Featured Posts

Openings and Closings, Quicklink, West University

77005, Bars and Clubs, Openings and Closings, West University Place

THE MARQUIS II IS GETTING ITS SECOND ENCORE Well, that was fast. After shutting down on Sunday without any timeline for a return, the Marquis II reopened at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, according to a note posted on Facbeook by longtime bar employee Al Jara. According to the Chronicle’s Marcy de Luna, Jara is now the owner of the place, having purchased it from his boss during the 2-day timeout. The last time a Marquis employee pulled a stunt like this, it was a pair of devoted cocktail waitresses who bought the place after the owner, their boss at the time, died in the late ’60s. (Adding “II” to the name was their idea.) In this case the former owner is still alive, just sick of dealing with the sustained construction activity outside the bar on Bissonnet St., which Jara says has cost the business $1.2 to $1.5 million since it began in 2014. “They’ve broken up our parking lot and we are not getting business because people can’t access us,” he tells de Luna. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Marquis II

12/06/18 12:30pm

Now Every Katy Buc-ee’s Bathroom Stall Will Have a Light on It Telling You Where To Go

Katy, Quicklink, Renovations, Retail

NOW EVERY KATY BUC-EE’S BATHROOM STALL WILL HAVE A LIGHT ON IT TELLING YOU WHERE TO GO Tooshlights is the brand name of the latest amenity that the Guiness-World-Record-winning Buc-ee’s off the Katy Fwy. wants to add to its 40 bathroom stalls, reports Dan Solomon over at Texas Monthly. It’s a spin on the technology you’ve probably seen on twinkling in certain parking garages: individual LEDs that light up red when a spot is occupied and green when it’s vacant. Along with Buc-ee’s’s Temple location, the Katy store will be the first of the chains 34 branches to roll it out. [Texas Monthly; previously on Swamplot] Photo of restroom at Buc-ee’s #40, 27700 Katy Fwy., Katy, Texas: Jennifer N.

77494, Katy, Quicklink, Renovations, Retail

12/05/18 3:30pm

A First Concrete Step Toward Building That Mixed-Use Complex at Allen Pkwy. and Gillette St.

Fourth Ward, New Construction, Redevelopment

7 Comments

Perched up in the parking garage of the Ashton on West Dallas apartments, a Swamplot reader has been monitoring recent progress on the empty field once home to a garbage incinerator between Allen Parkway Village and the Federal Reserve building. The new flat work shown at top across Gillette St. is the first man-made addition to the 6-acre site since renderings showed a few mixed-use towers including a Thompson hotel, condos, office space, and retail cropping up on it last year.

Crews began clearing the southwestern corner of the property for the new pad 3 weeks ago by busting up some older concrete that stood in its way. Next, they took their work underground:

The Allen

77019, Fourth Ward, Industrial Sites, New Construction, Redevelopment

Downtown

12/05/18 12:45pm

Man Who Lost Half His Foot to a Travis St. Storm Drain Wins $200K from the City

Drainage, Lawsuits

8 Comments

Think your street’s drainage is bad? Listen to this: In 2015, Kris Handoyo was heading north on Travis St. in the backseat of a Mazda when the downtown storm drain cover pictured above came loose and punched through the floorboard of the car, severing half of his right foot. Handoyo, a digital content employee of the Houston Rockets, filed a lawsuit against the city asking for up to $1.25 million in recompense. And this morning the city voted to give it to him. Well, some of it: After mediation, the parties had settled on $200,000.

The drain in question — shown above in the Travis St. bus lane just north of Clay St. — is still there, although the particular grate that impacted Handoyo has been removed and patched over with concrete. Many of its relatives remain in their asphalt habitats however, where they’ve been since the late ’90s and early 2000s.

And where neighbors in Downtown and Midtown have been complaining about them for at least a decade:

Drainage Lawsuit

77002, Downtown, Drainage, Lawsuits

East Montrose

12/05/18 9:45am

A Whitewashed Reeves Antiques Building Bears Its New Name Tag

Montrose, Renovations, Retail

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Last Wednesday, a new paintjob completely erased the blue and gold artwork on Reeve’s Antiques’ Taft-St. side. The whitewashing, Reeves owner Matt Reeves tells Swamplot, has created a blank canvas upon which a rotating series of new murals will appear over the next few months before a final, more permanent work takes their place.

He didn’t comment on the flying fish now levitating above it all:

And Aerial Fish

77006, East Montrose, Montrose, Murals, Paint, Renovations

East Montrose

12/04/18 5:00pm

Abandoned Texas Junk Company Among First Houston Spots To Receive Verizon’s New 5G Service

Montrose, Renovations, Retail

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The building that the Texas Junk Company left in 2016 is now home not only to a brand-new Verizon 5G broadband connection, but a whole array of gadgets designed to show off the service that the carrier launched in Houston a few months ago. Pictured above is the mock living room where for the next week, anyone can make themselves comfortable in front of a 4K resolution TV and a host of other mobile devices while they stream video through the telecom company’s new, purportedly higher-speed lines.

For a more immersive experience, try the virtual reality basketball range shown below off to the right:

East Montrose

77006, East Montrose, Montrose, Renovations, Retail

Buying and Selling

12/04/18 3:15pm

Your Chance To Own Half of Chapultepec Lupita and All of Its Richmond Ave Next-Door Neighbors

Montrose, Retail

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Nearly the entire block-face of Richmond Ave between Roseland and Stanford streets is now up for sale; altogether: just over 19,400 sq.-ft. for $4.2 million. The offerings include the 2-story former Drew’s BBQ house pictured above, the residential lot behind it, the eastern half of the Chapultepec Lupita restaurant next-door to it (the portion of the restaurant with a red awning has a different landlord), and the former notary shop between the restaurant and the Koelsch Gallery on the corner of Stanford St.

The restaurant’s lease on its building at 817 Richmond — shown below — runs until next April:

Fitze Homestead

77006, Buying and Selling, Fitze Homestead, Restaurants, Retail, Roseland Estates

12/04/18 1:00pm

Strip Retail Reinforcements Bound for the West Side of Wayside Across from Walmart

Lawndale/Wayside, New Construction, Retail

At least one new retail building is about to sprout on the vacant 2.6-acre strip of land across from the Wayside Dr. Walmart, according to a recent building permit filing. The rendering above shows the Good Stuff that could end up in the middle of the new building next-door to a More-Or-Less-occupied storefront that’s bounded by apastrophic endcap tenant Pete’s.

It’ll all be set back quite a distance away from Wayside in order to leave some room for a future building that’s planned directly east of the strip later on:

Good Stuff Inside

77023, Lawndale, New Construction, Retail

12/03/18 3:30pm

New Clear View High School Could Include Some of the Old Campus’s Art-Deco Alumni

Proposed Developments, Schools, Webster

Last Monday, Clear Creek ISD’s board of trustees put its stamp of approval on the design (shown above) for a new Clear View High School to be built on land adjacent to the existing one. The current building on S. Walnut St. is slated to be knocked down — but perhaps not entirely: According to a press release, the school district “is working with the City of Webster to salvage the art-deco entrance from the old building for a possible Visitorâ€™s Center” that’d show up somewhere not visible in the rendering above.Â When architect Rudolph G. Schneider helped put the original entrance there in 1939, it was a standout piece of architectural flair for the tiny town. Its conspicuous forehead is flanked by a pair of reliefs depicting a discus-throwing athlete on the left, and a scholar mulling over a globe on the right.

Over time, renovations to the building (originally called Webster High School) did away with other portions of it that’d been around since the beginning. But a few more original features may still be present inside: According to Preservation Houston, “It is not clear how much of the Depression-era building was incorporated into later additions.”

Design Approved for Clear View High School Rebuild [Clear Creek ISD]
Bay Area Could Lose Art Deco Landmark [Preservation Houston]

Photos: Clear Creek ISD

Pre-War Webster, Texas

77598, Art Deco, High Schools, Proposed Developments, Schools, Webster

Bars and Clubs

12/03/18 12:15pm

The Marquis II Calls It Quits

Openings and Closings, West University

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A flyer posted on the Marquis II at 2631 Bissonnet yesterday announces that the place is now closed indefinitely, leaving West University almost entirely devoid of bars (except for the one inside the Whole Foods on Bellaire Blvd.). The Marquis II’s predecessor, the Marquis, opened in the then-fledgling River Oaks Shopping Center in 1945. After the bar’s original owner died in the late 1960s, a pair of cocktail waitresses bought it and decamped to Bissonnet and Buffalo Spdwy., where the suffix became part of the venue’s name.

Following a stint at Bissonnet and Weslayan, the bar wound up in its current spot near Kirby in 1985. Houston architect Lars Bang had originally designed the building to house a branch of California donut chain The Big Donut, which it did until the 1970s when a gentleman’s lounge dubbed The Bunny Club blacked out the windows and took over. It left after a fire in the early ’80s, but not entirely: During the Marquis II’s last major remodel in 2011, workers uncovered a painting of a women wearing a low-cut outfit with a bushy tail that had been hiding behind one of the building’s walls, an unmistakable relic of the shuttered strip club. “Although badly charred,” according to the bar’s website, “the painting underwent a little restoration and still hangs proudly on our wall.”

This decision was not an easy one [Marquis II]
West University’s Neighborhood Bar [Marquis II]

Photos: Marquis II

Last Last Call

77005, Bars and Clubs, Openings and Closings, West University Place

12/03/18 10:15am

Shadow Oaks Drive-In Building Showing First Sign of Lazy Oaks Beer Garden

Renovations, Restaurants, Shadow Oaks, Signage

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A Swamplot reader sends the photo at top showing new signage up on the eaves of the former Shadow Oaks Drive-In convenience store at Long Point Rd. and Conrad Sauer Dr. in Spring Branch West. And a little bit of zoom reveals what’s now being advertised: a new business called Lazy Oaks Beer Garden. That same moniker has shown up on a number of permits filed on the 10158 Long Point Rd. address over the last 2 months, as well as an application for a TABC license.

Built in 1958, the convenience store remained in the family for nearly 60 years until the death of its second-gen owner, whose estate sold the property last September.

Photo: Swamplox inbox

Spring Branch West

77043, Renovations, Restaurants, Shadow Oaks, Signage

Buying and Selling

11/30/18 2:15pm

Kaldis Buys Coffee-Adjacent Cameron Iron Works Plant

Redevelopment, Second Ward

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An entity connected to Kaldis Development is the proud new owner of the Cameron Iron Works complex across the railroad tracks from the shuttered coffee plant on Milby St. And already, the developer — which has a thing for refilling old Houston buildings — is marketing its purchase for lease as The Cameron and promising to renovate it into something that restaurant, bar, and event venue tenants can get in on.

The 1.43-acre property at 711 Milby St. is home to 2 buildings: the 3-story brick one shown above with Cameron’s name set in stone above the main entrance, and a less eye-catching warehouse next-door to it, shown below from the corner of Rusk St.

Forging a New Path

77023, Buying and Selling, Redevelopment, Second Ward, Warehouses

11/30/18 10:30am

First Philippine Baptist Church’s New Neighbor: Spike Sport Volleyball Club

Missouri City, New Construction, Quicklink

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FIRST PHILIPPINE BAPTIST CHURCH’S NEW NEIGHBOR: SPIKE SPORT VOLLEYBALL CLUB Site work is about to begin on a volleyball gym off the Fort Bend Pkwy. that’ll fill in the gap between First Philippine Baptist Church (shown above) and the Missouri City drainage ditch officially known as VIII-BI. The planned 8-court gym is the latest from Spike Club, which previously held court in a complex next to the post office on S. Gessner north of W. Bellfort. Since moving out of there earlier this year, its players and staff have taken temporary refuge in the Westbury Christian Schoolâ€™s athletic complex over on Fondren Rd. They plan to arrive in the Missouri City location sometime next spring. Photo: Southern Baptist Convention

77489, Gyms, Missouri City, New Construction

Apartments

11/29/18 12:00pm

What’s Next for Briar Hollow Once the Tree Tops Apartments Get Stumped?