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Featured Posts
02/19/16 10:15am

Parking Augmentation Procedure Planned for Former Dorsey’s Beauty Academy in the Heights

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Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Retail
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Proposed Development at Yale and 21st streets, Heights, Houston, 77008

Proposed Development at Yale and 21st streets, Heights, Houston, 77008Here’s the latest cloud-edged rendering of what could be coming to the corner of Yale and W. 21st streets, if Wellington Development gets its requested setback variance wish granted. A reader noticed the notice of the request posted outside of the building currently at 2105 Yale, which formerly housed Dorsey’s Beauty Academy prior to a decade of abandonment.

Wellington bought the spot last July, around which time Collum Commercial put out a leasing flyer showing a new floor-slash-parking plan for the property, which is boxed in on the non-Yale-and-21st-streets sides by the 2125 Yale apartments. Planned renovations to the building, which is listed in county records as 13,000 sq.ft.,  appear to involve some major trimming and resculpting to fit in new off-street parking spaces:

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Yale Street Plaza
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Braeswood Place
02/18/16 4:30pm

Monochromatic Mod on Brays Bayou Offers Glassy Spaces for Internal Reflection

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Homes for Sale, Interiors
15 Comments

3627 Braeswood Blvd, Houston, 77025

White walls, glass walls, and mirrored walls provide ample opportunities for looking inward and outward from this 1958 house designed by Houston architect Arthur Steinberg. Overlooking Brays Bayou across Glen Arbor Dr., the home contains 3 bedrooms and 2 and a half bathrooms on 3,765 sq. ft. of pale polished concrete and marble floors.  Mid-century minimalism comes with a $1.495-million price tag. CONTINUE READING THIS STORY

A Whiter Shade of Pale
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Featured Posts
02/18/16 1:15pm

New Seafarers International Union Hall Laying Foundations on Former Second Ward Cement Facility

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New Construction, Office Buildings, Second Ward
6 Comments

Future Seafarers International Union Hall, 501 N. York St., Second Ward, Houston, 77003

A reader shipped over these shots of the new Seafarers International Union Hall under construction at 501 N. York St., just south of the crossing of Buffalo Bayou (and of the name change to Hirsch Rd.). An entity called Seafarer’s Building Corporation bought the land from the Buffalo Bayou Partnership in March of last year; the bayou folks snagged it in 2001 from construction materials producer Lafarge, which acquired it as a General Portland cement facility in 1989. The property sits a block down N. York from bayou-side Tony Marron Park, itself immediately upstream of the Dan-Loc Group machining plant.

A close-up of the rendering posted at the job site at the corner with Freund St. shows an access ramp stretching along the N. York side of the property, as well as what appears to be a partially covered upstairs patio:

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Coming Together on N. York St.
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Featured Posts
02/18/16 10:00am

Latest Addition Brings Mattress Store Count to 9 within Half a Mile of Rice Village

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Openings and Closings, Retail, West University
8 Comments

Mattress Stores in Strip Center at Kirby Dr. and Wroxton St., West University, TX 77005

Semi-boutique mattress chain Urban Mattress has jumped into the cluster of mattress retail options at the edge of West University, setting up shop between Einstein Bros. Bagels and Verizon Wireless just south of the sleepy corner of Kirby Dr. and Bissonnet St. Since 2008, the Boulder-grown franchise chain has opened 6 stores in Colorado, 3 in Austin, and a few others in cities including Berkeley, Albuquerque, Dallas, and San Antonio. The company purports to send 2% of its sales price to local charities of the franchise owner’s choice, and offers mattresses (both regular and organic) ranging from about $300 to $30,000.

The new store sits right across Wroxton St. from a few of its all-caps competitors: mattress and ergonomic furniture store Relax the Back is buffered from a Mattress Firm by narrow custom shoe store Foot Solutions:

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Bouncing into the Market
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Featured Posts
02/17/16 4:30pm

All the Ways to Check Out at this Elsewhere-Inspired Villa in the Woodlands

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, The Woodlands
3 Comments

18 Maymont Way, Carlton Way, Woodlands, 77382

Don’t forget your towel or your clubs when visiting this Carlton Woods Estates home, priced at $3.188 million (brought down last week from the $3.388 million August asking price). This 5-bedroom, 5-full-bath, 3-half-bath villa wraps around a central courtyard and pool, and is itself nestled between fairways of the Jack Niklaus Signature Golf Course. The 2-story dwelling clocks in at 9,476 sq ft. and provides plenty of opportunities to get away from it all from the comfort of home.

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No Reservations
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Audubon Place
02/17/16 12:30pm

Duplex Plans Germinating on Former Community Garden Plots in Audubon Place

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Former Greenleaf Gardens, 803 Kipling St., Audubon Place, Houston, 77006

Former Greenleaf Gardens, 803 Kipling St., Audubon Place, Houston, 77006Greenleaf Gardens appears to be getting ready for some less-communal, more-perennial planting on the corner of Kipling and Stanford streets in Audubon Place. A reader snapped a few photos at the former community garden last week, including a picture of the sign announcing an application for a certificate of appropriateness for new construction in the historic district. That application is in the name of Greg Swedberg of 2Scale Architects, on behalf of Michele Alvarado of Sanctuary Builders, which bought the property last fall after the city decided not to buy the land and turn it into a park.

The paperwork for the certificate includes sketches and and plans for the 2-story duplex in the works for the space, which may need to be revised to something a little more neatly rectangular, based on late-January feedback from the Houston Archaeological and Historical Commission. Here’s a view from the corner of Kipling and Stanford, as submitted on January 6th:

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Turning a New Leaf
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Featured Posts
02/17/16 10:45am

50-ish Bedroom Fixer Upper near Pearland Could Be Your Dream Whatever for $3.5 Million

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12 Comments

2354 County Rd. 59 , Manvel, TX 77578

If you missed out last time around, the 2-story, ambiguous-dozens-bedroom building at 2354 County Rd. 59 is back on the market as of this weekend after spending the winter in hibernation under contract. The property, tucked just 1 mile west of 288 at the edge of Pearland, made the rounds late last April for its current asking price of $3.5 million before an October relisting and a quick switchover to the “sale pending” category.

The newest listing calls the house 46-bedroom, but also holds the buyer responsible for counting. Mona Miller of RE/MAX told the Chronicle back in May that the structure has “probably more like 70″ bedrooms — because interior construction is incomplete, it’s hard to tell. The unfinished structure started going up in the early 2000’s, possibly intended for use as a medical rehab institution by its doctor owner, who instead built a slightly-smaller similarly-styled facility on the lot next door in 2003 (on the right, in the aerial photo below)
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Make It Your Own
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Featured Posts
02/16/16 4:17pm

Former AA Meeting Space To Reopen as Slowpokes Wine Bar and Coffee Shop on W. 34th St.

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Garden Oaks, Interiors, Redevelopment, Restaurants, Retail, Strip Centers
14 Comments

Rendering of Slowpokes Coffee and Wine Bar, 1203 W. 34th St., Garden Oaks, Houston, 77018

Remodeling is underway at the former Primary Purpose Alcoholics Anonymous meeting space, as Suite D of the strip center at 1203 W. 34th St. is converted into Slowpokes wine, beer, and coffee bar. The new business is busy building its digital presence as it rehabs its physical space just south of the corner with Alba Rd.

The bar’s Instagram page shows the above photo of a screenshot of a rendering of the suite under renovation, which depicts a large patio spreading out into what is currently the strip center’s parking lot. Photos of carpet removal and wishful floor-taping have also been posted as interior construction begins:

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Repurposed in Garden Oaks
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Conroe
02/16/16 1:15pm

The Continuing YouTube Ventures of Paul Gomberg, Conroe Real Estate Agent

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Lake Conroe, Real Estate Agents, Real Estate Marketing
3 Comments

Leather-clad real estate agent Paul Gomberg, perhaps best known for the sales video of that Champion Forest house filled with excrement that made the rounds back in early January, is now starring in a less nose-threatening video tour — this one of a squeaky-clean 2011 mansion on Lake Conroe. The punchline this time: a suit-and-tie-clad 11-year-old that Gomberg chaperons around the property, who ultimately leaves the contract-ready agent hanging on the steps of the house pending parental permission to close the deal.

The house at 12386 Tramonto Dr., which first went on the market in October of 2014 for $1.6 million, was dropped to just below $1.5 million on Tax Day in 2015, two weeks before an early May relisting. The asking price dropped again last July to the current $1.35 million.

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Lake Conroe Listing Antics
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Featured Posts
02/16/16 11:00am

Hamburgers By Gourmet Readies for Relaunch by Space Center Houston

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Nassau Bay, Restaurants, Retail
7 Comments

Hamburgers by Gourmet, 1360 E. Nasa Pkwy., Nassau Bay, TX 77058

Defunct 1970’s burger chain Hamburgers By Gourmet appears to be readying for a new takeoff at 1360 NASA 1 Pwky., across the street from the Space Center Houston visitors center parking lot at the junction with King’s Park Ln. A corporate entity connected to a Nassau Bay real estate agent was registered under the Hamburgers By Gourmet name 2 Octobers ago; the new storefront bearing the chain’s old burger-slash-mushroom-reminiscent logo was spotted last week by a keen-eyed user on HAIF.

The newly rebranded building, shown above from the west side, was formerly a Kentucky Fried Chicken prior to its turn-of-the-decade conversion to a Premium Title Lending.

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Serving up Nostalgia in Nassau Bay
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Featured Posts
02/16/16 9:15am

Tropical Getaway off Gessner Rd. Offers Fun and Games

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, Spring Shadows
12 Comments

2930 Kenross St., Houston, 77043

Double or triple your fun with 3 bedrooms, 2 and a half baths, and 3 bars in this Spring Shadows home.  Multiple covered patios and balconies surround the backyard pool, which is itself surrounded by an impressive collection of flora and faux-fauna. This 3,067 sq. ft. of vibrant colors and unique finishes was initially listed for $495,375 in December 2015. The price was dropped in January and again in February to the current asking of $399,999.

Bonus points: Can you spot all of the dinosaurs roaming the property?

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Welcome to the Jungle
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Featured Posts
02/12/16 1:15pm

Jilted Heights Post Office Spot To Move On as a New Mixed-Use Lowrise Complex

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Houston Heights
23 Comments

Heights Finance Station Post Office, 1050 Yale St., Houston Heights

Heights Finance Station Post Office, 1050 Yale St., Houston HeightsA brand new multi-building mixed-use development is planned for the site of the former Heights Finance Station post office, which shut down at the end of last year after being declared “no longer necessary” by USPS.  The land on 11th St. between Heights Blvd. and Yale St. will move on, change its name to a less-stodgy Heights Central Station, and start a new life as the site of multiple 2-story lowrises housing ground-floor retail and restaurants with office spaces on top.

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Heights Central Station
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Featured Posts
02/12/16 12:00pm

40 Story Tower Proposed for Post Oak Corner Where That 50 Story Tower Won’t Be Going Up

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Proposed Developments, Uptown
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South elevation of proposed Vantage highrise, Post Oak Blvd. at San Felipe Rd., Uptown, Houston, 77056

This could someday be part of the north-bound view on Post Oak Blvd., if plans that have been filed for a new 40-story highrise tower from Dinerstein at the corner of Post Oak and San Felipe Rd. come to be. The Vantage tower, shown above in a south-side elevation by Gensler, would include 32 stories of apartments atop 2 floors of retail; 2 of the 7 parking levels would be tucked underground, below an amenities deck.

The tower is slated for the same spot as a previously proposed 50-story tower from AmREIT, which back in 2014 spurred the formation of a political action committee by residents of the next-door Cosmopolitan condo highrise directly behind the property. The committee claimed that opposition to the proposed tower had nothing to do with any potential blocking of the condo’s views — though the renderings of the AmREIT proposal did show a ghostly sketch of the Cosmopolitan lurking very close behind in the background:

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Uptown Vantage Points
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Featured Posts
02/11/16 3:15pm

Family Solar Farm Prepares Harvest for Market on FM 3013 near Sealy

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Land Development, Technology, Utilities
3 Comments

Harvest Moon Solar Farm, FM 3013 at Gebhardt Rd., Sealy, TX 77474

Harvest Moon Solar Farm, FM 3013 at Gebhardt Rd., Sealy, TX 77474These crop duster-height shots of 12 acres of solar paneling were snagged above FM 3013 half a mile south of Gebhardt Rd., where Harvest Moon Renewable Energy Company is getting ready to bring its juice to market in Sealy and Houston areas served by CenterPoint Energy. According to a fresh-from-the-farm press release, the plant’s 15,000-and-then-some solar panels, blossoming on the end of more than 1,000 steel posts, should produce around 2.5 million kilowatt-hours of power each year (bundled into the 952 million kWh the EPA says Houston uses annually). MP2 Energy will take care of the actual selling, and plans to fill in the gaps from the solar supply with power bought from other renewable sources.

Harvest Moon’s president Joey Romano, who previously developed the solar-focused Mirabeau B. apartments on Waugh at Hyde Park, is now running the operation with founder and CEO Joe Romano, formerly CEO of Contango Oil & Gas and CFO of Zilhka Energy. The company plans to allow customers to tour the family farm, but you can also watch the panel crop grow online — the company took a time-lapse video of the 120-day installation, which wrapped up late last year:

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Fresh from the Photovoltaic Module
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Featured Posts
02/11/16 10:30am

Progress on Those Limestone Slabs Getting Screwed Onto the Mecom Fountain

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Hermann Park, Museum District
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Mecom Fountain with Limestone Paneling, Main at Montrose, Museum District, Houston, 77006

Here’s a late-afternoon look at the limestone slabs that have been working their way around the concrete oval basin of the Mecom Fountain in the last week, which the Texas Historical Commission is hoping that TXDoT and the city will stop applying for the moment, according to the Chronicle’s Lisa Gray. Commissioner Linda Henderson told Gray that the organization approved work to redo the north entrance to Hermann Park without realizing that the updates included work on the fountain itself (which is currently being looked at for potential inclusion in the National Register of Historic Places, and for city protected landmark status).

Meanwhile, the city planning department has been receiving complaints about the work that include phrases like “suburban mall,” Margaret Wallace tells the Chronicle. As of yesterday evening, the panels had already marched around both ends of the ellipse, with a gap remaining on the southwest side:

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Getting Stoned at Main and Montrose
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