Featured Posts

Condos
12/31/14 11:00am

Trafalgar Hacienda Opposite Briargrove Asking $93K for Cross-Cultural Condo

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Homes for Sale, Interiors
3 Comments

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Converted to condos in 1977, hacienda-themed 1963 Trafalgar Place is part of an architectural lineup encompassing Georgian and French Empire inspired apartment, townhome, and converted properties of the same era — plus more recent residential developments. Old and new properties share a block-long street — extra-wide to accommodate both a median and complex-serving feeder lanes — that spurs south off Westheimer Rd. just west of Fountainview Dr. The tidy, stucco-clad property lies across Westheimer from Briargrove, and across Briarhurst Dr. from the Lambo Chinese Buffet.

One of its updated 1-bedroom units popped up on the market earlier this month, and it’s asking $93K. It last changed hands in 2010, for $65K.

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Converted
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Demolitions
12/31/14 10:00am

The Last Hours of That Shopping Center at S. Shepherd and W. Alabama, Where The New CVS Is Going In

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Montrose, Restaurants, Retail, Shopping Centers
21 Comments

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Reader Sean McManus was on the spot for yesterday’s demolition proceedings at the southwest corner of W. Alabama St. and S. Shepherd Dr., where Roeder’s Pub, Ruchi’s taqueria, Fly High Little Bunny jewelry store and the River Oaks Dry Cleaners are being swept away in favor of a CVS pharmacy.

“As I was taking [the pictures], one of the deconstruction workers asked if he could help me,” McManus writes. “I told him that I was just taking a couple of quick photos. His response: ‘Pfft… Memories.’”

More hot demo porn after the jump:

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Fly High, Little Ruchi and Roeder
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Apartments
12/30/14 3:00pm

Across W. Alabama From the Icehouse, Those 3 2-Story Apartment Complexes Are Now Making Way for One 6-Story Complex

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Demolitions, Montrose, Montrose, New Constructon, Proposed Developments, Winlow Place
41 Comments

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Chomp goes the excavator on a portion of the 3 adjacent 1950s and ’60s-era complexes at 1920 W. Alabama St., 1924 Marshall St. (pictured at left), and 2810 McDuffie St., right across the street from the Alabama Icehouse and just south of Admiral Linens.

In late July residents of the 3 complexes were told to move out by September 1, so that new owners City Centre at Midtown, an affiliate of developers Dolce Living, could be begin tearing down the 2-story buildings to clear the 1.58 acre parcel for one 6-story, 258-unit luxury apartment building.

Though it will be situated in the western edge of Montrose’s Winlow Place area, the building will be named City Centre at Midtown.

Here is a rendering released to the media in the days after the 35-day eviction notices went out:

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Making Way For Montrose’s CityCentre At Midtown
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Featured Posts
12/30/14 12:00pm

Library Branch Outgrows Palm Center, Will Move Across Street, and Double in Size

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Palm Center, Public Buildings, South Union
8 Comments

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Above you see the Alice McKean Young Neighborhood Library of the near future that is going in at 5106 Griggs Rd., and the one that stands at present in the Palm Center, catty-corner across the intersection with M.L.K. Blvd. at 5260 Griggs. Dirt started flying December 19 on the $10.6 million, Perkins + Will-designed structure, which at 16,000 sq.-ft., will more than double the size of the current facility. Books will be available for checkout in Fall 2015 if all goes according to plan.

Rendering and Photo: Houston Public Library

Booking It
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Awards
12/30/14 11:00am

The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, 2014: The Winners!

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8 Comments

And here it is — the grand finale of the seventh annual Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. It’s time to announce the winners of this year’s competition.

This final unveiling caps an almost month-long process that began with calls for nominations in 7 separate award categories. Official ballots were assembled from reader nominations. Then voting was opened up — to everyone.

The award winners of the 2014 Swampies deserve to be recognized for their unique contributions to this city. It takes something special to stand out in Houston’s real estate landscape. Award winners: Houston real-estate fans have noticed you!

Also worthy of recognition: the many Swamplot readers who took time to nominate, evaluate, vote, and comment on competitors in each category. Your judgments, your descriptions, and your observations are featured below.

Does this honor roll of award winners — along with the list of runners up — provide an accurate snapshot of the year in Houston real estate? The lineup was determined by reader votes. It’s too late to vote, but do let everyone know how you think it all turned out!

The winners of the 2014 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate are . . .

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The 2014 Swampies
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Energy Corridor
12/30/14 10:00am

Cornelius Nursery Uprooting from Energy Corridor Location

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Openings and Closings
No Comments

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Last chance for those seeking to buy pansies, raspberry bushes and fig trees near the corner of N. Dairy Ashford Dr. and the Katy Fwy, as the location of Cornelius Nursery that has stood there for decades is closing down in a matter of days. “Most likely on the fourth,” an employee says, but possibly as early as Friday.

The nursery and parking lot sprawl across about 3 acres of Energy Corridor land at 1200 N. Dairy Ashford Dr. According to online property records, Calloway’s Inc., the nursery company with which Cornelius merged, sold the property to an entity called 1200 North Dairy Ashford LLC earlier this month.

Two Swamplot readers heard differing tales regarding the property’s fate:

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Horticultural Institutions
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Adaptive Reuse
12/29/14 2:15pm

Report: That Former Gas Station at Yale and W. 11th To Be Reborn as Restaurant Run by Heights-Famous Duo

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Houston Heights, Restaurants
11 Comments

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Looks like that long-vacant, wheatpaste poster-festooned former service station and repair shop in the heart of the Houston Heights will finally be reincarnated. Eater Houston’s Jakeisha Wilmore is reporting that Morgan Weber and Ryan Pera, the team behind Revival Market and Coltivare, have snatched up the former Citgo at 1039 Yale St., an address less than a mile from both Coltivare and Revival. Exactly what Pera and Weber will be dishing out in lieu of unleaded and 10W-40 remains to be seen; a spokesman told Wilmore that the rumored restaurant’s concept is still secret.

Photo: Jakeisha Wilmore

Combustibles To Comestibles
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Awards
12/29/14 11:00am

The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, 2014: The Runners-Up

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6 Comments

The votes have been counted. Now here’s the moment you’ve been waiting for — well, almost. It’s time to reveal the second-place winners of the 2014 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate!

Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate Ribbon LogoBefore we do that, a hearty thank you is due to all of you who voted, commented, nominated, campaigned, and cajoled in support of your favorite candidates. You make the Swampies possible.

The actual award winners will be announced in a later post, but now’s the time to let the second-place finishers shine. Several categories had close races; under slightly different circumstances, the candidates listed below could have been the winners. So let’s have a big round of pixelated applause for the 2014 runners-up in the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate — the Swampies!

They are:

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The 2014 Swampies
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Featured Posts
12/29/14 10:30am

Froyo Arrives in Shopping Center Anchored by the Giant Heights Kroger

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Houston Heights, Restaurants, Shopping Centers, Timbergrove Manor
10 Comments

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You’re looking at Harris County’s very first Cherry Berry Self-Serve Frozen Yogurt Bar. It’s going in at 949 N. Shepherd Dr., into a Merchants Park shopping center storefront that most recently housed an AT&T Wireless shop.

Froyo’s arrival in Merchants Park caps 5 years of steady transformation among the tenants in the Kroger-anchored shopping center that sprawls more than 2 blocks south down N. Shepherd and N. Durham Dr. from W. 11th St.

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Awards
12/24/14 11:45am

It’s Campaign Season for the 2014 Swamplot Awards

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Notices
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Have you voted yet in this year’s Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate? Ballots for all 7 categories are open this week only!

Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate Ribbon LogoHere’s a quick refresher on the 4 different methods you can use to vote in each category: (A longer explanation is here, but yes, you can vote once for each category using each method.)

If you vote via the website or email, please make sure you’ve signed up for the Swamplot email list (through this link, or by filling out the box at the top left of this page). And remember: Votes taste better when they’re peppered with some sort of explanation.

Here’s a handy list of all the categories:

Already voted, but want to do more? Drum up more support for your favorites. The difference between one nominee winning or losing could come down to your email, Facebook post, or tweet.

Voting in all categories will end at 5 pm on Saturday, December 27th.

The 2014 Swampies
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Apartments
12/23/14 3:15pm

Five of Old Hardy Rail Yard’s 50 Acres To Become a Mostly Affordable Near Northside Apartment Complex

by
Fifth Ward, Near Northside
18 Comments

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A teaser website is now up and more work is underway on the Residences at Hardy Yards, touted as a component of the Near Northside’s very first mixed-use development. The apartments — “part of a comprehensive, mixed-use redevelopment of the Hardy Rail Yard site,” per city documents — are going in on 5 acres of the long-neglected former Southern Pacific and Union Pacific rail yard near the corner of N. Main St. and Burnett St., 2 blocks north of I-10, hard by the new MetroRail line, and just east of UH-Downtown. 

Earlier this month City Council approved a performance-based loan of $14,500,000 in federal hurricane relief money to the Houston and Financing Corporation-created entity HY FS LLC to build a 350-residential unit development on part of the 49-acre recently guerrilla-gardened property.

One condition of the loan: that 179 of the total of 350 one- and 2-bedroom units be affordable:

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Tracks To Flats
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Featured Posts
12/22/14 12:46pm

Sprawl Vortex at S. Shepherd and W. Alabama Will Turn Roeder’s Pub into Drive-Thru, Cat Clinic Houses into CVS

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Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers
46 Comments

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As of December 10 heavy equipment was already on site at the southwest corner of W. Alabama St. and S. Shepherd Dr., where a bevy of venerable-by-Houston-standards small businesses — including quirky jewelers Fly High Little Bunny, laid-back Roeder’s Pub, a cat clinic and stray adoption center, and late-night hang Ruchi’s Taqueria — are eating it to make way for a CVS and a roughly 24,000 sq.-ft. pad site.

Back when news of the development broke, some Swamplot commenters criticized it, site-plan unseen, as overly suburban-looking for its location, just across W. Alabama from the old theater and adjoining strip mall that now houses Trader Joe’s.

And now developers Read-King have released the site plans:

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Shepherding In A Katyville Corner
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Featured Posts
12/19/14 1:00pm

Likely Website Glitch Shows Shows New Walmart Neighborhood Market Headed to Washington Ave Near Memorial Heights

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Retail, Washington Ave
10 Comments

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Here’s a map a reader sent yesterday apparently showing the location of “Walmart Neighborhood Market #3450,” on Washington Ave, just east of the newly sold Archstone Memorial Heights apartment complex at 201 S. Heights Blvd. (A different Walmart map shows it in the same spot.)

 

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Mystery Walmart By The Heights Walmart
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Art
12/19/14 11:30am

A Peek Inside the Old Riviana Silos, Where the Deal Company Is Transforming Rice Space into Art Space

by
First Ward, Sawyer Heights
14 Comments

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Clarification, 12/22: Jon Deal of Deal Properties writes: “Just wanted to clarify that Studio Red is not specifically working on the silo project, rather they are studying a master plan of approximately 35 contiguous acres owned by Frank Liu, Steve Gibson and myself of which The Silos are part. Jason Logan and Matt Johnson of LOJO architects is working on the facade.”

Under the sign of the merry Mahatma, workers are sweeping out what stray grains of rice may linger within the 38 silos at the old Riviana Foods complex at 1520 Sawyer, which last contained the cereal crop in 2008.

They are prepping for its new purpose as the Silos on Sawyer, a 79,000 sq.-ft. art space and the latest addition to the Deal Company’s pre-existing Spring Street Studios, Winter Street Studios and Silver Steet Studios complex in the heart of the State of Texas-recognized Washington Avenue Arts District.

Reader Noah Brenner ventures inside, camera in hand:

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A total of 55 workspaces are now available for lease, along with 20,000 sq.-ft. set aside for flexible buildouts such as restaurants, galleries or retail.

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Granaries To Galleries
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Awards
12/19/14 10:00am

Neighborhood of the Year: The Official 2014 Ballot

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63 Comments

Here it is: the official ballot for Neighborhood of the Year. This is the next-to-last category in the 2014 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, a list of candidates culled from your nominations.

Newcomers to the Swampies, please take note: This category is for neighborhood of the year. That doesn’t necessarily mean best neighborhood — but it could! With your vote, you’re not only helping Houston to figure out who the winner of the Neighborhood of the Year is, you’re also defining what Neighborhood of the Year should even mean. So please explain your vote as you cast it.

Votes in this category can take the form of a comment below this post, an email, or a post on Facebook or Twitter. You can vote all 4 ways so long as you follow the voting rules. For your votes submitted as Swamplot comments or emails, however, you’ll want to have joined the Swamplot email list, because they won’t be counted if you’re not signed up for it. (You can get on the list through this link or by adding your email address to the box at the top left of this page.)

The nominees for the Houston area’s 2014 Neighborhood of the Year are:

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The 2014 Swampies
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