A FINAL FAREWELL TO THE FORMER HOUSTON PRESS BUILDING 
The former alternative newspaper HQ at 1621 Milam St. that’s also done stints as an auto dealership will be demolished, reports the Chronicle’s Craig Hlavaty. Back when the Houston Press moved into it 15 years ago, the structure’s parking-lot sides were unadorned; artist Suzanne E. Sellers slapped her trompe-l’œil mural onto the north and east facades in 1994. Along Milam, however, things haven’t changed as much since the building’s first tenant Shelor Motor Company opened up in the ’20s — according to former Press staffer Abrahán Garza. Even its original 1920s glass windows — he reported — stayed put on the second and third floors through 2010. Now construction barriers are up around the whole block, and the property owner Chevron tells Hlavaty that a demolition permit is under review by the city. The oil company bought the 38,000-sq.-ft. structure in 2013, the same year Houston Press staff left it for a new spot on the corner of La Branch and McGowen. [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Capital Realty
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The mark of Aldi now appears at 9525 Westheimer, smack in the middle of the strip where Batie’s Ace Hardware is going out of business. Liquidation sales began there on Tuesday — reports a Swamplot reader — with the goal of creating an 18,900-sq.-ft. hole in the portion of the building pictured at top, adjacent to Party City.
Currently about half a dozen Aldis are open inside the Beltway, with additional reinforcements scheduled to arrive soon.
- Tanglewilde Center [Brixmor]
Photo: Swamplot inbox. Map: Brixmor
- 9909 Kleppel Rd. [HAR]
It’s been just about a week since 4006 Timber Falls Ct. hit the market and already some lucky buyer has the place — along with its many constituent parts — nearly locked up. Pictured above is the double-high living room that sits at the front of the 3-bed, 2-and-a-half bath house, north of Westpark Dr. and west of Addicks Clodine. Despite its already-high level of GaudÃ-ness, there’s plenty more where that came from.
Just back up and you’ll start to see the whole picture:
Although only one includes living space, both structures shown separated by St. Charles St. in the rendering at top are intended to give people spaces to live. The big one — depicted in more detail above — is Kirksey Architecture’s 5-story design for an affordable housing operations center, to be placed directly across the street from 20 units of actual housing. The Midtown Redevelopment Authority bought the vacant land for both sites along Elgin in 2015, back when the renovation of neighboring Emancipation Park was still taking shape.
On the left in the aerial below, you can see the parcel where the HQ is planned across from the park and its on-site Emancipation Community Center:
That’s El Rancho’s signage taking the place of Randalls’ in the photo above — which views the Keegan’s Meadow shopping center from the north along W. Bellfort. At 53,200 sq.-ft., the new Stafford store will be slightly bigger than El Rancho’s one other Houston location, opened along I-45 just inside the Beltway in June. There, all the typical grocery standards are present, along with a butcher shop, seafood counter, produce section, and bakery. Plus, there are some extras: a tortilleria and in-house Latin-American-style kitchen.
Two more El Ranchos are in the works, too: the first further up the North Fwy. on the outskirts of Spring, and the other in the old Oak Forest Randalls, gone from 34th St. since earlier this year.
- El Rancho to open its first Houston supermarket [Houston Chronicle]
- Previously on Swamplot: Randalls To Leave Behind Another Grocery-Store-Sized Hole in the Shopping Center on Bellfort at Kirkwood; Oak Forest Randalls Now in Everything-Must-Go Mode Ahead of Closure
Photo: Dennis Scipio
- 12911 Zion Rd. [HAR]
The building’s longtime owners handed it off last week to Fat Property, and the new landlord’s turned around and listed one of 10 units inside for lease already. Built in 1965, the structure grabs some frontage on Stanford St. — pictured above — but most of its exterior and adjacent parking lies to the north along Colquitt.
EL AHORRO SETTING UP SHOP IN FORMER AIRLINE DR. KROGER 
A whole ‘nother crop of building permits filed recently on the north end of the strip Kroger abandoned last year confirm that specialty supermarket El Ahorro is now getting situated there. It’s been working for the better part of this year on the property at 6749 Airline — which backs up behind the parking lot shown above to abut a house on the corner of E. Parker Rd. and Mano St. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Kelly Regan
- 3745 Sunset Blvd. [HAR]
And that’s all for the 610 Allston St. bungalow Mary Cerruti refused to sell before she was found dead inside it last March. This past week’s demolition comes a little later than Trammell Crow had hoped when it began developing the adjacent 5-story apartment complex off Yale St. in 2013. After the developer’s attempts to buy Cerruti’s 6,600-sq.-ft. lot were rebuffed, it decided to build around both it and the same-sized parcel directly to its south. (Cerruti continued to speak out against the development even after construction began in 2013, appearing publicly at a planning commission meeting that February.)
Now, her property and the one next door have been snatched up by the same owner: Sandcastle Homes, an inner-Loop builder. You can see part of the company’s new 2-story handiwork at 606 Allston St. on the right in the photo above.
It went up over the last few months on what was once vacant land next door to Cerruti’s house:
The ice cream shop has plans to shoot the gap between its existing Heights and Rice Village locations with a new spot at 3502 S. Shepherd, in the house next to the Richmond Ave strip where Burgerim’s getting situated. Although Cloud 10’s summer menu — including mozzarella and black tea-corn flavors, as well as a sundae made with “freeze dried blueberries” — is still on rotation in the 2 current locations, it’ll probably be replaced by a whole ‘nother roster by the time the new store opens.
Five head-in parking spots line the building’s northern frontage along Colquitt St. They’ve been empty for the most part since hair salon All Decked Out checked out of the building, leaving it open to new arrivals.
- Previously on Swamplot:Â Bungalow Full of Weird Ice Cream Flavors Now Open on Heights Blvd.;Â Where Cloud 10 and All Those Extra Parking Spaces Will Fit Into Heights Mercantile; Cloud 10 Hitting Sweet Spot in the Village
Photos: All Decked Out Hair Salon (first); Tenavox (second)
- 11819 Oakcroft Dr. [HAR]
It used to just be a buck, until “about 10 years ago it went to $2,” writes a moviegoer. By then the theater had already been around for decades in the back of its namesake Wind Chimes Shopping Center at Westheimer and Eldridge — once the setting itself of a movie shot by a local production company. Following roughly 40 years there, “It was just about the last dollar movie open in Houston,” the former patron declares. (Still around, notes the sign, is the North Oaks Cinema 6 at FM 1960 and Stuebner Airline — where the same owners will sell you a $2 ticket to see any of 8 selections right now.)
What that price got you at Windchimes: admission to feature films that hadn’t quite made it to DVD yet after finishing up their time in first-run theaters. And on top of that, arcade games:
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
