The spaces' quoted rates range from $16.60 per sf to $18.60 per sf plus tenant-improvement allowances. At the 135,000-sf Corum Station Shopping Center at 4880 Louetta Rd. in Spring, Steve & Barry's will backfill a Randall's grocery and drug store. In the 1.2-million-sf mall at 20131 U.S. 59 N. in Humble, the deal backfills an empty Mervyns store.

Doug Calvin, real estate director for Port Washington, NY-based Steve & Barry's, says upcoming tenant improvements will include wood flooring, plasma screen monitors and fixture systems. Both locations are scheduled to open within four months.

"Our average store size is 55,000 sf, though we've been trending larger," Calvin says. "We've done stores over 100,000 sf and prefer junior anchor and anchor-size stores."

Calvin tells GlobeSt.com that there are no set goals for expansion in the Houston market, but the company does want to have a location in each of the city's four quadrants. "We could easily put stores five to seven miles of each other in the metro market, but for this year, we're probably done," he adds.

That's not to say Steve & Barry's wouldn't examine an opportunity if one presented itself. "We love to go into locations where there are good household incomes and good, solid, dense populations," Calvin says. "Everything we sell is $19.98 or less and it's a value appeal so the more people who like to shop the better."

Steve & Barry's negotiated directly in both instances. Jeff Beard and Diana Gaines with J. Beard Real Estate Co. in the Woodlands lease Corum Station, which tax records show is owned by Transwestern Property Co. The Chicago-based General Growth Properties Inc. owns Deerbrook Mall.