07/28/17 10:00am

Here’s the scene from Heights Blvd. this morning, where the former Heights Finance Station — that was the fancy name for the neighborhood’s main post office — lies in trucked-off ruins. The construction fence along the right side of the image lines 11th St. The view from Brie Kelman’s camera faces west, toward Yale St.; the former Citgo gas station now known as whiskey bar Eight Row Flint, on the opposite side of Yale, is visible just to the left of center in the distance (if you look closely).

Here’s a different view of the site from just a few days ago:

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07/27/17 3:45pm

COMMENTS OF THE DAY: WHEN HOUSTON JEWELRY WRAPPED A SHINY BAND AROUND A COUPLE OF DOWNTOWN BUILDINGS AT 720 RUSK “We bought this building from Star Furniture in 1966 and operated in it until 1983 when we were offered a very generous price at the top of the market. After we left the building stayed empty until the Subway opened. . . . This is how the building looked when it was remodeled by architect Arnold Hendler in 1966.” [Rex Solomon, commenting on Downtown Houston Is Now Down To A Single Street-Level Subway] Photo: Houston Jewelry

07/27/17 2:30pm

Here’s a glance at how the now-redone North Shepherd strip center that used to house the Texas Cafeteria is looking this week, about a month before the second-ever location of sandwich joint Krisp Chicken & Batter opens up on the building’s south end. A raised bit of concrete slab seen on the near side of the building in the photo above will form the foundation of a planned dining patio. According to the building’s leasing flyer, a 1,825-sq.-ft. space in the building is still available for lease adjacent to Krisp; the rest of the building will become a Verizon store.

The center at 2400 N. Shepherd Dr. is immediately north of the former Fiesta lot where H-E-B plans to start construction on a new Heights market late this summer.

According to Culturemap’s Eric Sandler, the owners of Krisp are already planning to open additional locations in Memorial, Bellaire, and Downtown in the next few years — and possibly Pearland and Cinco Ranch after that.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Next Month
07/27/17 12:00pm

Our sponsor today is the 4-bedroom, 4-bath home at 1530 Hawthorne St. in Montrose, offered for sale by Norhill Realty. Thanks for supporting Swamplot!

First of all: Note the location. This home is in Mandell Place in Montrose, one of Houston’s most walkable districts. Hugo’s restaurant is a block-and-a-half away. Common Bond croissants are a 5-minute walk west. The Menil Collection is a 6-block walk to the south. H-E-B, Kroger, and Trader Joe’s are all within a 1-mile radius of this home.

1530 Hawthorne is a carefully designed custom home that combines modern finishes with spaces appropriate to a family. A porte cochere on the west side of the home frames the entrance to a side patio and pool that lines the center of the home’s C-shaped plan. A 2-car garage at the back of the home is attached.

Inside, the main living space, which includes an open kitchen with quartz countertops and stainless-steel Thermador appliances (pictured above), parallels the pool and fronts a featured staircase. The ground floor also features a study, a family room, and a full bathroom. Upstairs are 4 bedrooms, including the master suite, and a flex room that could serve as an additional study or kids’ play area.

The photos in Norhill Realty’s property listing include an aerial view that shows the configuration of the home as well as views of Montrose and Downtown in the distance. You’ll also find a frame-by-frame tour of the home’s major spaces. If you like what you see there and want to view the property in person, contact Mark Brawley at 281-650-3384 or mark@norhillrealty.com to set up your own showing. To keep up with Norhill Realty’s latest listings and real estate tips, follow the Norhill Realty Facebook page or check out the Norhill Realty website.

Standout properties deserve to be featured on Swamplot. Find out about this site’s Sponsor of the Day program.

Sponsor of the Day
07/27/17 10:30am

EMPTY ‘END HUNGER’ WAREHOUSE BY I-45 NORTH TO BE FILLED WITH WORKERS MAKING SOUTH AFRICAN FOOD AND SEASONINGS The former Mary Barden Keegan building at 2445 North Fwy. a couple of exits north of Downtown that for more than 10 years was home to the Houston Food Bank will soon make some adjustments to its culinary mission. The Peli Peli restaurant group has announced that the 15,000-sq.-ft. building — which includes a 9,362-sq.-ft. commercial kitchen as well as office and warehouse space — will henceforth become the food-preparation hub of the growing 5-restaurant chain’s Houston operations. The kitchen that once provided space for the creation of 5,000 meals a day for needy individuals will soon house Peli Peli’s catering operation and provide space for the production of Peli Peli–brand bottled sauces and spices. (“That includes piri piri pepper, also known as bird’s-eye chili, which is used to flavor chicken and seafood and to rim martini glasses,” notes the Chronicle‘s Katherine Feser.) Peli Peli partner Thomas Nguyen tells Feser the company plans to keep the building’s signature END HUNGER graphic embedded into the building’s tilt-up-concrete panels on its freeway side, which were originally painted red when the building was constructed in 2006 but are now rendered in green. “We’re not messing with it,” he tells her. “If anything, we would like to enhance it later on.” The Houston Food Bank sold the building to Virgata Property Company last year, leasing it back until it could complete construction of an even larger kitchen operation in the much larger facility it constructed out of  the former Sysco warehouse at 535 Portwall St. near I-10 and the West Loop. [Houston Chronicle; PR Newswire; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Virgata Property

07/26/17 4:30pm

SWEET MESQUITE REBIRTHING IN RAGIN’ CAJUN’S ABANDONED UNDERGROUND LAIR BELOW MAIN A sign advertising a new Sweet Mesquite Grill has appeared in the tunnel-facing storefront under the McKinney Place Garage where Ragin’ Cajun shut down a few months ago. The spot below 930 Main St. Downtown is scheduled to open in a month as a Sweet Mesquite do-over. The restaurant in the shopping center at 1570 S. Dairy Ashford near Briar Forest Dr. was a Sweet Mesquite Grill before it became Mesquite Cottage; the new tunnel location henceforth will be the only Sweet Mesquite Grill in town, but is expected to be a bit of a reboot from the original. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox

07/26/17 2:30pm

The HAR listing for the home at 5116 Avenue H in the Second Ward, for sale for $99,990, identified the property’s subdivision as MEX Y CAN. Which seemed notable enough in the rapidly changing neighborhood for the curious name to appear as discussion fodder yesterday on Reddit. The subdivision name is accurate, appearing on county tax records: The property’s developer was required to give a name to the subdivision when the single 5,000-sq.-ft. lot on which it stood (at the time part of a subdivision named Engel) was divided into thirds last year, in order to allow him to sell off individually the 3 existing homes on the property. “Actually no one had any comments [on the name] at the time of replatting,” the developer notes.

MEX Y CAN, the name he assigned to the subdivision, “is for the name Mexican and (Y in Spanish) Canadian,” he explains to Swamplot. “The love of my life is Mexican and I am Canadian. . . . There is no other meaning or significance behind it.” The motivation for choosing this particular name? “Having myself, the love of my life, and our desire to be memorialized in the area for eternity like our love.”

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Subdivided
07/26/17 12:00pm

Swamplot’s Sponsor of the Day for today, TechSpace Houston, wants to let you know about an event you might want to attend taking place at its Westchase campus tomorrow. Thanks for supporting this site!

TechSpace Houston — the new modern and flexible workspace in Westchase, is hosting a happy hour on Thursday, July 27, from 5 to 7 pm — and extending an exclusive invitation to Swamplot readers:

Join TechSpace + Office Party Houston for the Bayou City Bash Happy Hour!

  • When: Thursday, July 27th from 5 to 7 pm
  • Where: TechSpace Houston, 2101 CityWest Blvd., ground floor
  • Enjoy networking, wine, beer, and soda or water along with complimentary small bites.
  • Please RSVP if you can make it!

Can’t make the happy hour? Claim your free day pass! Come try TechSpace Houston’s unique shared office space totaling 46,000 sq. ft. with 450 workstations and lots of campus amenities. Each floor houses a variety of office space solutions, including co-working spaces, 1-to-3-person private offices, large private office suites that can accommodate 4-to-50 people, conference rooms, event spaces, and a variety of thought-provoking collaboration lounges — including a unique social platform-style seating area and an outdoor Wi-Fi enabled patio!

TechSpace Houston provides an alternative to long-term leases. It’s a great solution for all types of businesses, no matter what stage: startups, entrepreneurs, SMEs, growth companies, and Fortune 100 teams. If you are in need of flexible office space — whether you work alone and need a co-working desk to tap into the local business community or have 2-to-50 employees who need a private office — TechSpace Houston can be a smart choice for your business.

Let Swamplot readers know about your big event. Become a Sponsor of the Day!

Sponsor of the Day
07/26/17 11:15am

DOWNTOWN HOUSTON IS NOW DOWN TO A SINGLE STREET-LEVEL SUBWAY With the shuttering last week of the Subway sandwich shop at the corner of Milam and Rusk streets — catty corner from Pennzoil Place, in the ground-floor space below the Level Office at 720 Rusk St. (pictured here) — the national sandwich chain is now down to a single Downtown location that can be accessed from a sidewalk. Another streetside Subway, in the ground floor of the Americana Building 5 blocks to the south at the corner of Milam and Dallas, exited its space before demolition began on that structure in February. A total of 8 Subways are located Downtown, but they’re all now harbored in tunnels or lobbies or food courts — except the lone fresh-air holdout at 405 Main St., at the corner of Preston. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo of former Subway space at 802 Milam St.: cmoney_htx

07/25/17 4:00pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: AN IMPORTANT RULE ABOUT LOCAL RULE “What seems weird to me is the idea that one government body is passing a law that says that other government bodies are not allowed to pass laws that do certain specific things. Maybe this is common and I’ve just never noticed it before, but it seems like a brazen attempt by one ideological group to attempt to use their success getting elected into a majority in one jurisdiction to legislate (or block legislation) in another jurisdiction where they were not able to get elected into a majority.” [wcthoms, commenting on The State of Texas and the Right To Cut Down Trees Without Notice] Illustration: Lulu

07/25/17 1:45pm

The former Heights Finance Station post office at the corner of Heights Blvd. and 11th St. — its parking lot and front door face Yale St. — is coming down in a hail of lovingly painted bricks today. The post office was closed at the end of 2015 and subsequently purchased by developer MFT Interests. The single-story building was later festooned with an assortment of romance– and ZIP-code-themed murals.

MFT is calling the new development it has planned for the 1050 Yale St. site Heights Central Station. It’ll consist of two 2-story painted-brick buildings fronting 11th St.:

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Heights Central Station