Say goodbye to 2015! Swamplot is taking a quick break to do just that. We’ll be back Monday morning, ready to see what changes lie ahead for the local real estate scene. A Happy New Year to you and yours!
Photo of 1515 Beall St.: Joe Bielamowicz via Swamplot inbox
The north wall has been breached — windows have been carved into the facade of the Houston Chronicle’s freeway-front structure at the corner of the West Loop and 59 (where most of the paper’s staff will relocate early next year.) The multi-building campus under renovation at 4747 Southwest Freeway was bought from the Houston Post in 1995 after the competing newspaper folded; the Chronicle’s Texas Ave. space was bought by developer Hines in October.
The main building was powerwashed back to a gleaming beige over the summer — to brighten things up further, sections of the 1960s raw concrete Brutalist facade are currently being whitewashed as well, in line with exterior renderings released earlier this year by Gensler:
COMMENT OF THE DAY: HOW DOES ALCOHOL COMPLICATE THE BARBERSHOP EXPERIENCE? 
“Do I want to drink a beer while getting my hair cut? Will it get hair in it? Is it comfortable to drink a beer while holding your head in hair-cutting position? Will I have time to finish it? I have a lot of questions about this concept.” [TacoTruck, commenting on Getting Ready for an Alcoholic Barbershop Experience Where the Parking Lot is Going Pink on E. 20th St.] Illustration: Lulu
EPA ASKS FOR NEVADA’S HAND IN CLEANING UP RADIOACTIVE GROUNDWATER AT BP’S ANACONDA MINE Meanwhile, in Yerington: The EPA is pushing to place Nevada’s Anaconda Copper Mine on the Superfund list, after 15 years of investigating the area’s uranium-contaminated groundwater and a nearly $20 million resident settlement: a 2013 class-action suit accused mine owner Atlantic Richfield and parent company BP America of intentional and negligent concealment of the extent of contamination from the site. The EPA sent a letter to Nevada governor Brian Sandoval last week, giving the state about a month to respond with any concerns about the intended listing. Nevada has previously fought the listing of the site 65 miles south of Reno, hoping to avoid drops in property values. In 2004, former Anaconda cleanup supervisor Eddie Dixon was fired by the Bureau of Land Management for alienating groups that help the agency to work “in an efficient and effective manner” — a 2008 panel upheld that Dixon was actually fired for insisting that health concerns be publicized. Dixon also documented irregularities like changes to content in his presentations by company marketing consultants. (Some dozen Superfund NPL sites are listed around the Greater Houston Area, including sites adjacent to or within a few blocks of 610 North, 610 South, and I-10 east of downtown.) [NYTimes, High Country News, Houston Chronicle, previously on Swamplot, HBJ]
CHICKEN OUT TONIGHT ON MEMORIAL DR. 
Hybrid Peruvian-Mexican restaurant Pollo Bravo will be flying the coop at 5 PM — the Memorial Dr. and Reinicke St. location will close permanently this evening. The chain’s remaining 2 locations on Hillcroft and Richmond will remain open, and the owner is currently looking for a new space to roost. The locale, which previously housed Hartz Chicken Buffet, converted to a Pollo Bravo by the end of 2012. An LLC connected to developer Amir Taghdisi purchased the property in May, adding to his existing holdings a few blocks west across the street; his strip center at 5801 Memorial Dr. currently houses a Dunkin’ Donuts and Piada Italian Street Food. Photo: Google Places
COMMENT OF THE DAY: THE LIMITS OF OPEN CARRY 
“Jogged the Memorial loop trail yesterday with my holster and 9. Applying lots of cream today.” [J, commenting on Simon Says Don’t Bring Your Guns to the Galleria] Illustration: Lulu
Nationally ranked Cypress parking-lot barbecue trailer Brooks’ Place will offer a 25 percent discount on New Year’s Day to anyone celebrating Texas’s new open carry law with a properly holstered firearm. Owner and master of smoked beef Trent Brooks will also offer a permanent 10 percent discount those who show up armed after January 1st. (A sign posted on the premises notes that “judicious marksmanship is appreciated” if the need to draw does arise.) Things you shouldn’t show up with, according to other noticed posted to the shed (tucked next to the Ace Hardware in the shopping center at FM 529 at Barker Cypress Rd.): short-shorts and saggy pants.
Photos: Cletus O. (trailer) Angela S. (sign)
A makeover is underway at the Heights Plaza at 420 E. 20th St. between N. Main and Heights Blvd. Swamplot reader JerseyGirl sends photos of the strip center, once home to Sunny’s Washateria and J & R Boudin; the building is keeping some of its 1970s architectural details (such as those embedded cinderblocks) but is also getting some updates, including a total interior redo and a new white and bubblegum color scheme extending to the parking lot.
Workers on the site confirmed that one of the new tenants will be Birds Barbers, an Austin salon known for providing Shiner Bock as part of its customer experience — in addition to using it as a styling product, for “hair that is smooth and full of shineâ€. Steel City Pops will also move in — the Alabama-based popsicle chain, which the owner modeled off a Mexican paletas store encountered in Nashville, currently lists flavors including buttermilk, wassail, and spruce on the menu of their Dallas location.
Earlier renderings from Schaum & Shieh show the Heights Plaza strip center (to be rechristened The 420) as it may soon appear — give or take a high-gloss sheen, and those pink parking stops and bricks:
A SAMPLER OF 2015’S MOST FOGGY, BEST FORESTED, AND OTHERWISE INTERESTINGLY UNHELPFUL ARCHITECTURAL RENDERINGS Meanwhile, in the digital ether: Designing any building comes with the concurrent challenge of producing appealing and informative renderings of the new project — a feat which not every project manages to achieve. To wrap up the year, the folks over at CityLab have pulled together 2015’s most um, “memorable” renderings. Notable entries include the museum shown entirely obscured by fog, a skyscraper optimistically covered in mature trees, and developments set in blank space and mysterious marshes. [CityLab]
The tearing down is done — the old parking garage at the Children’s Assessment Center on Bolsover St. in the Rice Village is gone, following the completion of the facility’s new garage (a sliver of which can be seen peeking into the right of the frame in the shot above from Dustan St. along the northern edge of the property). A furtive glance through the back gate of the construction site reveals that the freshly cleared field between the the new garage and the Center’s original 1998 building (on the left) is already being overgrown by forms and thin PVC pipes, sprouting in advance of the 4-story 89,000-sq.-ft. facility expansion that will rise in the newly-vacated gap over the coming months. The Center, which provides free care and services for sexually abused children and their families, put its new garage’s 420-space foot down on the former Village Plaza Shopping Center, kicking the leftover bit of the block to the Frost Bank now fronting Kirby.
The rendering of the completed project from Gensler has taken on more concrete definition since it initially surfaced several years ago:
FARM-THEMED PLANNED COMMUNITY RIPENING ALONG THE WESTERN GRAND PARKWAY Hous
ton’s first farm-centric master-planned community is moving forward on the Grand Parkway along Oyster Creek in Richmond, writes Paul Takahashi of the HBJ. The Harvest Green residential community will be structured around working farms and themed accordingly throughout: in addition to opting for a backyard planter (available in L-shaped or rectangular), residents can elect to work a plot in a 5-acre community garden, part of the 300 acres of farmable land that will be associated with the development. Not sure what to do with a backhoe? An on-site farmer will offer classes in both agriculture and nutrition. Those less keen to get their hands in the dirt will be able to visit the farm-to-table restaurant instead — or simply partake of the edible landscaping. Johnson Development has recently opened model homes at the site, and is currently constructing non-model homes as well. [HBJ] Photo: Johnson Development
Yet another fast-casual semi-gourmet upstate taco chain appears to be spreading saucy tendrils into the 610 Loop — Austin-based Tacodeli, which announced intent to expand to Houston and Dallas last year, is now appearing in renderings and marketing plans of Lovett Commercial’s site at 1902 Washington Ave, across the street from upscale cocktail bar Julep and just west of cow-to-table butcher shop and steakhouse B&B Butchers. Tacodeli will be jostling against other taco invaders such as Torchy’s Tacos (also an Austin export), Fuzzy’s Taco’s (a Dallas chain currently working its way down through the north Houston ‘burbs to West Gray and Post Oak), and Velvet Taco (another Dallas chain) in the rush to claim territory in the local tacoscape, already thick with native Hous-Tex-Mex options.
A Lovett site plan for the property also shows a few other developments nestling in around Tacodeli, including a ramen shop, a brewpub, and a high-end barber:
