Houston Business Journal: California ramen bar expands to Heights development, elsewhere in Houston area

March 13, 2018 Press

A California-based ramen bar has several Houston-area locations in the works, including a spot in a hot Heights redevelopment project.

CultureMap reports that Jinya Ramen Bar is the latest restaurant to sign onto Houston-based Braun Enterprises’ Heights Waterworks redevelopment. Heather Nguyen and John Nguyen with NewQuest represented Jinya — which is operated by Houston franchisee Jim Wang — in the lease of 2,700 square feet next to Ripe Cuisine in Building B, per CultureMap.

Other tenants in the development include Floyd’s 99 Barbershop, Common Bond and Hopdoddy Burger Bar. The nearly 5,000-square-foot Building D is still available for another restaurant, but Braun is in discussions with several potential tenants, per CultureMap. 

Braun’s development is on part of the land that Phoenix-based Alliance Residential bought in a $15.2 million deal, which the Houston City Council approved in December 2016. The two roughly 2-acre tracts are at the northwest and southeast corners of W. 20th Street and Nicholson.

The opening of Jinya’s Heights location depends on when Braun can turn the space over to the ramen bar, per CultureMap, but Wang has several other Houston-area locations planned. 

Jinya has a NASA-area location at 18299 Egret Bay Blvd., its Midtown location opened in March 2015, and a Katy location — at 21788 Katy Freeway — opened last August, per the company’s website. According to CultureMap and the website, future Jinya locations will open at 2162 Spring Stuebner Road near Springwoods Village in May; at 5050 FM 1960 Road W., Suite 121, in June; and in Cypress at the intersection of Highway 290 and Barker Cypress this fall.