Featured Posts

Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Retail

SPENGA’S UPPER-DECK GYM WILL JUT OUT REAL CLOSE TO ITS NEIGHBOR Just 8 in. will separate the cantilevered fitness studio’s eastern, over-the-edge portion from the eaves of the 1915 home adjacent to it — reports abc13’s Christine Dobbyn — which will soon house Arden’s Picture Framing and Gallery. The 15,700-sq.-ft. lot where the new retail building’s planned at 307 Westheimer is currently going up; Italian restaurant Michelangelo’s went to pieces on its west side last December (the east was all parking). [abc13; previously on Swamplot] Rendering of 307 Westheimer Rd.: Spenga

77006, Avondale, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Retail

09/14/18 10:00am

Groundbreaking Machinery Spotted in Levy Park’s Side Yard

Upper Kirby

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The southeast corner of Richmond and Eastside is seeing some vehicle traffic for the first time since a 3-story office building and parking lot were demolished on it in 2016. Personnel from Van & Sons Drilling Service hit the vacant spot on Monday, taking care to protect the grass by sliding some wooden boards underneath their truck, pictured above. TheÂ just-under-an-acre property is the only patch of greenery present at the intersection; the rest is all ’60s-era office space.

Behind the corner parcel lies Levy Park. It’s bounded by a private street that runs past the vacant field, as well as the adjacent Primrose School of Upper Kirby and Kirby Grove office building. You can see the 16-story office towering over the school in the photo below, looking east:

Richmond and Eastside

77098, Upper Kirby

09/13/18 4:00pm

Hwy. 6’s Chamberlin Ace Hardware Is a Goner

Openings and Closings, Retail

The second Ace Hardware liquidation of the week will leave behind a slightly larger hole than the one on Westheimer: 19,930 sq.-ft. as opposed to 18,900. Pictured above is the retail co-op’s Hwy. 6 location in the Providence Plaza shopping center off Bissonnet. Management’s selling off everything it’s got left there now, reports a Swamplot reader. And the post office inside the store has already shut down for good.

Before a few years ago, the storefront entrance looked like a smaller version of Dollar Treeâ€™s next door:

Retooling

77083, Openings and Closings, Retail, Strip Center

Demolitions

09/13/18 1:00pm

A Final Farewell to the Former Houston Press Building

Downtown, Office Buildings, Quicklink

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A FINAL FAREWELL TO THE FORMER HOUSTON PRESS BUILDING The former alternative newspaper HQ at 1621 Milam St. that’s also done stints as an auto dealership will be demolished, reports the Chronicleâ€™s Craig Hlavaty.Â Back when the Houston Press moved into it 15 years ago, the structure’s parking-lot sides were unadorned; artist Suzanne E. Sellers slapped her trompe-lâ€™Å“il mural onto the north and east facades in 1994. Along Milam, however, things haven’t changed as much since the building’s first tenant Shelor Motor Company opened up in the ’20s — according to former Press staffer AbrahÃ¡n Garza. Even its original 1920s glass windows — he reported — stayed put on the second and third floors through 2010. Now construction barriers are up around the whole block, andÂ the property owner Chevron tells Hlavaty that a demolition permit is under review by the city. The oil company bought the 38,000-sq.-ft. structure in 2013, the same year Houston Press staff left it for a new spot on the corner of La Branch and McGowen. [Houston Chronicle] Photo: Capital Realty

77002, Demolitions, Downtown, Office Buildings, Quicklink

09/13/18 10:45am

Aldi Has Dibs on Soon-to-Close Batie’s Ace Hardware in the Tanglewilde Center

Openings and Closings, Retail, Woodlake

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The mark of Aldi now appears at 9525 Westheimer, smack in the middle of the strip where Batie’s Ace Hardware is going out of business. Liquidation sales began there on Tuesday — reports a Swamplot reader — with the goal of creating an 18,900-sq.-ft. hole in the portion of the building pictured at top, adjacent to Party City.

Currently about half a dozen Aldis are open inside the Beltway, with additional reinforcements scheduled to arrive soon.

Tanglewilde Center [Brixmor]

Photo: Swamplot inbox. Map: Brixmor

Westheimer Near Gessner

77063, Openings and Closings, Retail, Strip Centers, Woodlake

09/12/18 4:30pm

The Timbergate House of a Million Tiles Is Now Under Contract

Homes for Sale

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It’s been just about a week since 4006 Timber Falls Ct. hit the market and already some lucky buyer has the place — along with its many constituent parts — nearly locked up. Pictured above is the double-high living room that sits at the front of the 3-bed, 2-and-a-half bath house, north of Westpark Dr. and west of Addicks Clodine. Despite its already-high level of GaudÃ-ness, there’s plenty more where that came from.

Just back up and you’ll start to see the whole picture:

4006 Timber Falls Ct.

77082, Homes for Sale

Apartments

09/12/18 1:00pm

Affordable Housing HQ Planned Across from Affordable Housing on the Edge of Emancipation Park

Mixed Use, Proposed Developments

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Although only one includes living space, both structures shown separated by St. Charles St. in the rendering at top are intended to give people spaces to live. The big one — depicted in more detail above — is Kirksey Architectureâ€™s 5-story design for an affordable housing operations center, to be placed directly across the street from 20 units of actual housing. The Midtown Redevelopment Authority bought the vacant land for both sites along Elgin in 2015, back when the renovation of neighboring Emancipation Park was still taking shape.

On the left in the aerial below, you can see the parcel where the HQ is planned across from the park and its on-site Emancipation Community Center:

Third Ward

77004, Affordable Housing, Apartments, Mixed Use, Office Buildings, Proposed Developments, Third Ward

09/12/18 9:30am

Former Randalls Strip Section Now Pledging Its Allegiance to El Rancho

Openings and Closings, Retail, Stafford

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That’s El Rancho’s signage taking the place of Randallsâ€™ in the photo above — which views the Keegan’s Meadow shopping center from the north along W. Bellfort. At 53,200 sq.-ft., the new Stafford store will be slightly bigger than El Rancho’s one other Houston location, opened along I-45 just inside the Beltway in June. There, all the typical grocery standards are present, along with a butcher shop, seafood counter, produce section, and bakery. Plus, there are some extras: a tortilleria and in-house Latin-American-style kitchen.

Two more El Ranchos are in the works, too: the first further up the North Fwy. on the outskirts of Spring, and the other in the old Oak Forest Randalls, gone from 34th St. since earlier this year.

El Rancho to open its first Houston supermarket [Houston Chronicle]
Previously on Swamplot: Randalls To Leave Behind Another Grocery-Store-Sized Hole in the Shopping Center on Bellfort at Kirkwood; Oak Forest Randalls Now in Everything-Must-Go Mode Ahead of Closure

Photo: Dennis Scipio

Supermarket Goes Supermercado

77477, Grocery Stores, Openings and Closings, Signage, Stafford

Apartments

09/11/18 3:00pm

Colquitt Corner Mini-Complex Sells

Buying and Selling, First Montrose Commons

The building’s longtime owners handed it off last week to Fat Property, and the new landlord’s turned around and listed one of 10 units inside for lease already. Built in 1965, the structure grabs some frontage on Stanford St. — pictured above — but most of its exterior and adjacent parking lies to the north along Colquitt.

77006, Apartments, Buying and Selling, First Montrose Commons

4202 Stanford

09/11/18 10:30am

El Ahorro Setting Up Shop in Former Airline Dr. Kroger

Quicklink, Renovations

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EL AHORRO SETTING UP SHOP IN FORMER AIRLINE DR. KROGER A whole ‘nother crop of building permits filed recently on the north end of the strip Kroger abandoned last year confirm that specialty supermarket El Ahorro is now getting situated there. It’s been working for the better part of this year on the property at 6749 Airline — which backs up behind the parking lot shown above to abut a house on the corner of E. Parker Rd. and Mano St. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Kelly Regan

77076, Northline, Quicklink, Renovations, Strip Centers

Demolitions

09/10/18 5:15pm

Allston St. Skeleton House Vanishes from the Armpit of Its Encircling Yale at 6th Apartment Complex

Houston Heights

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And that’s all for the 610 Allston St. bungalow Mary Cerruti refused to sell before she was found dead inside it last March. This past week’s demolition comes a little later than Trammell Crow had hoped when it began developing the adjacent 5-story apartment complex off Yale St. in 2013. After the developer’s attempts to buy Cerruti’s 6,600-sq.-ft. lot were rebuffed, it decided to build around both it and the same-sized parcel directly to its south. (Cerruti continued to speak out against the development even after construction began in 2013, appearing publicly at a planning commission meeting that February.)

Now, her property and the one next door have been snatched up by the same owner: Sandcastle Homes, an inner-Loop builder. You can see part of the company’s new 2-story handiwork at 606 Allston St. on the right in the photo above.

It went up over the last few months on what was once vacant land next door to Cerruti’s house:

Holdout No More

77007, Demolitions, Holdouts, Houston Heights

09/10/18 12:45pm

Cloud 10 Creamery Number 3 Heads to Shepherd and Colquitt Corner

Renovations, Restaurants, Upper Kirby

The ice cream shop has plans to shoot the gap between its existing Heights and Rice Village locations with a new spot at 3502 S. Shepherd, in the house next to the Richmond Ave strip where Burgerim’s getting situated. Although Cloud 10’s summer menu — includingÂ mozzarella and black tea-cornÂ flavors, as well as a sundae made with “freeze dried blueberries” — is still on rotation in the 2 current locations, it’ll probably be replaced by a whole ‘nother roster by the time the new store opens.

Five head-in parking spots line the building’s northern frontage along Colquitt St. They’ve been empty for the most part since hair salon All Decked Out checked out of the building, leaving it open to new arrivals.

Previously on Swamplot:Â Bungalow Full of Weird Ice Cream Flavors Now Open on Heights Blvd.;Â Where Cloud 10 and All Those Extra Parking Spaces Will Fit Into Heights Mercantile; Cloud 10 Hitting Sweet Spot in the Village

Photos: All Decked Out Hair Salon (first); Tenavox (second)

The Scoop

77098, Renovations, Restaurants, Retail, Upper Kirby

09/07/18 3:30pm

Windchimes Cinema 8 Has Sold Its Last $2 Movie Ticket

Openings and Closings, Retail

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It used to just be a buck, until “about 10 years ago it went to $2,” writes a moviegoer. By then the theater had already been around for decades in the back of its namesake Wind Chimes Shopping Center at Westheimer and Eldridge — once the setting itself of a movie shot by a local production company. Following roughly 40 years there, “It was just about the last dollar movie open in Houston,” the former patron declares. (Still around, notes the sign, is the North Oaks Cinema 6 at FM 1960 and Stuebner Airline — where the same owners will sell you a $2 ticket to see any of 8 selections right now.)

What that price got you at Windchimes: admission to feature films that hadn’t quite made it to DVD yet after finishing up their time in first-run theaters. And on top of that, arcade games:

Cut!

77077, Movie-Theaters, Openings and Closings, Retail, Shopping Centers

09/07/18 10:45am

Burgerim Keeps on Pluralizing with Royal Oaks Village Location