Meredith Deliso

• State Construction Unemployment Rate Stood at 5.2% in December, Finds Associated Builders and Contractors [Houston Chronicle]
• Redevelopment Interest Picking Up in the Energy Corridor So Far This Year [HBJ]
• Wabash Feed & Garden Store Moving into Old Plumbing Supply Store on N. Shepherd [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• Cinema-Microbrewery Flix Brewhouse Planning First Houston Location in Sugar Land, More Likely To Follow [HBJ]
• New Tech Startup Skyler360 Acts as Personal Assistant for Houston Realtors [HBJ]
• No, Houston Will Not Make a Lot of Money Hosting the Super Bowl [Houston Press]
• How Will Houston Accommodate Nearly 1M Additional Residents by 2020? [Houstonia]
• Conference Will Explore How Houston Is Changing Its Identity Through Landscape Architecture [The Dirt]
• Rothko Chapel’s Iconic Obelisk Temporarily Removed for Restoration Work in Connecticut [Glasstire]

Photo of Spring Valley: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Northwest Suburbs Brace for Growth with Opening of Latest Grand Parkway Section [Houston Chronicle]
• Enjoy a Free Ride on the Grand Parkway from U.S. 290 to I-45 Until Feb. 15 [Houston Chronicle]
• Multi-Million-Dollar NRG Stadium Will Have a Tough Time Winning a Third Super Bowl Against New Crop of Billion-Dollar Stadiums [Houston Chronicle]
• A Growing Katy ISD Breaks Ground on New Football Stadium [Your Houston News]
• A Quick Update on Salt N Pepper Group’s Operations, for ‘Industry Insiders and Swamplot Obsessives’ [Culturemap]
• The Apartment and Condo Guide to Houston [Houstonia]
• How Houston Became the Country’s Most Welcoming City for Refugees [Houstonia]
• 10-Acre Buffalo Bayou Nature Park Opening Near Port of Houston This Wednesday [HBJ]
• Remembering Jim Goode, Founder of Goode Company Restaurants [Houston Chronicle]
• What Houston Can Do to Make Public Bike-Sharing Feel Safer [The Urban Edge]

Photo of Amegy Bank’s new headquarters: elnina via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Grey House, the Apartment Complex with Direct Views of the River Oaks District, Now Open for Leasing [Houston Chronicle]
• Apartment, Townhome Complex Going Up Near Main Entrance to UH Will Naturally Be Geared Toward Students [Houston Public Media; previously on Swamplot]
• Houston Multifamily Destined for Negative Absorption in 2016, Predicts Colliers [Realty News Report]
• Equus Capital Partners Adds 2 Buildings at 5300 Memorial and 10497 Town & Country Way to Its Houston Office Portfolio [Houston Chronicle]
• What KPRC’s New Building Under Construction 15 Feet from Its Existing One Will Look Like [Houston Chronicle]
• Hillary Clinton Campaign Sets Up Shop in Former Labor Union Hall in South Houston [Houston Chronicle]
• Underground Food Hall Conservatory Debuting March 1 Downtown [Houston Chronicle]
• First Houston Cabela’s Opening March 17 at 2421 S. Gulf Freeway [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Cataloguing the Empty Lots of Lower Westheimer [Houston Streetwise]

Photo of the Southwest Freeway: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Southwest Houston Charity Sues Landlord for Not Making Repairs Following Memorial Day Flooding [Fox 26]
• Katy City Hall Delayed by Late Doors and Roofing Materials [Community Impact]
• ‘Cook & Collins’ To Be Replaced by ‘Stoked Tacos’ [CultureMap]
• ChaiOne To Sell 1920s EaDo Schlumberger Building or Get a Hand Running It  [HBJ, previously on Swamplot]
• Port Arthur Developer Buys Galveston’s Vacant Medical Arts Building [The Daily News ($)]
• Another Peek Inside the Ivy Lofts [HBJ, previously on Swamplot]
• World’s Tallest Watercoaster Coming to Schlitterbahn Galveston [Houston Chronicle]
• A Sixth BB’s Is Headed for Pearland [Culturemap]
• New Home Starts in Houston Down 14.7% Last Quarter Year-Over-Year, Finds Metrostudy [Houston Public Media]
• League City Mixed-Use Development Pinnacle Park Signs on 3 New Restaurants [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• 6 Homebuilders Selected To Construct Hundreds of Custom Homes in Bluejack National Community [HBJ]
• Texas City Public-Housing Duplexes To Be Torn Down To Make Way for New Homes [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Creek Group Owner Buys Site of Former Wabash Feed & Garden on Washington Ave [The Leader; previously on Swamplot]
• Plans for Botanic Garden on Glenbrook Golf Course Move Along Amid Neighbors’ Protests [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• Vacant Third Ward Property Infested with Termites, Raccoons, Possums, Say Neighbors [abc13]

Photo of the Lancaster Hotel and Calpine Center: Fritz Dickmann

• 2015 Was the Best Year Ever for Texas Homes Sales [Realty News Report]
• Air Conditioning Supplier and Natural Gas Equipment Manufacturer Headed for Land in Rosenberg Business Park  [Realty News Report]
• 12-Story, 157-Room Hyatt Place Houston Galleria Now Open at 5252 W. Alabama [Houston Chronicle]
• Shoppes at ParkWest Near Grand Pkwy. Signs Anchor Tenants, Nears Completion [HBJ]
• New $45M Typhoon Texas Waterpark Next to Katy Mills Mall Will Open May 28 [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Kirby Ice House Set To Debut in Late March in Upper Kirby [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot]
• Houston’s First Micro-Unit Condo The Ivy Lofts Already Has Dozens of Buyers Lined Up [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Westmoreland the Best Inner-Loop Neighborhood for First-Time Homebuyers, According to Redfin [HBJ]

Photo: Jen Buccholtz via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Australia-Based BHP Billiton Files Building Permits for 30-Story Class A Office Tower in Uptown District [HBJ]
• Woodlands Mansion Carlton Woods Estate Recently on the Market for $19M To Be Auctioned This Month at a Discount [Houston Chronicle]
• Stacked Retail on the Rise in Houston [HBJ]
• Smart Home Technology, Pet Rooms, Material Accent Walls Among the Latest Luxury Home Design Trends in Houston [HBJ]
• Beaver’s Planning Second Houston Restaurant Near the Galleria [Culturemap]
• New Tequila and Taco Joint Already Set To Take the Place of the Just-Shuttered Cook & Collins in Midtown [Culturemap]
• Mayor Turner Tells Texas DOT Not To Focus on Highway Expansion [CityLab]
• Kinder Institute Expanding Research Efforts To Include Development and Transportation, Urban Disparity [Houston Public Media]
• Uber Shuts Down in Galveston After New Regulations Pass [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Inside the Effort To Restore Montrose’s Historic African-American Cemetery [Montrose District]
• Slideshow: The Various Trash, Debris and Other Weird Junk Found in Houston-Galveston-Area Waterways [Houston Chronicle]
• Notable Over-the-Top Homes for Sale in Houston’s Suburbs [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of Braesvillage: Christof Spieler via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Houston Apartment Market ‘Overbuilt,’ Says Apartment Data Services in 2016 Forecast [Houston Chronicle]
• Camden Property Trust Grades Houston Apartment Market a C with Declining Outlook for 2016 [HBJ]
• Economic Downturn to Spread Beyond Upstream Oil Industry This Year, Predicts Economist Bill Gilmer [Houston Chronicle]
• $1M-Plus Texas Homes Sales Increased from 4.5% to 36.4% in 2015, Finds Texas Association of Realtors [Culturemap]
• Harrigan Development Partners To Convert Arabian Horse Ranch into Clubhouse for Tomball Master-Planned Community [HBJ]
• Midtown’s Cook & Collins Has Closed While Upstairs Bar Spare Key Lives On [Houston Press]
• Last Vestige of Harlon’s Bar-B-Que Empire, Brooks Family BBQ, Has Shuttered [Houston Press]

Photo: telwink via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Sublease Space Supply Up 63% in Houston’s Class A Office Market [Realty News Report]
• Value of Residential Construction Starts Dropped 18% in December in Houston, According to Dodge Data & Analytics [Houston Chronicle]
• Greystar, Medistar Developing Luxury Apartment Complex in the Med Center [HBJ]
• Newmark Grubb Knight Frank Leases 38,582 SF in 2 BLVD Place at 1700 Post Oak [Realty News Report]
• A Record Number of Tourists Stayed in Hotels, Booked Conventions in Houston in 2015 [Houston Chronicle]
• Weather, Utilities Keep Delaying East End’s Hughes Street Overpass Project [Houston Public Media]
• How Houston Boosted Mass Transit Ridership By Improving Service Without Spending a Dime [Vox]
• Ride-Hailing Companies Can Officially Operate in Galveston Starting in March [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Heights Clock Tower, Navigation Esplanade, Cross Creek Ranch Win Urban Land Institute Awards [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of East Downtown: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Camden Property Trust Holding Off on Breaking Ground on Proposed Downtown Apartment Project This Year [HBJ]
• Richland Acquires Energy Corridor Retail Center Lakes on Eldridge Centre [Realty News Report]
• ExxonMobil Selling Former Research Complex in Greenway Plaza Area, According to Real Estate Alert [Houston Chronicle]
• BASF Consolidating Houston-Area Offices into Nearly 110K-SF Space in Energy Tower IV [HBJ]
• ExxonMobil Thinks Its Spring Campus Is Actually Valued ‘Substantially Below’ Harris County’s $1.04B Appraisal [Houston Chronicle, previously on Swamplot]
• Katy ISD Breaking Ground on Second Football Stadium on Feb. 5 [Community Impact News]
• RV Resort Now Planned for 25-Acre West End Parcel Instead of Mid-Income Residential Development [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Thousands of Students Sign Petition Calling on Lawmakers to Halt UT’s Houston Expansion Plans [Houston Chronicle]
• Montrose To Get New ‘Identity Markers,’ Revamped Esplanades, US-59 Bridge Lights in Time for 2017 Super Bowl [Houston Chronicle]
• Houston Area Getting $447M in State Funds To Redo 59-610 Interchange, I-10 West of Katy, I-45 in Clear Lake Area [Houston Chronicle]
• Diving for Drowned Cars in Houston’s Bayous Begins [Click2Houston, previously on Swamplot]
• Houston’s Favorite Son Mark Rothko Never Actually Ever Set Foot in Houston [Texas Observer]

Photo of Marquis II at 2631 Bissonnet: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Houston Business Leaders Have Pessimistic Outlook for 2016, Finds Deloitte Study [HBJ]
• How New Apartment Deals in Houston Are Being Financed During the Oil Slump [HBJ]
• Is Houston Really a City of Opportunity? [Houston Chronicle]
• Southern Living Names Houston ‘The City of the Future’ [Houston Chronicle]
• Despite Oil Slump, Houston Among Forbes’ Top 10 Boom Towns in America [HBJ]
• Harris County To Study Feasibility of Building A Parking Lot Under Astrodome [Houston Public Media]
• Alliance Residential To Break Ground on Luxury Apartment Project in Sugar Land Master-Planned Community Riverstone [HBJ]
• For $250, You Can Become a Potential Resident or Investor in EaDo’s Ivy Lofts [Houston Chronicle]
• Treadsack Turns Its Sights to New Bar Canard Headed Next Door to Foreign Correspondents [Culturemap]
• Torchy’s Tacos Opening 7th Houston Restaurant in The Woodlands’ Cochran’s Crossing Shopping Center Feb. 16 [Houston Chronicle]
• New Aluminum Signage Intended To Signal Montrose’s Upgrade from Stucco Postmodernism [Houston Press]
• The Woodlands Waterway Getting More Art Benches [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of Spring Valley: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• East Side of Houston Benefiting from Low Oil Prices While West Side Suffers [Los Angeles Times]
• FedEx To Build 800K-Sq.-Ft. Facility in Cypress That Will Open Next Summer [HBJ]
• Phase II of Port 225 Under Construction in Pasadena Now 65% Leased [Realty News Report]
• Slideshow: Inside 500 Crawford as First 200 Apartments Wrap Up [HBJ]
• Petition to Repeal Sugar Land Development Code Ruled Invalid [Houston Chronicle]
• El Cantina Superior Site To Open as a Butcher Shop Instead of a Brewpub [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot]
• Historic John Biggers Mural Threatened by Leaky Roof at Blue Triangle Community Center is ‘Incredibly Stable’ [Houston Chronicle]
• Drones and the Issue of Privacy [Houston Press]

Photo of David Bowie mural: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Rents Will Go Up 2.5% to $1,619 This Year in Houston, Predicts Zillow [Houston Chronicle]
• StreetLevel Investments Closes on 192 Acres of Former Texas Instruments Campus Planned for Mixed-Use Development [HBJ]
• TriGate Capital Buys Northbelt Office Center II at 785 Greens Pkwy. [Realty News Report]
• Tiny-Home Manufacturer Escape Homes Targets Houston [HBJ]
• Revolucion Coffee + Juice Opening in the Heights at 1231 W. 11th St. in March [Eater Houston]
• The New Vibe of Leon’s Lounge in Midtown [Culturemap, previously on Swamplot]

Photo of Glenwood Cemetery: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Home Prices, Rents within a 2-Mile Radius of NRG Stadium 29%, 20% Higher Than the Metro Average, Finds Trulia [HBJ]
• How Designers from Gensler Architecture Firm Would Revitalize Houston’s Neglected Structures [Houston Chronicle]
• Bayou Greenways 2020 Project Getting $7.1M Grant from Deepwater Horizon Funds [Culturemap]
• Priceless John Biggers Mural Inside Blue Triangle Multi-Cultural Association’s Third Ward HQ Threatened by Leaky Roof [Houston Chronicle]
• Offers To Help Couples Come in After Gran Palacio Wedding Venue Abruptly Closes [KHOU; more here]
• ‘Brown and Gay’ Discount Sign Outside Logan Farms Honey Glazed Hams Causes ‘Hilarious’ Misunderstanding [KHOU]
• Eastbound I-10 from Heights-Yale to I-45 North Connector Ramp Closed This Weekend for I-45 Bridge Work [Houston Public Media]

Photo of Pennzoil Place: Bill Barfield via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• University of Texas To Pay About $450M Over Next 30 Years for 300 Acres Near the Med Center [Houston Chronicle, previously on swamplot]
• Medistar, TRC Capital Partners’ 21-Story Med Center Hotel To Feature 357 Rooms, Office Space, Restaurants [HBJ]
• Master-Planned Community Could Rise on 521 Acres Near Daikin Campus [HBJ]
• 5 Houston Communities Make List of Top 21 Best-Selling Communities in the U.S. [Realty News Report]
• Inside the Raven Tower Next Door to White Oak Music Hall [Houston Press; previously on Swamplot]
• Your Pie Pizza Chain Opens First Texas Location on Ground Floor of SkyHouse Apartment Tower Downtown [Houston Chronicle]
• Falling Oil Prices Leading To Drop in Texas Road Funding [The Texas Tribune]
• Downtown’s Preston Street Bridge Now Known as The Robert Mosbacher Bridge [Houston Public Media]
• U.S. 290 Ramps to Sam Houston Tollway Closing for 6 Weeks Starting Friday During U.S. 290 Widening Project [Houston Chronicle]
• South Acres-Crestmont Park the Best, North Shore the Worst for Parking in Houston, According to Trulia and Parknav [HBJ]
• The 10 Worst Houston Suburbs [RoadSnacks via Houston Chronicle]
• The Essential Apps for Living in Houston [Thrillist]

Photo: Jackson Myers via Swamplot Flickr Pool

• Galveston County Commissioners Approve Use of Eminent Domain To Acquire 16 Acres Around Rollover Pass [Galveston County Daily News ($)]
• Weingarten Realty Picks Up Pier One Property at 1935 West Gray for River Oaks Shopping Center Expansion [Houston Chronicle]
• Walmart To Cut 440 Jobs When It Closes Willowbrook Mall Super Center, Neighborhood Market at 2740 Gessner Rd. [HBJ; previously on Swamplot]
• Houston Building Owners Expected To Start Cutting Rental Rates Soon Amid Oil Downturn [Realty News Report]
• Homebuilders Offering Discounts, Others Buying Fewer Lots in Slower Housing Market [Houston Chronicle]
• City Launches Website Where Uses Can Track Progress of Reported Potholes [Houston Public Media]
• Slideshow: The Streets with the Most Pothole Reports [Houston Chronicle]
• Groups Call To Designate 2-Mile Tree-Lined Stretch in the Heights the Yale Green Corridor [Houston Chronicle]
• Petition Opposing Houston’s Switch to LED Streetlights Has More Than 400 Signatures [Houston Chronicle]

Photo of the Med Center: Russell Hancock via Swamplot Flickr Pool