Nancy Sarnoff

June 22, 2018

In a real estate deal reminiscent of the two Starbucks across the street from each other at Shepherd and West Gray, a pair of dollar stores are opening in the same northwest Houston strip center.

A Dollar Tree and Family Dollar will open in the Shoppes at 249, a new development along U.S. 249 by Rob Johnson Interests.

The developer purchased the 6.2-acre site at the intersection of Upland Willow Avenue and Killough Street this month.

The site is at the entrance to Willow Springs, a KB Home subdivision planned for 1,400 homes.

This is the first time in the company's history that the two stores have ever gone in together in a new development, Rob Johnson said.

Family Dollar is owned by Dollar Tree, which purchased it in 2014 for $8.8 billion.

There is a difference between the two stores. Dollar Tree prices each item at $1 or less, while Family Dollar operates as more of a discount retailer.

In the land sale, Sam Sheff of Sam Sheff Properties represented the sellers, SSMRS Partners and CK Lee Partners, and Perry Zieben of Perry Zieben Realty represented Rob Johnson Interests. Zieben also represented Dollar Tree, and Clay Albers of Clay Albers Properties represented Family Dollar.

Nancy Sarnoff

Nancy Sarnoff covers commercial and residential real estate for the Houston Chronicle and the paper’s two websites: Chron.com and HoustonChronicle.com. She also hosts Looped In, a weekly real estate podcast about the city’s most compelling people and places. Nancy is a native of Chicago but has spent most of her life in Texas.