ANOTHER IMPORTANT HISTORICAL SITE IN HOUSTON THAT DESERVES RECOGNITION 
The account may be a tad more florid, but Harbeer Sandhu’s satirical tale of an inmate-turned-entrepreneur’s plan to create a Houston museum dedicated to the private prison industry is only slightly more bizarre than the true story behind the birth of the Corrections Corporation of America, the world’s largest for-profit prison operator, in the still-operating Olympic Motel at 5714 Werner St. (less than a half-mile down I-45 from Gallery Furniture). Fences, barbed wire, and iron bars went up on the former hot-sheet motel in early 1984 to create the world’s first for-profit private prison, a detention center for 87 undocumented immigrants. Much has changed in the private prison industry since those humble feeder-road beginnings, where several detainees were able to escape by dislodging the air-conditioning units and climbing out through the holes. [Free Press Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photos: Harbeer Sandhu
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An expansive deck with pool for physical therapy (top) links a home and its back-of-lot studio apartment at a Montrose compound, which started October as a $795K listing. Recent updates to the 1922 bungalow (above) included new AC, duct work, and wallboard. The studio space was added in 2012. Located east of Stanford St. near Lovett Blvd., the property is within walking — or rolling — distance of many neighborhood restaurants.
Single Level Living
Had you been planning a big farewell meal at Van Loc later this week? Sorry, there’s been a change of plans: The Vietnamese restaurant at 3010 Milam St. in Midtown is now officially closed for good. “There are signs on the doors apologizing for having to close earlier than expected,” a reader tells Swamplot. The reason: So much business in the last few days that they’ve “run out of food” — and order and prep times mean new orders wouldn’t be ready much before the previously planned Friday closing.
Van Loc served its last meals Tuesday night. A sale of the property appears to be imminent.
- Previously on Swamplot: Midtown’s Van Loc Will Lock Up for Good This Friday; Midtown Vietnamese Restaurant Van Loc Says It’s Closing Up Shop
Photos: Allyn West/OffCite (front); Swamplot inbox (sign)
The Pho Has Flown
The denuded 18-story frame of the former Houston Club Building at 811 Rusk St. (pictured above before storms blew away much of its blue clothing early last week) will vibrate and then collapse after 520 lbs. of explosives detonate in and around the structure shortly after 7 am this Sunday, October 19th. If you’re a controlled-demolition gawker hunting for a spot to watch it all go down — and maybe take in all the dusty aftermath, you might want to note that streets will be shut down more than 2 blocks away in every direction before the blast. Although many nearby office buildings will close up late Saturday evening, they may not kick out all workers who have arrived earlier. “Project managers discourage anyone from coming down to see the implosion in person for safety reasons,” notes Click2Houston’s Syan Rhodes. Her station is promising to broadcast a livestream of the implosion on its website that morning.
- Former Houston Club building to be demolished [Click2Houston];
- Previously on Swamplot: The Clubbing of the Houston Club Building Begins; Skanska’s New Downtown Office Tower; Houston Club Tunnel Tenants Making Their Escape; Houston Club Building To Be Demolished, Say Auctioneers; Downtown Houston Club Building Will Stay Put; Skanska Goes for a Houston Office Building Hat Trick; Skanska Helping Houston Club to Early Exit; Will Skanska Knock Down the Houston Club?; At Risk on Rusk
Photo: Marc Longoria
Ka-Blooey
How many colors worked their way into this room-sized scene, titled “Yamatane” (mountain seed) and now playing in the Rice Gallery? And from where around town did the surprisingly diverse brown hues originate? Here’s the key:
Mud Mural
With space for a 10-car fleet in its garage, parking (top) shouldn’t be a problem at this 2008 custom home in Lakeside Island, a niche neighborhood east of Wilcrest Dr. near Terry Hershey Park. The home lies at the end of a suspended walkway parallel to the driveway’s slope (above) on a ravine lot. More stilts and steel shore up the back of the tri-level home, which looks across Buffalo Bayou. The propped-up property’s initial asking price when listed last Friday was $1.249 million, but the price had dropped to $1.229 million by Monday’s weigh-in.
Park City
LONGTIME HEIGHTS CAFE JAVA JAVA NOW TRYING TO SELL ITS GROUNDS 
A reader notes that the owner of Java Java Cafe on 11th St. and Herkimer has placed the building at 911 W. 11th St. and its adjacent parking lots up for sale. Java Java is still open for business, however. Pay $1.25 million and you’d get close to 17,000 sq. ft. of land with street frontage on 3 sides, along with the 2,450-sq.-ft. building, which dates from 1940. But you’d need to fetch your own coffee. [HAR]
MIDTOWN’S VAN LOC WILL LOCK UP FOR GOOD THIS FRIDAY Those of you lamenting the closure of 28-year-old Midtown institution Van Loc may want to note this latest update on the Vietnamese restaurant: There’s now an actual deadline for you to get your orders in for duck & bamboo soup, garlic tofu, or No. 46. The restaurant will serve its last meals this Friday, October 17th. What will become of the place then? Separate rumors floated to a Reddit thread include new apartments and a 16-story office building with — wait for it — ground-floor retail. The restaurant at 3010 Milam St. sits on the southern half of a 50,000-sq.-ft. block, one block north of Elgin. Feel free to contribute your speculation, intel, or final orders below. [Reddit; Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West/OffCite
The Saturn V rocket originally planned to boost a never-happened Apollo 18 spaceflight has been lying on its side near the corner of Saturn Ln. and 2nd St. and aimed at Lake Jackson since 1977. An air-conditioned, metal-framed structure was built around the Smithsonian-owned hulk 10 years ago to protect it from the elements, but it makes it difficult for visitors to appreciate just how hulking the rocket is. And recently the new structure has begun to look a bit dilapidated as well. Unprompted by any government agency or basketball team, San Antonio architect Brantley Hightower has been floating a proposal to wrap a more permanent structure around Houston’s most prominent rocketship — one that would restore the drive-by view of its full length (above) that the existing enclosure ruined, and make it clear just how big the Saturn V was:
Houston Rockets
Here are a few views of the 11-story spec office building planned for the north side of the Montrose Blvd. bridge over the Southwest Fwy., across the street from Kam’s Fine Chinese Cuisine. And yes, it appears developers Griffin Partners really do intend to call the inside-the-Loop project Bridgeview Crossing. The design by Kirksey Architecture includes a single 1,500-sq.-ft. retail space facing Montrose, but the rest of the building at 4503 Montrose Blvd. is all business: 5 floors of office space sitting on top of a 6-level parking garage.
The design’s surface treatments, however, play down that simple offices-over-cars division, presenting instead a glassy-and-griddy front to Hwy. 59 on the south:
Bridgeview Crossing
All remaining tenants of the oak-tree-lined Kirby Court Apartments on the 2600 and 2700 block of Steel St. — across Kirby Dr. from the Whole Foods Market — received notice today that all leases will be terminated on December 31st, a source tells Swamplot. The notices — sent through regular mail and certified mail, taped on front doors, and bearing some lawyerly language — do not indicate the name of any buyer, or describe what might become of the site when it is redeveloped. But according to the source, all portions of the complex have now been sold.
Upper Kirby
A 38,000-sq.-ft. LA Fitness gym and health club and a larger separate multi-level parking garage are planned for the site of the Westbury Centerette, a vacant early-sixties shopping center on West Bellfort St. just east of Chimney Rock. The development would take up the entire block surrounded by West Bellfort, Chimney Rock, Cedarhurst Dr., and Moonlight Dr. — except for the AutoZone and WingStreet at the southwest corner. Plans submitted to the city show the LA Fitness backing up to Moonlight Dr. and facing a row of parking accessed from West Bellfort; the 263-space garage would sit at the corner of Chimney Rock and Cedarhurst:
Muscle Building
A renovated and expanded Richmond Place property near the curve of S. Shepherd Dr. pairs its detail-rich cottage (middle) at curbside with a more modern garage-topper behind. Should the 11-year-old back-of-lot building be scored as tony quarters or swish open-plan townhome? Either way, the property is restricted to single-family use, as noted in the $763,250 listing posted last Friday.
Stones and Sticks
THE NEW H-E-B AT SAN FELIPE AND FOUNTAINVIEW WILL TAKE OVER WHERE LUPE TORTILLA’S SANDBOXES LEFT OFF 
Former Haven chef and now JCI (James Coney Island) and H-E-B consultant Randy Evans drops a few notable details about the new H-E-B now under construction at the corner of San Felipe and Fountain View, where he’s helping create the chain’s first Houston in-grocery-store restaurant: “We’re looking at beer and wine for this store. There’s going to be a great patio and a stage for live music. There’s going to be an [outdoor] area for the kids to play so you can sit and have a glass of wine, have some bites and have your kids have a good time before you go shopping.” The store is scheduled to open in January. [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot] Rendering: H-E-B
How close to opening is the Pink’s Pizza going into the former laundromat building at 1009 Moy St. off Washington Ave, a mere 14 months after construction began? Nose-to-the-window close: “There’s even beer names over the beer taps!” reports a reader who’s been monitoring the progress of the end space as well as the neighboring fitness-gear shop. The toned folks behind Below Parallel beat their pizza-facing competitors next door to the start line, opening for business at the beginning of September. Pink’s, though, still has a bit more work to do:
Your Order in 14 Months or Bust
