Featured Posts

Featured Posts
01/09/17 1:15pm

Future Tradition Senior Living Lot on Buffalo Spdwy. Takes Parking Gig as Super Bowl Nears

by
Westridge
2 Comments

9330 Main St., NRG, Houston, 77025

9330 Main St., NRG, Houston, 77025The long-empty land at 9330 Main St. (shown here from its Buffalo Spdwy. side) appears to be picking up a part-time job before moving on toward senior-housing-dom. A reader snapped these shots of the property’s new parking and shuttle signage, including the security camera warnings tacked to the fence. The land is right across Main St. from NRG Park, where the actual football bit of the upcoming week of Super Bowl hubbub is scheduled to go on. The sale of the land to Dallas-based Traditions Senior Living went through at the end of August.

Meanwhile, the gas station recently planted across Buffalo Spdwy. at the Durhill St. 1st Stop Food Mart appears to have sprouted, and a Valero-colored canopy is now blooming over the corner:

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1st Stops near Westridge
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Featured Posts
01/09/17 12:00pm

Lightly Sterilized Beach Lagoons Planned for Land Tejas’s Bayou City Suburbs

by
Humble
1 Comment

Balmoral Master Plan, Humble, TX

Crystal Lagoon marketing shotsLand Tejas’s Scottish-castle-themed Balmoral development in Humble (sketched out above) is 1 of 2 currently planned Houston-area locations for fake lake maker Crystal Lagoons’s giant outdoor pools, Candace Carlisle reports. The sand-bottomed water feature will be around 1.5 acres, and a similar 8.5-acre pool is planned for a different Land Tejas development (though the actual location of that one hasn’t yet been announced). As it does in the demo lake shown here, the lagoon company plans to keep the water in the pools much clearer than is typical of the area’s bayous and beaches (or even of the stormwater-detaining landscaping lakes typically accompanying such developments) by using a soundwave- and flocculation-based filtration system. Bacteria and algae would also be kept at swimmable levels with a set of sensor-and-Internet-controlled disinfectant injectors.

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Humble Lakemakers
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Braeswood Place
01/06/17 5:30pm

Meet Houston’s Newest Toothily Anthropomorphized Multistory Residential Project

by
Knollwood Village
33 Comments

Stop Bethany Apartments graphic
Stop Ashby Highrise Signs, Southampton, HoustonDo those flailing arms and sharp teeth in the graphic above strike a familiar chord? The latest fantastical depiction of an as-yet-unbuilt multistory Houston residential development may even be available in yard sign form, per the website that’s been constructed in response to Bethany Methodist’s plan to build a 101-unit active-senior housing facility in its parking lot at the fringes of Knollwood Place. Also available on the site, in addition to solicitations for online petition signatures and donations, is a snapshot of what appears to be a gently-crumpled rendering of the 4-story complex, with a little less artistic liberty taken:

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Linkwood Links
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Allen's Landing
01/06/17 1:45pm

Baby Ducks Vs. Bayou Trash, Down by the County Jail

by
Downtown, Pollution
5 Comments

Urban wildlife cellphone videographer Christine Wilson sends some footage captured from Allen’s Landing documenting the eons-old nature vs. civilization struggle, which played out earlier this week in the form of tiny ducks dodging their way through the floating trash field where White Oak and Buffalo bayous join up. Wilson caught sight (and sound) of a duck and 4 ducklings struggling across the White Oak outflow toward the Buffalo side of the confluence, which she notes is significantly less debris-spangled. That’s the Harris County Jail in the background for most of the shot, across White Oak from the main building of the University of Houston Downtown. (The footage cuts out mid-scene, but Wilson says the ducks did eventually make it across.)

Video: Christine Wilson

Buffalo Vs. White Oak
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Bellaire
01/06/17 11:30am

Mid-Century Mortuary in Bellaire To Be Reanimated as Yoga Studio, Restaurant

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3 Comments

Former Earthman Bellaire Funeral Home at 6700 Ferris St., Bellaire, TX 77401
Former Earthman Bellaire Funeral Home at 6700 Ferris St., Bellaire, TX 77401Making way for new happenings in the old chapel and mortuary, Earthman Bellaire Funeral Home has departed from its longtime space at 6700 Ferris St. and moved into the younger, broader building at 4525 Bissonnet St. formerly housing Levy Funeral Directors. (Levy, for its part, has scooted over to nextdoor 4539 Bissonnet, the brick 4-plex just east of Candy’s Nails.) Earthman’s empty space was sold in October to United Equities, and Ralph Bivins reports this week that the slope-roofed mid-1950s building will be put back to use by 2 new tenants: yoga and fitness chain Define Body & Mind and a zip-code-enthused restaurant going by 401. The Define folks have already marked their territory on the Ferris side of the building, atop the ghost of Earthman’s scripty logo:

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Bissonnet Funeral Home Shuffle
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Featured Posts
01/05/17 4:30pm

The Strip Center Setup at the Corner of Mandell and W. Alabama

by
Menil Collection, Proposed Developments, Retail
1 Comment

Construction site at 1540 W. Alabama, WAMM, Houston, 77006Proposed Alabama Row Shopping Center, 1518 W. Alabama St., Montrose, HoustonA little brown box is now in place about where the gray and blue boxes of the Alabama Row retail strip are supposed to go, a reader notes. The construction trailer recently popped up inside the newish construction fencing now framing the long-empty lot along Mandell St. (across W. Alabama from the block holding the Menil Collection’s parking lot, and part of its bungalow herd). The new strip would sit just west of the 2-story brick house now holding cat spa and boarding facility Fat Cat Flats.

So far Alabama Row looks like it may be bookended by Vietnamese and burger joints, with room for some non-food offerings in the middle — that’s W. Alabama toward the bottom in the preliminary site plan below, with the strip’s parking tucked in back:

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Menil Munchies
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Featured Posts
01/05/17 11:30am

Smoosh, Snooze, Seaside, Spraytan Possibilities for N. Shepherd Dr.’s Lowell St. Warehouse Conversion

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Houston Heights
No Comments

Lowell St. Market renderings, 718 W. 18th St., Houston Heights, Houston, 77008

The details for Radom Capitol’s Lowell St. Market makeover of the industrial warehouses at the corner of W. 18th St. and N. Shepherd Dr. seem to be getting firmed up, and a slew of new building permits were issued last month for the site. The latest depictions of the space show both a less neon green color-and-finish scheme and more detail as to how the redeveloped and new buildings will be sliced up for tenants. The current leasing plan shows the former Airmakers Cooling & Heating warehouse along N. Shepherd (depicted above on the left wearing what what Steve Radom describes as its Japanese-barn-inspired replacement skin) as the planned site of a single restaurant. The middle building, now shown with a brown forehead, appears to be getting sliced up into 3 shops. And the current leasing materials for the development show all of the dark blue spots below as already leased out:

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Lowell St. on W. 18th
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Featured Posts
01/04/17 4:15pm

Decade-Long Run of Harlow’s in Greenway Plaza Edwards Cinema Now Over

by
Greenway Plaza, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail
8 Comments

Harlow's in Edwards Grand Palace 24, 3839 Weslayan St., Greenway Plaza, Houston, 77027

Harlow's in Edwards Grand Palace 24, 3839 Weslayan St., Greenway Plaza, Houston, 77027Tilman Fertitta’s Harlow’s Food & Fun arcade-bar-restaurant, located since the mid-aughts inside the southwest corner of the Edwards Greenway Grand Palace 24 on Weslayan St., is now closed forever, a woulda-been visitor reports. The entertainment-complex-within-an-entertainment-complex shut down by New Year’s Eve, and signage has already been pulled from the main entrance (though the explanatory yellow placard shown here is still visible behind the space’s security grate at the other entrance). The Harlow’s website has already been scrubbed and redirected to the main Landry’s page; some folks operating out of a Landry’s-branded pickup truck were spotted this afternoon cleaning up at the scene (above).

The signage on the Norfolk St. side of the theater has been removed as well:

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Grand Palace Exit
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Downtown
01/04/17 3:00pm

Houston Chronicle Building Opens Up To Passers-By During Downtown Breakdown

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No Comments

Former Houston Chronicle Building, 801 Texas Ave., Downtown, Houston, 77002

El Big Bad’s corner at Travis and Prairie streets now provides a view straight into (and even through) some long-hidden interior sections of the former Houston Chronicle headquarters at 801 Texas Ave. The building — or, rather, group of buildings bundled together behind in a single mid-1960’s skin — has been coming down gently since the judge for the Hines-Hearst-Linbeck tunnel lawsuit gave the okay over the summer. Most of the 10-story original section of the relocated paper’s former headquarters, on the south side of the block facing Texas Ave. at the Travis corner, has already been removed; a reader snapped the shot above yesterday, as what’s left of the complex was being draped in black again for the next phase of the pull-apart.

Photo: Christine Wilson

Shrunken Headquarters
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Demolitions
01/04/17 12:15pm

Starbucks and Oil Changes Planned Next to Ruthie’s Place on Richmond, Scooped Up by SweetCup Gelato

by
Proposed Developments, Retail, Richwood Place
7 Comments

1801 Richmond Ave. Demo, Richwood Place, Houston, 77098
1801 Richmond Ave., Richwood Place, Houston, 77098From beneath yesterday’s sunset glare off the new Big Tex Storage midrise on Richmond Ave, a reader captured the splintery wreckage of long-empty Cierra Interiors at the corner with Woodhead St. Plans to stick a new Starbucks in its place were submitted back in early November by an entity connected to experienced Starbucks constructor Vaquero Ventures, and the knockout of the building was officially sanctioned just before Christmas. Next door, the land opened up by Vaquero’s teardown of the pair of 2-story brick 4-plexes at 1823 and 1827 Richmond back in August looks to be marked for another Inner Loop outpost of oil change chain Take 5.

And one more door eastward, the former Ruthie’s Place on Richmond looks to be headed for new use by strip-center gelato shop Sweetcup, per some early-stage permits issued in November that note a bar-to-ice-cream-shop conversion. Sweetcup bought the building at 1829 Richmond in September after the bar’s early 2016 shutdown (in the wake of the passing of long-time former owner Ruth Vardilos). Here’s a shot of the whole corner taken in August, shortly after the apartment removal, showing Ruthie’s tucked next to Ely’s Beauty Salon on the far right:

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Richwood Place Replacements
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Featured Posts
12/30/16 12:30pm

Out with the Old, In with the New!

by
Notices
No Comments

Chenevert at Prospect streets, Museum Park, Houston

Ready or not, 2017 is right around the corner. Swamplot is taking a couple of days to tidy up and get in gear — join us back here Wednesday morning as we wade boldly forward into a new calendar of Houston real estate shenanigans. Until then, we hope you enjoy the last dregs of 2016, and that your new year starts out rosy and bright.

Photo of 5313 Chenevert St.: Swamplot inbox

Happy New Year!
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Awards
12/30/16 10:30am

The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, 2016: The Winners!

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2 Comments

And here it is — the grand finale of the 2016 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate. It’s time to announce the winners of this year’s competition!

This final unveiling caps a month-long process that began with calls for nominations in 8 separate award categories. Official ballots were assembled from reader suggestions, then opened up to voting by all comers. Now the final counts are in, all close races have been scrutinized, and the winners are clear.

What, exactly, does that victory mean? The Swampies recognize 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 now, but do let everyone know how you think it all turned out!

The winners of the 2016 Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate are . . .

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The 2016 Swampies
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Fairview
12/29/16 4:30pm

Meteor Crashes to the Ground in East Montrose

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4 Comments

Meteor, 2306 Genesee St, Montrose, Houston
Demolition of Meteor, 2306 Genesee St, Montrose, Houston

Demolition of Meteor, 2306 Genesee St, Montrose, HoustonSome fluffy pink batting stands out amid the debris spotted this week at the corner of Genessee and Fairview streets, being swept clean of shower-centric nightclub and regular drag venue Meteor. The teardown makes room for work to start on that 5-story parking garage (the one that might be getting the artful crust of bicycles). Construction on the Fairview District, a six-block project including the parking garage, some office space, and more restaurant and retail spots, is supposed to get rolling in January, according to developer Fred Sharifi (also behind the Max’s Wine Dive visible peeking out from the left of the shot above, as well as its re-bricked strip-center companions).

A reader driving by caught a few shots of an excavator and a big red dumpster on the scene, loitering close to the Fairview-facing side where the Midtown Aegean Auto shack was — both the auto shop and Meteor received their very own demo permits just in time for Christmas, and the club was reportedly well on its way toward obliteration by Monday afternoon. A view from across Genesee shows that the club’s clumps of privacy bamboo were still standing as of Tuesday:

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Fairview Farewells
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Awards
12/29/16 11:30am

The Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate, 2016: The Runners-Up

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1 Comment

The votes have been counted (and recounted, in a few close races). Now’s the moment you’ve been waiting for — well, almost. It’s time to reveal the second-place winners of the 2016 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 very tight races; under slightly different circumstances of voter turnout, the candidates listed below might have been the winners. So let’s have a big round of pixelated applause for the 2016 runners-up of the Swamplot Awards for Houston Real Estate!

They are:

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The 2016 Swampies
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Featured Posts
12/29/16 10:45am

J. Black’s Spot Marked For Lease near Future Wash Ave. H-E-B Midrise

by
Memorial Heights
5 Comments

J. Black's, 110 South Heights Blvd., Memorial Heights, Houston, 77007

J. Black's, 110 South Heights Blvd., Memorial Heights, Houston, 77007The building housing the Houston expansion of Austin’s J. Black’s at the southwest corner of Washington Ave and Heights Blvd. now bears a new for-info-please-call sign, a reader notes. The bar appears to have events planned through at least New Year’s Eve; the 5,948-sq.-ft. space was only listed online as up for lease about 2 weeks ago. Back before 2012, the property was home to Phil’s Texas Barbecue, for about the same amount of time as it took Phil himself to restaurantize the corner’s original muffler shop setup. And soon another corner at the intersection will be getting a full workover as well, if all goes as planned — J. Black’s sits across Heights Blvd. from the subsection of the Memorial Heights apartments slated to go away some time next quarter, to make way for that planned Midway midrise with the H-E-B at the bottom:

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Cornered in Memorial Heights
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