05/31/16 10:45am

Construction, Demo, and High Turnover rate map, Harris County, TX

The land between the Grand Parkway and Hwy.-6-FM-1960 contained more than 37 percent of the construction sites in Harris County over the last decade, according to the Houston in Flux report and interactive maps released by the Kinder Institute for Urban Research last week. The maps above highlight regions where demolition and construction permits were issued at above-county-average rates between 2005 and 2015. Red shows areas with high demolition rates, blue shows high construction rates, and purple shows spots where both stats beat the average — areas authors Kelsey Walker and Kyle Shelton refer to as high-turnover (mostly concentrated in the Inner Loop and to the northwest).

Each subsection of the walkthrough embedded above contains a “learn more” link that provides access to (and a quick explanation of) various data types that can be displayed. A section on census-tract-level trends (including building, demo, and turnover, as shown up top) is followed by a section allowing a detailed property-by-property browsing of the data, as shown below:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Drawing It Out
05/27/16 12:00pm

The Secret Group Comedy Club, 2101 Polk Street, East Downtown, Houston

The final episode of Simpsons-themed mural antics at the corner of Polk and St. Emanuel streets appears to have played out, now that the exterior walls of The Secret Group’s in-progress venue have gone dark on their way toward looking something like the shadowy rendering above. The transformation appears to have a deadline: the group has started selling tickets to shows at the new venue, with the first one set for June 22nd.

The space, at the Polk end of the developing 2-block East Village retail spot, will function as a full time bar in addition to hosting regular comedy and music performances. The rendering from Māk Studio appears to show a rooftop patio; the venue doesn’t currently plan to serve food, but that could change.

Rendering: māk studio

East Downtown
05/26/16 5:15pm

1301 Leeland St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

1301 Leeland St., Downtown, Houston, 77002From a largely-barren expanse of surface lot west of Toyota Center, a reader sends a few fresh images snapped during a street-level fly-by of the 1930s office building at the corner of Leeland and Caroline streets, where Texas Direct Auto has recently taken up both residence and a new advertising tack. Following in the wake of a previous foray into Downtown real-estate-billboard crossover, the company’s newest mural encompasses 3 of the 4 sides of the building (including the dog in an astronaut suit on the side opposite Leeland). Painting started in January, and a we’re-done-now party was thrown in early April. 

As was the case for the company’s red-tagged Main St. doggie-in-the-window signage, the newer mural incorporates some of the structure’s actual windows into the design — this time as a set of questionable-utility solar panel arrays on an artificial astronaut habitat:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Leeland at Caroline
05/26/16 1:30pm

River Oaks collection redevelopment, 1705 W. Gray St., North Montrose, 77019

River Oaks collection redevelopment, 1705 W. Gray St., North Montrose, 77019

The Panera marker previously spotted all by its lonesome in the leasing flier for Braun Enterprises’ redevelopment of 1705 W. Gray has picked up a companion in the form of the Kriser’s Natural Pet logo. The marker for the grain-averse pet supply and grooming store now appears on the freestanding former home of International Hair Salon & Nail Spa (shown above), previously marked up in Braun’s renderings as a possible coffee shop. 

The reader who snagged the shot above also spent some time sniffing around the back and sides of the complex (to be known as the River Oaks Collection). The wall in the shot below is starting to get its coat of grey paint cleaned off to match the mottled brick exterior shown in the redo renderings:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

River Oaks Collecting
05/26/16 11:00am

Options for Police and Courts building, Design Options for Bellaire Town Square Renovations, Bellaire, TX 77401

Evidently none of these facades will appear on the Jessamine St. entrance of the new police and municipal court building planned for Bellaire’s Town Square. The latest design, as presented at last week’s town hall meeting, appears to be a blend of several of the choices above. Architect PGAL put together a set of possibilities earlier this spring for both a new police building and a planned city hall redo; a committee spent the last few months choosing the parts they liked.

The approximate sites of the police station and the new city hall appear in gold on the conceptual site plan below, showing the S. Rice Ave. land bounded by Jessamine, 5th St., and the houses south of Linden St.:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Reshaping Town Square
05/25/16 4:15pm

TIRZ 17 boundary

Some Memorial-area residents (mostly under the banner of uncontroversially-named Residents Against Flooding) filed a previously-threatened lawsuit this morning requesting that the city of Houston and TIRZ 17 be barred from using the reinvestment district’s funds for private development projects until more drainage projects have been implemented in the nearby neighborhoods. The lawsuit alleges that the Memorial City Redevelopment Authority and the city have been increasing runoff from the zone (inside Beltway 8 at I-10, shown above in green) into the nearby neighborhoods without adding enough new drainage projects to compensate for it; residential flooding in 2009, last Memorial Day, and this Tax Day are cited as the outcome.

The group filing the suit says it doesn’t want money — so what is the suit asking for?

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Memorial City
05/25/16 10:45am

Houston Toros Downtown facility, 2202 Summer St., Sawyer Heights, Houston, 77007

The new Houston Toros facility on Summer St. is getting polished up for next month’s soft kickoff, per reader Rony Canales’s latest panoramic update. The training spot and community center is across a railroad easement and some now-warehouse-free fields from the rice silo complex being redeveloped into the Silos at Sawyer Yards artsy-retail space to the south.

The new soccer center appears to incorporate at least the shells of few of the warehouses previously occupying the site, though a few structures on the block have ejected — including the house at the corner of Summer and Hemphill streets, where a playing field is now being smoothed into place (as shown above). Check out the aerial rendering of the entire site, facing toward the silos and the Downtown skyline:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Summer St. Summer League
05/24/16 12:30pm

9000 Main St., Reliant, Houston, 77025

That’s 5 stories of sticks now stacked up at 9000 Main St., the triangular former site of the Medical Inn & Suites complex that met its unmaker late last year. The property was bought in 2013 by an entity named Shree Shriji LLC, which shares an address with the Days Inn & Suites near Hobby Airport at 9114 Airport Blvd. The land sits a half block north of Broadmead Dr., directly across Main from Superbowl-prepping NRG Park’s parking lot (the one spanning between Murworth Dr. and McNee Rd.).

The land wasn’t empty for long following deconstructive operations — but another reader did manage to snap a view of the property back in January, when the freshly emptied spot provided a clear view all the way to the since-sold land 2 parcels north, where Regency Car Wash holds soapy court:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

More Rooms on Main St.
05/23/16 5:00pm

14303 Harvest Glen Ct., Clear Lake, Houston, 77062

14303 Harvest Glen Ct., Clear Lake, Houston, 77062

This Clear Lake home overlooking a golf-course-adorned stretch of Horsepen Bayou to the north is now for sale for $1.75 million (dropped in February from the $1.8 million requested when the house first hit the market last July). If you are allowed into the walled inner garden, you’ll find the yellow-and-cerulean structure above perched at the top of a glass-brick staircase. Ivy-League-turned-Rice-turned-University-of-Virginia architect Peter Waldman, who designed the 1990 home, referred to the multicolored elevated landing as a Trojan Horseinvading” the larger space. Roll right in through the front gates to see for yourself:
CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Hidden In Bay Oak Country
05/23/16 12:00pm

Corporate Plaza I Demolition, Kirby at Norfolk, Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098

Here’s this morning’s view of the former Corporate Plaza site, now sans the skeletal midrise that spent much of May wasting away. Standing at the edge of the rubble is the Texas Direct Auto billboard, visible here from its non-dayglo-yellow backside above the cluster of excavators picking over the last of the former midrise. On the left (at the corner of Kirby and 59) is the separately-owned Shell service station property, boxed in by the increasingly empty lot throughout the entire demo spectacle.

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

And Then There Was Shell
05/23/16 10:00am

2410 Woodhead St., Hyde Park, Houston, 77019

The retail strip at 1927 Fairview St. is now being gutted and cleaned out into a large dumpster parked in front of the former Te House of Tea and Trudy’s resale boutique. Permits to clear out some interior walls and redo the space were issued at the start of this month to an entity named Riel Restaurant; also listed on those permits are the company phone number and CEO of South Union-based seafood importer Marine Foods Express. 

Out back behind the retail strip, the nextdoor 1935 bungalow at 2410 Woodhead St. appears to be joining Te’s former backyard garden in becoming a parking lot — purportedly a green one:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Something Fishy on Fairview
05/20/16 4:15pm

Fake Construction Workers, McHenry at Carothers streets, Golfcrest, Houston, 77087

Fake Construction Workers, McHenry at Carothers streets, Golfcrest, Houston, 77087Something caught the eye of occasional construction scrutinizer Tuco Ramirez yesterday at the corner of McHenry and Carothers streets (and not just the site’s elaborate and colorful vinyl construction fencing): what appeared to be 2 workers on the job in the middle of the downpour and accompanying lightning. Upon slowing down to take a closer look, Ramirez realized the figures “were standing still — turns out they weren’t working at all.” 

Above are some close-ups of the mannequins snapped after the rain slowed down; while both do appear to be making an effort to model some level of appropriate protective gear, each still lacks a few of the basics, from safety goggles to pants.  “Have to admit, if it wasn’t pouring cats and dogs at the time, I would never have noticed they were fake,” continues Ramirez. “I got out of my truck to snap these shots from a good perspective, but I assure you they look very convincing from the street view.”

Here’s the rest of the scene:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Props in Golfcrest
05/20/16 11:15am

Future Site of Raspado Xperts , W. Little York Rd. east of Antoine Dr., Greater Inwood, Houston, 77091

Up on the docket for the White Oak Village redevelopment of the Evergreen Center shopping plaza at Antoine Dr. and W. Little York Rd.: the underway conversion of a long-empty drive-thru bank into a bike-and-drive-thru branch of Houston raspa-smoothie-snack shop Raspado Xperts. The structure sits at 5647 W. Little York on the north side of the complex, right between O’Reilly Auto Care and that eastern strip getting turned around to face White Oak Bayou and its hiking-and-biking enthusiasts.

A rep from Nankani Management claims that the raspa shop will be the first bike-thru business in Houston, and one of only 5 officially Bicycle Friendly businesses in the city (per a designation from the League of American Bicyclists). The shop is hanging on to the bank’s original bulletproof glass side wall and teller shield, which are becoming walls of the restaurant’s kitchen:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

White Oak Village
05/19/16 4:45pm

Corporate Plaza I Demolition, Kirby at Norfolk, Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098

Corporate Plaza I Demolition, Kirby at Norfolk, Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098Here’s the raw scene captured around lunch time today, when a small pack of excavators was sighted rooting through the debris at the base of the former Corporate Plaza I midrise. The increasingly see-through office building was fully de-striped some time between yesterday (second photo) and noon today (top); below is a quick video of the excavator crew gently yanking down a piece of what appears to be the 4th-story floor: 

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

Break Another Little Piece
05/19/16 11:30am

Lovett Homes site at Buffalo Spdwy. and Main St., South Main, Houston, 77025

Lovett Homes site at Buffalo Spdwy. and Main St., South Main, Houston, 77025A mid-day shot from the Starbucks at the intersection of S. Main St. and Buffalo Spdwy. shows the new fencing now up around the 4-and-a-half-ish acres boxing in the coffee drive-thru. The snapping reader says the lot was cleared out and fenced off last week, a little more than a year after the America’s Best Value Inn and its abandoned grocery-and-nightclub strip center friend were demolished in the name of Lovett. Here’s a peek through the chain link at the palm-lined lot:

CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

S. Main