OFF-MENU SPECIAL AT GEORGES BISTRO ON WESTHEIMER: THE WHOLE SHEBANG 
Georges Bistro co-owner Monique Guy tells Eater Houston’s Jakeisha Wilmore that the French restaurant in the space formerly occupied by whole-hog-HQ Feast — and before that by Guy’s Chez Georges — is not on the verge of closing. Who could be spreading rumors to the contrary? Well, there is that online listing for the 3,114-sq.-ft. converted foursquare that houses the property at 219 Westheimer that went up a few weeks ago, offering the building, the 5,500-sq.-ft. lot, and the restaurant, including all fixtures, furniture, and equipment, for $1.295 million. Guy, who with her husband, Georges, owns the building and operates Georges, tells Wilmore the couple only listed the property “to see what kind of interest it would generate.” She declined to say if they had received any notable offers. [Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: LoopNet
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Those drawings some of you have seen of the new HEB shopping center coming to the corner of Buffalo Speedway and Bissonnet? Pay no attention to them, says the West University Examiner:
Rare sightings of renderings depicting the H-E-B grocery store development at Buffalo Speedway and Bissonnet Street are not an indication that construction is pending, a company spokeswoman said.
“Nothing is final,†said Cyndy Garza Roberts. “The real estate division is working with architects.†. . .
There is no start date and no project particulars to share, she added. . . . most tenants vacated the property in May.
Buffalo Grille and Buffalo Pharmacy, however, will remain in business at the site during construction.
Hey, if you’ve got a copy of these renderings, why not share them with Swamplot, so we can all ignore them together?
After the jump: An aerial view of the site!
Tenants have been filing out of the 5-story office building shown above at the northeast corner of Richmond Ave and Eastside St. in anticipation of its planned collapse 2 months from now, according one employee who’s still inside but won’t be for long. Building management gave all occupants — including Imparali Tailor, luggage retailer Kipling, and dozens of other business and medical groups — notice last year that they’d need to hit the road.
Designed by Wilson, Morris, Crane & Anderson, the building is one of a dozen vertically-windowed mid- and lowrises that then-not-yet-famous Houston developer Gerald Hines built along Richmond in the early 1960s to accommodate businesses looking to spread out away from Downtown for the first time. (3100 Richmond, on the other side of Weslayan Eastside, was his work too, as well as 3101 Richmond, which sits catty-corner to the soon-to-be demolished building.) By the time the Richmond Ave corridor of similar-looking office structures was complete from Kirby to Weslayan, it had served as a sort of “MBA course,” write Houston architect Barry Moore and preservationist Anna Mod, “for Gerald Hines and arch-competitor Kenneth Schnitzer [of Century Development],” the 2 of whom soon graduated to designing taller and more notable Houston buildings inside and outside of Downtown.
- The Richmond Corridor [OffCite]
- The Business Strip [OffCite]
Photo: Capital Realty
Richmond Ave Adieu
- Facility at 700 N. San Jacinto St. Opening this Weekend To Make Processing Jail Inmates “More Efficient†for HPD [Houston Public Media]
- Big Ideas for Houston Infrastructure Include Underground Tunnel Systems from City Reservoirs into the Gulf [HBJ ($)]
- Developers Won’t Stack Multilevel Warehouses in Houston Until Land Costs More [Bisnow]
- METRO Proposes 75-mile Bus Rapid Transit System that Could Connect Downtown to IAH [Houston Chronicle]
- Even with Federal Aid, Disaster Relief Process is Fraught with Barriers for Marginalized Communities [The Urban Edge]
- Online Shops Slow Retail Construction in Houston, Down an Estimated 24% from Last Year [Houston Chronicle]
Photo of H-E-B Heights: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
And that’s a wrap over at the 18th St. H-E-B, closed since yesterday so as not to distract from the new, double-decker H-E-B that opened today at 2300 N. Shepherd Dr. between 23rd and 24th streets. The photos above show the old store’s front entrance stripped of all red, hyphenated signage, blockaded by shopping carts, plastered with closure notices, and — in case that wasn’t enough — fronted by stack of wooden pallets with a blaze yellow flyer addressing anyone who’d still hoped to get inside. A few weeks ago, workers inside stopped restocking the aisles, slapped a few discounts on what they had left, and watched as the store’s inventory dwindled up until it shut down.
By 5 p.m. yesterday, reports a Swamplot reader, the parking lot was mostly empty:
1511 W. 18th St.
- Hines Developing 46-Story Apartment Tower at 414 Milam St. Downtown [Bisnow]
- HCC Trustee Dave Wilson Sues HCC, Claiming Purchase of New Katy Campus on Colonial Pkwy. Was Unlawful [Community Impact]
- New Montrose Ice Cream Shop Milk + Sugar Creamery Open at 1848 Westheimer [Eater]
- $238M NYC Apartment Purchase Breaks Price Record [New York Times]
Photo of construction on Buffalo Heights, S. Heights Blvd. at Washington Ave: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
TIMBERGROVE H-E-B TO CLOSE JUST AHEAD OF SHEPHERD H-E-B’S END-OF-MONTH OPENING 
January 29 will be the last day of service at the 1511 W. 18th St. H-E-B, reports The Leader’s Landan Kuhlman. And the next day, he writes, H-E-B’s new double-decker location at 2300 N. Shepherd Dr. will open just under a mile away (with legally-offered beer and wine on the shelves). It’s the second 2-story store the grocer has opened in Houston — the first was in Bellaire — and has been in the making between 23rd and 24th streets since late 2017, by which time the block had been devoid of its former Fiesta tenant for over a year. A third H-E-B of the same breed is currently on the rise in Meyerland Plaza. [The Leader; previously on Swamplot] Photo of new H-E-B at 2300 N. Shepherd Dr.: Brandon DuBois
- New Mid Main Lofts Tenant Craft Beer Bar The Brass Tap Slated for Dec. 3rd Opening [Eater; previously on Swamplot]
- New Location of Blanco Tacos + Tequila Opening Dec. 17th Next to Fig & Olive in the Galleria [Houston Food Finder; previously on Swamplot]
- Apartment Developer Buys 9.2 Acres on Long Point, Ushering Further Spring Branch Changes [Houston Chronicle]
- Comedian and Actor Debuts Westchase Seafood Restaurant in Former Cafe Pita Spot  [Click2Houston]
- Rapper Travis Scott’s Rice Village Pop-Up Shop to Become Permanent Astroworld-Themed Shop in 2019 [XXL]
- New 7K Sq. Ft., 3-Story “Produce Row†Mural on Commerce and Main a Nod to Houston’s History [Culturemap]
- Southern Comfort, Vegetarian Fare with Focus on Local Texas Craft Beers Slated for February 2019 Opening in Vintage Park [Eater]
- 2-story HEB Grocery Store in Bellaire Sold to Undisclosed New Buyer for $17.25 Million [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
Photo of Holman St. at Main St.: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
- Buffalo Heights District Mixed-Use Development Has Topped Out [Realty News Report]
- Equinox Moving Forward on Plans for Hotel in the River Oaks District [HBJ ($)]
- New Hope Housing Opens First Residential Complex for Homeless and At-Risk Families [The Urban Edge]
- Asian Population Growth Spurs Suburban Chinatown in Katy [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Cafe The Roastery Coming to Bellaire’s New 2-Story H-E-B [Culturemap]
- Japanese Chain Go Go Curry To Debut in Houston Next Month [Eater Houston]
- Feds, State Sue City of Houston Over Years of Illegal Sewage Spills [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo of the Heights Theater, 339 W. 19th St.: Marc Longoria via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
BURGERIM KEEPS ON PLURALIZING WITH ROYAL OAKS VILLAGE LOCATION 
A new, Chiptole-adjacent location of Israeli burgers chain Burgerim is making its mark on paper and in person at the Royal Oaks Village shopping center building closest to Westheimer. Although the restaurant’s website lists its address there as 11815 Westheimer Rd., that number is reserved for the H-E-B that anchors the retail complex. 11805 is where signage bearing its Hebrew-suffixed moniker is visible now, in the window of Suite 340. Upon opening, it’ll join a handful of recently-opened Burgerims operating outside 610 as far-flung as Cypress. [Previously on Swamplot] Map: Brixmor
Make that 55 days that the prank poster installed by UH student Jevh Maravilla and a group of accomplices has been hanging in the Shadow Creek Ranch McDonald’s. And there’ll be plenty more time to see it: An unidentified McDonald’s representative tells Eater Houston that the store at 2815 Business Center Dr. has no plans to take it down, noting however that renovations are planned in the future.
Maravilla (right) took the photo of him and his friend Christian Toledo (left) at the Westside Event Center — just a mile away on the opposite side of 288. He then added graphic elements to mimic the other wall art in the store and ordered a print through Office Depot’s online service. Clad in a McDonald’s employee shirt he picked up for $7 at a nearby thrift store — along with a tie, clip-on walkie-talkie, and fake nametag dubbing him a “Regional Interior Coordinator” — Maravilla entered the store and hung the poster with the help of a few more friends.
He describes the undercover op beginning at the one-minute mark in this video:
See the McPrank Yourself
DAIRY ASHFORD H-E-B GETTING AXED NEXT MONTH 
H-E-B store number 471 in the Memorial Dr. strip at Dairy Ashford will close to the public next month, Nancy Sarnoff reports, but it’ll remain filled with food items. The company plans to turn it into a warehouse for its home delivery and curbside pickup services. The mini-store has been understocked relative to other H-E-Bs — and no matter how you slice up its 28,000 sq.-ft., “There just isn’t enough space to fit everything that you would be looking for,” company prez Scott McClelland said on Facebook yesterday. Its nearest regular-sized backup H-E-B: the standalone one nearly triple its size on Westheimer and S. Kirkwood, just under 3 miles away. [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Weingarten Realty
Update: A Swamplot reader notes that Burgerim originated in Israel — and that in Hebrew, the suffix “-im” adds a plural meaning to the word it ends. Read with that grammar in mind, the restaurant’s name translates roughly to “burgers.”
Although Burgerim’s previous attempts to come online next to Subway in the corner of the strip center at Richmond and Shepherd were met with red tags from city inspectors, those notices have now been taken down — reports an employee at the neighboring Honey Art Cafe — and a building permit filed yesterday grants the new instant-messenger-themed restaurant clearance to proceed with renovations to the space.
Previous high-tech retailers in the endcap include Clear Wireless and Wireless Toyz; analogue merchandiser Gold and Silver Buyers held the place down in between their tenures and Mattress Overstock retired from the space most recently, at the end of last year. When the burger place opens, it’ll be the franchise’s first inner-Loop spot, topping off its existing Cypress and W.-Lake-Houston-at-Beltway-8 locations.
- Previously on Swamplot: Mattress Stores Making a Sleepy Retreat from Shepherd; Your Map to Houston Mattress Chain Stores
Photo: Fox E.
Strip Steak
- Self-Storage Properties in Baytown, The Woodlands Trade Hands [Houston Chronicle]
- Multi-Level Retail Projects a Growing Trend Among Developers [Houston Public Media]
- Houston a ‘Too-Many-Amenities Metro’ in Rental Market, According to Apartment List [Bisnow]
- How To Make Houston Housing More Resilient [The Urban Edge]
- The New Restaurant Row in the Galleria [Houston Chronicle ($)]
- Kau Ba Saigon Kitchen Debuts Next Month in Former Bacchus Space at 2502 Dunlavy St. [Eater Houston]
- Clé Group Opening French Restaurant Bisou in Just-Shuttered Taverna Space in the River Oaks District [PaperCity Magazine]
- Nitro-Themed Ice Cream Shop Sub Zero Opens in Generation Park [Houston Chronicle]
- Houston Council Approves Plan for First $1B in Harvey Aid [Houston Chronicle]
- After Harvey, Houston Has To Get Greener [Houston Chronicle ($)]
Photo: Jackson Myers via Swamplot Flickr Pool
Headlines
COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHO CARES HOW FAR AWAY YOU ARE FROM A DECENT GROCERY STORE? 
“I live downtown and use Instacart every week. Saves a ton of time. I don’t understand the fixation about going to a grocery store in person.” [Matt, commenting on Comment of the Day Runner-Up: The Hole in the Donut] Photo inside H-E-B, 1701 West Alabama St.: Candace Garcia
