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Featured Posts
12/29/15 10:15am

Citywide Wave of Taco Colonization Will Continue with Occupation of Former Drake Nightclub in Sawyer Heights

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Restaurants, Sawyer Heights
5 Comments

Rendering of Tacodeli, 1902 Washington Avenue, Sawyer Heights,

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:

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Washington Ave Taco Strategery
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Featured Posts
12/28/15 3:15pm

New Midrise Apartments Going Up Near Sewage Treatment Plant on Brays Bayou

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Meyer Park
6 Comments

8877 Frankway Dr., Meyerland, Houston, 77096

A reader snapped a few shots of construction over at 8877 Frankway Dr.: a midrise apartment complex taking shape in a long-vacant strip of land next door to the Houston Orthodontics building and a ProGuard public storage facility, just west of where S. Braeswood jumps across Brays Bayou to become N. Braeswood. The project will fall into a row with the next-door Meritage and freeway-adjacent Halstead apartment complexes to the west, both on N. Braeswood between Frankway and the West Loop. Just east of the Proguard facility is the Southwest Wastewater Treatment Plant, which accidentally released nearly 100,000 gallons of raw sewage into Brays Bayou and the surrounding area during this year’s Memorial Day flooding.

A crane is on the scene, and some preformed concrete segments have been trucked in:

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Meyer Park
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Apartments
12/28/15 10:00am

Inside the Fully Extended Elan Heights Midrise on White Oak Bayou at Taylor St.

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Interiors, New Construction, New Construction: Residential, Woodland Heights
21 Comments

Elan Heights Apartments, 825 Usener, Woodland Heights, Houston, 77009

Just in time for the holiday season, the residential floors of the Elan Heights midrise apartments (officially located at 825 Usener St.) have been packaged up in a shiny new layer of building wrap. A sign outside the construction site announces an early 2016 opening for the 327-unit complex, nestled in next to Mango Beach snowcone shop and Little Buddy gas station and convenience store on White Oak Dr. (bottom left in the aerial photo below):

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Wrapping Up in Woodland Heights
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Avondale
12/24/15 10:00am

Gazing Into the Future at the Former Psychic Locale Between Indika and the Cat Doctor on Westheimer

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Montrose
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Work at 528 Westheimer, Montrose, Houston, 77006

An excavator and friends were spotted on Westheimer this week having a go at the long-empty lot directly next to upscale Indian-fusion spot Indika.  Also on the agenda were the freshly-empty and moderate-length-of-empty lots next door — all three spaces (520, 524, and 528 Westheimer) are currently held by Rok Bros Holdings.

The central lot, at 524 Westheimer, was demolished shortly after mid-2011; the more recently demolished house on the westernmost lot (528 Westheimer) held LV Massage and a psychic, after the 524 house crossed over into the great beyond.  A request to merge the 3 lots was approved at a Houston Planning Commission meeting on July 10, 2014; the request refers to the space as Rok Bros Westheimer Plaza, and was filed in conjunction with Houston-based Momentum Engineering.

Swamplot reader sfalumberjack sends the twilight snapshot above, along with a few others of equipment on the site (bounded on the other side by The Cat Doctor):

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Plaza Predictions for Avondale
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Featured Posts
12/23/15 2:45pm

2-Story Single Family Home with Built-In Taco Stand Now Available in the Museum District

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Homes for Sale, Interiors, MacGregor Park, Museum District
7 Comments

4504 Caroline, Museum District, Houston, 77004
Do you have an untapped entrepreneurial side and flautas worth flaunting? This 3-bedroom, 2-bath 1930’s home comes equipped with its own taco stand, ready to serve your culinary ambitions. Located on 7,500 sq.ft. directly behind the Mexican Consulate, the 2,882 sq.-ft. building and attachment are yours for $420,000. (In related news, Happy Jalapeno is now closed.)

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Very Hot on the Market
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Featured Posts
12/23/15 12:30pm

Te House of Tea on Fairview Closes Thursday, But You Can Still Buy a Piece of It This Weekend

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Montrose, Openings and Closings, Restaurants
7 Comments

Te House of Tea Grand Opening, 1927 Fairview, Montrose, Houston, 77006

Te House of Tea Grand Opening, 1927 Fairview, Montrose, Houston, 77006

Vegan-friendly dance landmark Te House of Tea, at the corner of Fairview and Woodhead, will officially close its doors tomorrow at 7 PM — then briefly reopen them for an after-Christmas sale of equipment and interior furnishings the following Saturday. According to the restaurant’s December 1st closing announcement, owner Connie Lacobie attempted to sell the nearly 10-year-old business citing health issues, but a buyer couldn’t be found before the landlord made other plans for the space. Te opened in March 2006 with a lion dance for good luck (above); the final weekly swing-blues-fusion dance was held this past Saturday, and Monday was the last Open Mic. Photos: Te House of Tea

Down to the Dregs
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Downtown
12/23/15 10:00am

Who Poked That Hole in the Side of 1010 Lamar Downtown?

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Interiors, Skyscrapers
5 Comments

Hole in the side of 1010 Lamar, Downtown, Houston, 77002

Something is missing: Reader Jamie Guidry snapped this shot of overcast Downtown this morning, noting that “a big chunk of 1010 Lamar” appears to be absent. The breached facade is shown here from the south, from the circular GreenStreet pedestrian bridge over Fannin. (A permit was issued on December 9th for the remodel of an upper-story suite of the office building, but a representative from permittee R.L. Hart Construction confirms that it has nothing to do with the hole.)

1010 Lamar was one of the properties snapped up in 2007 by Texas office space tycoon Zaya Younan, along with the former Sakowitz department store building (currently a parking garage) across the street at 1111 Main.

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DIY Window Office
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Featured Posts
12/22/15 3:45pm

Checking In at Newly Upgraded (and Once-Again International) Hobby Airport

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Glenbrook Valley, New Construction, Openings and Closings, Parking, Redevelopment
5 Comments

Hobby Airport New Parking Garage, 7800 Airport Blvd, Houston, TX 77061

Direct flights to Cuba from the US are back on the table (probably, eventually) per last week’s agreement between Havana and the State Department — and whenever that happens, Southwest Airlines is looking to get in on the action from its newly-minted international concourse at Hobby Airport. The concourse has been launching passengers to Central America and the Caribbean since its mid-October opening, which marked the airport’s return to the international game for the first time since IAH opened in 1969.

Other major additions to Hobby include a 3,000-spot parking garage (shown above) still partially under construction on one of the former EcoPark lots, just west of the original garage (now labeled the Red Garage). The new structure (known as the Blue Garage) is rising in phases: Phase I opened just in time for Thanksgiving, and the rest of the structure should be ready to receive rather less anxious travelers some time next year. The pedestrian bridge shown in the photo above connects Level 3 of the new garage to the newly-expanded Terminal area:

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Park and Fly
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Downtown
12/22/15 11:30am

Descend Into the New Tunnel Concourse Coming to the Former ExxonMobil Tower Downtown

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Office Buildings, Office Space, Proposed Developments, Uncategorized
7 Comments

Proposed Modifications to 800 Bell St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Permits were issued yesterday for construction of a new tunnel concourse below 800 Bell St. —  the Louisiana tunnel will be tied into the new digs planned beneath the former ExxonMobil building, at the corner of Bell and Milam downtown.

Following Exxon’s gradual withdrawal north to its new Woodlands campus, the Bell St. building is being completely redone — beneath a fancy new hat, the structure’s exterior fins will be engulfed in a new glass skin to add 100,000 sq.ft. of floorspace to the building. Eric Anderson told the HBJ last year that the only part of the building that wouldn’t be replaced is the concrete.

Renderings and site plans from architects Ziegler Cooper now provide a glimpse into plans for the basement and coming tunnel connections as well:

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800 Bell St.
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Featured Posts
12/22/15 9:45am

Next Segments of Grand Parkway Will Receive a Diplomatic Welcome from a Smoothie King in Spring Town Center

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Proposed Developments, Retail, Spring
2 Comments

Spring Town Center, Kuykendahl Rd, Spring, TX 77389

38 miles of Grand Parkway are expected to open early next year — NewQuest Properties is prepping Spring Town Center for the anticipated additional traffic by adding five new pad sites to the retail complex, located off of Kuykendahl Rd. south of FM 2920. Grand Parkway Segments F-1, F-2, and G — running between US 290 and the Eastex Freeway — are kind-of-sort-of nearing completion following a flood-heavy 2015, and are expected open in the first quarter of 2016.

The new additions to the shopping center are highlighted in yellow in the map above, and the zoomed-in section below along Kuykendahl:

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Coming This Fall to Spring
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Featured Posts
12/21/15 1:30pm

Enjoy the Celestial Architectural Alignment of Stonehenge from the Comfort of Your Own Montrose Subdivision

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Montrose
4 Comments

Solstice Alignment in Montrose

Still hunting for that perfect spot to boil up some fresh eye of newt during tonight’s winter solstice sunset? Github user and mapping fanatic Demeter Sztanko has you covered, a reader tells Swamplot just in time. Sztanko has programmed an interactive map highlighting all the streets aligned with the summer and winter solstices — so you too can get in on the mystical fun from a bit closer to home than Wilshire. Choice picks for an in-line solstice vantage include that entire off-kilter neighborhood north of Westheimer between Waugh and Mandell (pictured above) and certain segments of the South Loop.

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G.I.S. for Druids
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Featured Posts
12/21/15 10:00am

Injecting 420 More Beds into Baylor’s Once-Catatonic McNair Campus South of the TMC

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Proposed Developments, Texas Medical Center
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Proposed Baylor McNair Campus, 7200 Cambridge Dr., Texas Medical Center, Houston, 77030

After a 4-year coma and slow recovery, the Baylor College of Medicine’s McNair Campus at the corner of Cambridge St. and Old Spanish Tr. may be back on track to eventually lead a normal life — new renderings released late last week to Joe Martin of the HBJ show the next phase of construction for what is now being called the Baylor College of Medicine Medical Center facility. Following a bleed-out of construction financing and subsequent failed merger negotiations between Baylor and Rice University, the building’s shell was completed in early 2010 and sat empty until a partial buildout gave the structure new life in late 2013.

St. Luke’s (owned by Catholic Health Initiatives) teamed up with Baylor shortly thereafter and made plans to move its Texas Medical Center hospital operations to the new facility. The Texas Heart Institute, which operates independently in St. Luke’s existing building,  will also be transplanted into the new facility.

The newly released site plan ties in to the double-helix-reminiscent campus recently proposed by the TMC for the parking lot next door — the campus is shown at the top of the site plan below:

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Recovery on Cambridge St.
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Briarmeadow
12/18/15 12:30pm

Lee Senior High School Is Scooting South but Keeping the Glamorous Beverly Hill Address

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Woodlake
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Construction of Lee Highschool Rebuild, 6529 Beverly Hill St., Woodlake/Briar Meadow, Houston, 77057

Currently rising behind Lee Senior High School: Lee Senior High School. The new building is going up on the south side of the block east of Hillcroft between Beverly Hill St. and Skyline Dr., 1 block south of Richmond Ave. The first foundation slab was poured last Friday, and steel has been going up this week— pictured above are the servery, kitchen, and utility areas, according to the Twitter narration of Brent Oldbury. (The distant Williams Tower can be seen peeking through the steel on the right.)

A north-facing entrance is planned, allowing the school to hold on to the current Beverly Hill St. address despite shifting to the Skyline side of the block. The old building (behind the steel to the left, in the photo above) will watch its younger, prettier replacement going up next door until demolition in early 2017 makes way for sports facilities and parking.

A few renderings were presented at an October 2014 community meeting about the new building’s construction and timeline:

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Second Secondary on Hillcroft
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Downtown
12/18/15 9:45am

Subterranean South Indian Cuisine Now Available at DGN Factory’s New Location Under Downtown

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants
5 Comments

dgn Factory, 1001 Fannin St., Downtown, Houston, 77002

Deep beneath First City Tower, something is lightly frying — Indian fast-casual joint DGN Factory, previously known by its less-coy former moniker The Dosa Factory, is now serving the no-longer-titular stuffed crepes and other South Indian vegetarian staples at its newly opened counter in the tunnel below 1001 Fannin St., 4 blocks west of Discovery Green.

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