of March 3, 2027. That's about four and a half months for a 2,400-square-foot restaurant space. Trader Joe's will occupy 12,500 square feet.

The opening estimates have also shifted. In December 2025, the Houston Chronicle reported that tenants were expected to open in the first or second quarter of 2027. In September 2026, Bellaire Connect quoted a Kimco representative giving mid-2027. Trader Joe's itself has only committed to 2027. KPRC reported on Oct. 20 that the company lists the store at 5130 Bellaire Blvd., Suite 100, as coming soon, with no exact date.

Here is the order of events as of early November 2026. Every date after today is a projection.

What else is going into the new center

The Trader Joe's is the anchor, but the property is bigger than one store. The Chronicle reported that the site includes 13,450 square feet of restaurant and retail space across two buildings, plus 207 parking spaces, directly across from an H-E-B. According to Bellaire Connect, the main building pairs Trader Joe's with four more retail spaces. A separate building, on the spot where a Subway used to stand, will hold a Chipotle and a Piada Italian Street Food.

Community Impact first reported the Chipotle in April and listed it for 2027. Kimco has also applied to the city for a specific-use permit to add a drive-through window at the Chipotle space, according to Bellaire Connect. Kimco's own leasing page lists the anchor only as a grocer and names Piada among the tenants. The four smaller spaces in the main building haven't been publicly assigned.

When the center is fully open, the stretch of Bellaire Boulevard just west of 610 will have two grocery stores facing each other, two fast-casual restaurants and four open storefronts. The Ace will be a short drive away in the Triangle. On current estimates, that means mid-2027, and the order matters. The hardware store comes first, then the Chipotle finish-out, then the grocery.

In the meantime, dinner news is south on Beechnut

While the Bellaire Boulevard site stays fenced, the restaurant openings nearest Bellaire have been along Beechnut Street. Ramen Tatsu-Ya, the Austin ramen shop founded by chef-owner Tatsu Aikawa in 2012, scheduled its third Houston location to open on Halloween at 4672 Beechnut St., Community Impact reported. The plan was lunch from 11 a.m., door prizes for the first 25 guests, treats for guests in costume and a DJ from 6 to 8 p.m. The menu is built around ramen bowls whose broth takes 60 hours to make. It includes a chicken shoyu ramen, two vegetarian almond milk tonkotsu options, and small plates like katsu sliders, gyoza and chicken karaage.

A short way down the same street, Pudgy's Fine Cookies scheduled an Oct. 25 grand opening for a second location in Meyerland Court Shopping Center at 4798 Beechnut St., Community Impact reported. The opening promotion offered the first 50 cookies free. The bakery's original shop is on Shepherd Drive.

The weekends between now and the grocery

The City of Bellaire's calendar runs through the end of the year, with most of the evening events on the Great Lawn at 7008 S. Rice Ave. The dates as currently listed:

• Nov. 6, 7 to 9 p.m.: Party at the Pavilion with the Larry Grass Band, Great Lawn.
• Nov. 7 and 8: Tents in Town.
• Nov. 14: Fall Arts & Crafts Festival, an all-day listing.
• Nov. 14, 11 a.m. to noon: A family origami session at Evelyn's Park, 4400 Bellaire Blvd., presented with the Japan-America Society of Houston.
• Dec. 2: Selfies with Santa.
• Dec. 3: Holiday in the Park.
• Dec. 11, 7 to 9 p.m.: Party at the Pavilion with Thunderpants, Great Lawn.
• Dec. 14 to 18: Santa Sightings.

Some city listings don't give a venue or schedule yet. The City of Bellaire calendar is the place to check closer to each date.

By the Thunderpants show on Dec. 11, the Ace on Bissonnet may be stocking shelves. If CTC Contractors holds its schedule, the buildings at 5130 Bellaire Blvd. will be about three weeks from completion, with the grocery's own build-out still ahead.

If you'd like to talk through what the Bellaire Boulevard and Bissonnet openings could mean for your own plans, Beth Wolff Realtors is glad to set up a time. Request a Personalized Consultation, and we'll share what we know about this part of Bellaire.