Featured Posts

11/11/14 5:30pm

Butler Brothers Hope to Bring a Little Santa Barbara to Spring Branch with 28-Home Gated Community

Spring Branch

6 Comments

Maravilla Court, 1717 Pine Chase Dr., Spring Branch, Houston

Here’s the early progress on Spring Branch’sÂ Maravilla Court, a planned 28-home gated community going up in the 1700 block of Pine Chase Dr. on the site of a demolished 1970s-era apartment complex.

aesthetic oases

77055, Gated Communities, Spring-Branch

11/11/14 4:30pm

Wacky Mural-Rich Home-and-Hangar Compound in Richmond’s Covey Trails Hoping for a $1.2 Million Landing

Fort Bend County, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Richmond

16 Comments

16 Kitty Hawk St., Covey Trails, Richmond, Texas

Is the sky really the limit when the neighborhood has its own landing strip, or is that what it takes for commutes from Richmond? That’s where a Covey Trails property, Â located out FM 1093 near FM 1463, took off at $1.2 million in its listing over the weekend. Hangar (top) and hangouts (middle) are harbingers of the adventurousÂ array — and many, many murals — found within the unassuming house, which previously kept its active inner lifeÂ to itself. But now lookie here:

Over the Top

77406, Airplane Hangars, Aviation Communities, Covey Trails, Fort Bend County, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Richmond, Swimming Pools

11/11/14 2:30pm

Trailside Sign Gone from the Proposed Heights Hike-and-Bike Development

Houston Heights, Proposed Developments, Uncategorized

7 Comments

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Over the weekendÂ Surge Homes removed theÂ sign promising “future development” along the Heights Hike-and-Bike Trail. Workers took the recently-installed bike-scaled billboard Saturday morning. It appears that the sign had been squattingÂ on a public right-of-way.

Around the same time, the newly-created Surge HomesÂ released lots of new informationÂ for the trailside colony. Surge is run by the same principals involved with Canada’s Group LSR who closed on the property in 2004. Sporadic attempts to develop the site have so far borne no fruit.

Aerial views show that the project would take quite a bite out of theÂ pocket forestÂ currently on the site; access would come via a lengthened E. 5th St., not a trail-crossing extension of Frasier St., as in anÂ earlier proposal.

77007, Freeland Historic District, Heights Hike-and-Bike Trail, Houston Heights, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Develoments, Signs

Surge Homes Pullback

Demolitions

11/11/14 11:30am

100 David Weekley Homes To Spring Up in the Branch Atop Former Flea Market Site

Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Spring Branch, Uncategorized

33 Comments

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Here lie the remainsÂ of the New Flea Market, the most recent occupant of a strip mall site at 8315 Long Point Rd. that once was home to theÂ Â Spring Branch K-Mart. Workers are scraping an 8-acre parcel of the larger site at the corner of Hillendahl Blvd. to make way for the Village at Spring Branch, a 100-home David Weekley development offering three-story townhouses and garden and patio homes ringing a pool and cabana. Blue-light specials will be offered around $400k; premium buys will go on sale at $700k. Retail — and the tiny, historic Hillendahl Cemetery (captured below in an old photo) — will remain along the Long Point frontage.

What’s New Is Old

77055, Demolition, New Construction, Spring-Branch

11/10/14 5:15pm

A Pearland Property in Colonial Estates Musters at $348K

Home Design, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Pearland

7 Comments

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How’d all this open land find itself around this deep-on-the-lotÂ bungalow-like listing? This 2008 property isÂ far fromÂ the higher density cottage communities in Houston Heights and itsÂ hinterlands.Â Rather, it’s in Pearland’s Colonial Estates, aÂ neighborhood located west of Cabot Cove Lake and south of Magnolia St. TheÂ big-roofed home and just-plain-big garage (above) share an acre and a half fronting a straight-shot countryÂ road.Â Views from the front porch go deep, wide, and high (top). The recent listingÂ asks $348,000.

Watching From Afar

77584, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Pearland

Adaptive Reuse

11/10/14 1:45pm

Brown Metal Office Warehouse on Rusk Intended as New Home for Green Bone Dog Bakery and Hangout

Critters, East Downtown, Retail

1 Comment

2901 Rusk St., East Downtown, Houston

The proprietor of The Green Bone is hoping to turn this former office warehouse at the far eastern edge of East Downtown into a new home for the doggie daycare, hemp-treat outlet, and espresso stop. The Green Bone currently operates in this still-for-sale building at 2104 Leeland St., 1 mile to the southwest. Its envisioned future home in the warehouse at the corner of Rusk and Paige, which The Green Bone purchased at the beginning of this year, would encompass 3,429 sq. ft. at the corner of Rusk and Paige.

77003, Adaptive Reuse, Buying and Selling, Critters, East Downtown, Retail, Variances

Apartments

11/10/14 12:45pm

New Owner of Avalon Square Apartments on Westheimer Near Kirby Plans To Keep Renting Them Out

Buying and Selling, Upper Kirby

10 Comments

Avalon Square Apartments, 2400 Westheimer Rd., Upper Kirby, Houston

A note and FAQ sheet sent to all residents of the Avalon Square Apartments at 2400 Westheimer Rd. last Friday — informing them that the 3-story, 5-courtyard compound is now under new management — does not mention the property’s sale or identify Peak Real Estate Management as anything other than the new management company. But a representative of the firm tells Swamplot that it is also the property’s new owner, and that upgrades are planned for the 210-unit complex, not demolition. Avalon Square, which sits on a 3.72-acre siteÂ stretching between Dickey Pl. and Argonne St., was built in 1974; it last changed hands 7 years ago.

Photo:Â Justin McMurtry

Sold!

77098, Apartments, Buying and Selling, Upper Kirby

Avondale

11/10/14 11:30am

Westheimer Street Clock Stolen from Scott-Day Montrose Paint Store Over the Weekend

Crime, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Retail

9 Comments

The hexagonal clock mounted above the front door of the former Cra-Bell Vacuum and Appliance Co. building at 216 Westheimer Rd. was stolen over the weekend. Derek Brotherton of Scott-Day Paint & Supply, the company that’s inhabited the building since 1963, tells Swamplot that he and coworkers noticed the disappearance this morning, and that they are “deeply upset over losing part of the character of the store.” Photos above show the clock in place (above, in an older image) and gone missing (at top, taken this morning). Brotherton says he believes the clock had been in its current position since the building was constructed in 1935Â — or shortly thereafter. Back then, the street was named Hathaway; it now sits on the north side of Westheimer between Helena and Mason.

Did You See Time Fly?

77006, Avondale, Crime, Lower Westheimer, Montrose, Retail

11/07/14 3:45pm

A $620K Westchester Home Forecasts Cloudy With a Chance of Gray

Homes for Sale, Interiors, Open Houses, Westchester

3 Comments

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Tauping up a 1969 Westchester home as part of its updates this year seems to have decoratively straddled the great divide between the forces ofÂ gray and beige throughout the floor plan. Listed earlier this week at $620,000, the property has upped its game with new paint, roof, heating system, and a remodeled kitchen. Its Memorial West neighborhood lands west of Dairy Ashford and south of Memorial Dr.

Crackle Finish

77079, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Open Houses, Swimming Pools, Westchester

11/07/14 11:00am

A Buffed-Up Grogan’s Mill Home from the Eighties Shoots for $430K

Grogan's Mill, Homes for Sale, Interiors, The Woodlands

5 Comments

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When the eighties called this Grogan’s Mill home on a cul-de-sac in The Woodlands, the peaky property answered — by updating. There’s fresh paint (inside and out), new tile and countertops, and a new-vibe front door in wood and glass. But evidence of the era from which it sprang remains in theÂ slant-board accents, half-vaulted ceilings, and loft-level cutouts. After all the tweaks targeting today’s buyers, the home was listed last week — forÂ $430,000. Access to and through the home’s woodsy neighborhood is via a street with a Figure 8 right-of-way that’s located off N. Millbend Dr., west of Grogan’s Mill Rd.

The Woodlands

77380, Grogan's Mill, Home Decor, Homes for Sale, Interiors, The Woodlands

11/07/14 10:00am

A New Sign of Future Development Appears on Heights Hike-and-Bike Trail Site

Houston Heights, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments

43 Comments

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Here’s the sign that a reader says went up earlier this week along the south side of the Heights hike-and-bike trail just south of the Freeland Historic District, at the ends of Frasier St. and E. 5th 1/2 St. Does the promise of “future development” mean that another developer is taking a turn trying to develop the 1.4-acre parcel of land where a proposed 80-plus-unit condo project known variously as Emes Place or Viewpoint at the Heights stirred up a fair amount of neighborhood opposition when it was last in the news a couple of years ago?

77007, Freeland Historic District, Heights Hike-and-Bike Trail, Houston Heights, Neighborhood Disputes, Proposed Developments

Surge!

11/06/14 4:00pm

Supermercado de Walmart, America’s First and Last Latino-Themed Walmart Grocery Store, Has Closed Down for Good

Openings and Closings, Retail, Spring Branch

14 Comments

supermercado-walmart-long-pt

Supermercado de Walmart, 7690 Long Point Rd., Spring Branch, Houston Houston’s (and America’s) first Walmart grocery store named and designed to cater to Latinos shut its doors at the end of last week. Supermercado de Walmart opened 5 years ago in Spring BranchÂ in a convertedÂ 39,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market-style store at 7960 Long Point Rd.,Â amid a fanfare of mariachi music and a smorgasbord of free food and drink samples. Those days are long gone: A reader sends in a pic (at right) of the far more offhand sign taped to the glass door.Â

Spring Branch Supermarket Shutdown

77055, Grocery Stores, Openings and Closings, Retail, Spring-Branch

Condos for Sale

11/06/14 3:00pm

The Million-Dollar Views of Houston in This Mosaic Penthouse Will Cost You $2 Million

Hermann Park, Highrises, Interiors

17 Comments

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Expansive vistas panÂ north, west, and southÂ throughÂ barely-thereÂ walls of floor-to-ceiling windows in thisÂ swish penthouse atop the Mosaic at Hermann Park, one of the twin-ishÂ 30-story condo towers across from the park’s eastern edge. Do the panoramas and high-end custom finishes from a 2012 update to the 2008 space merit the listing’s asking price of $2.05 million? It last sold in 2009 for $930K, but back then the FDIC and a group of investors had control of the property following sequential foreclosures on the condo tower and its neighboring rental twin (once named The Montage).

Vision Quest

77004, Condos for Sale, Highrises, Home Design, Interiors, Mosaic on Hermann Park, Penthouses

Attractions

11/06/14 10:00am

Golfers Appear To Have Won Gus Wortham