SOME PLANS IN THEIR WRENCH 
And who thought a building shaped like a pipe wrench wouldn’t attract a natural-gas firm as its lead tenant? Hines announced yesterday that UK-based BG Group will move its Houston offices from the Panhandle Energy Tower where Westheimer hits Alabama in the Galleria to MainPlace, the Pickard Chilton-designed spec building still under construction at 811 Main St. Downtown. The company will take over floors 29 through 34 in the 46-story tower, but may fill up more later. And it’s changing the building’s name — no, not to Pez Tower — but to BG Group Place. KPMG put dibs on the building’s top 4 floors more than 2 years ago. [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Skyscraper Page user Johnme
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Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:
Answers to your questions:
- Downtown: Flagspotters pinpointed the not-so-wavy Lone Star banner pictured above on the parking-lot side of the small office building at 1515 Rusk St. between La Branch and Crawford, directly behind the new Hess Tower parking garage. Yes, it’s even visible on Google Street View, reader Brian points out.
- Cottage Grove: What’s that freshly built structure at 1500 Shepherd Dr. on the corner of Maxie, right across from the shuttered Shuck Daddy’s (which is slated to become another Lupe Tortilla Mexican Restaurant)? According to marketing director Heather McKeon, Bullritos Management is “finalizing the details with the franchisee†to bring the 12th area (and first freestanding) version of that burrito-and-margarita chain to that location. The 2,500 sq.-ft. Bullritos is expected to open in February or March of next year. Here’s a view:
Brookfield Office Properties announced giddily yesterday that the real-estate company has bought the 28-story long-vacant former Sheraton-Lincoln Hotel at 711 Polk St. Downtown — just so it can tear the property down. The once-swank hotel achieved a small measure of fame as the Beatles’ Houston crashpad . . . and was also apparently graced with an overnight stay by Kennedy avenger Jack Ruby. But the building has sat vacant for the last 24 years. Brookfield owns the 35-story office building directly to the northeast (at 1201 Louisiana), which has long offered tenants closeup views of the decaying structure. But it looks like only the building’s underground features will remain:
“Our tenants in Total Plaza will experience views of downtown that they never had before,” announced Brookfield’s Paul Layne, “and access to three levels of below-grade parking.” The company says it has no particular plans for further development of the site once the building is demolished.
In 2007, Omni Hotels and an Atlanta company called Songy Partners announced plans to create an all-suites hotel in the structure, which had been cleared of asbestos in the late nineties. The development was meant to include meeting space, restaurants, and a wellness and fitness center. But the project stalled. More recently, the property was put on the market for more than $8 million.
A few scenes from the hotel’s earlier days:
SPINDLETOP RESTAURANT READY FOR ANOTHER SPIN 
After a $1.4 million renovation, the Spindletop Restaurant at the top of the Hyatt Regency Hotel Downtown will reopen soon, for the first time since Hurricane Ike knocked the rotating 34th-floor attraction off its tracks. Everything is set in motion for an October 6th opening, though earlier announcements had promised something in September. The glass-walled restaurant at Smith and Dallas will return to its regular 45-minute circuit under the steady guidance of longtime executive chef Jean Moysan. Revamped: both the interior and the menu, which will feature seafood, tableside-tossed salads, and desserts from a Spindletop pastry shop. [PRWeb; previously on Swamplot]
BACK IN THE CHASE 
Things are pretty much back to normal on the lower floors of the JPMorgan Chase building at 712 Main St. Downtown, reports former Houstonist editor Jim Parsons, who’s been settling back into the ground-floor offices of the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance after last week’s fire on the 27th floor. “We went to the part of the basement where our storage is located and there was no evidence of water [there], which was a relief. The most noticeable things post-fire are that the marble floors in the building lobby are covered with Eucaboard and that giant fans are blowing air freshener all around the ground floor.” Parsons says the Chase banking hall is open for business, but doesn’t have any updated info about the smoked-out upper floors. Houston’s fire department began an arson investigation last week. [Previously on Swamplot]
METRO’S NEXT REAL ESTATE DEAL 
A tidbit from interim president and CEO George Greanias’s presentation to Metro’s new board yesterday: 2 entire floors of the transportation agency’s headquarters building just north of the Pierce Elevated at 1900 Main St. Downtown have been sitting vacant. For how long? That isn’t clear; the building was completed in 2005. Greanias’s suggestion: the floors “could be leased or occupied by Metro services now housed in other locations.” [Houston Chronicle; Hair Balls] Photo: Wikimedia Commons
SELF PRESERVATION 
Among the businesses and organizations smoked out of the 36-story former Gulf Building Downtown at the corner of Main and Capitol after last night’s fire on the 27th floor: The Greater Houston Preservation Alliance, which has offices on the ground floor of the 1929 tower, now named after JPMorgan Chase Bank. It’s likely the organization hasn’t lost anything, but none of the businesses with offices there will know for sure until the building is reopened. “Crews are currently on the scene fanning smoke out of the building,” the GHPA reported this morning — from a remote location. [abc13 update] Photo: Jim Parsons.
The high-stakes leasing drama that culminated in Sunday’s sudden early-morning shuttering of the Angelika Film Center at Bayou Place Downtown included some familiar plot elements: the wandering eye, the unwillingness to commit, the threats of retaliation, the uh . . . 30-day notice to terminate. Andrew Dansby and Nancy Sarnoff track the courtroom scenes:
Angelika’s landlord, Bayou Place Limited Partnership, filed suit more than a week ago claiming the cinema was threatening to remove equipment from the theater if it did not receive a new lease.
The landlord’s petition outlines a situation dating to 2007, when the theater’s first 10-year lease expired. It did not exercise an option to renew for another 10 years.
The Angelika – also called Bayou Cinemas in the petition – continued as a month-to-month tenant at reduce rent, according to the petition.
Bayou Place and the Angelika continued discussions on a new lease, even as the landlord, an affiliate of the Cordish Co., sought a tenant that would enter into a long-term lease for a cinema.
But during a meeting, according to the petition, a principal of Bayou Cinemas threatened to remove equipment if the parties couldn’t reach a deal. Based on the initial lease agreement, the property belongs to the landlord, the petition claims.
The theater’s lawyer has filed a general denial of the allegations in the suit.
And oh, the broken promises: Angelika says the company had received official notice ending its month-to-month tenancy as of September 18th; Bayou Place’s general manager says Angelika changed its mind about committing to something longer term. How will it all end?
ANGELIKA THEATER UPDATE: WHO’S ON DECK? From a statement issued this morning by Gary Rhodes, Bayou Place Limited Partnership’s general manager: “The Angelika Film Center had a terrific run at Bayou Place over the past 13 years. We had hoped that they would stay longer but unfortunately, after saying they would commit, Angelika changed its mind. It is amazing to think how far downtown Houston has evolved since Bayou Place first opened and helped spark the rebirth of downtown. . . . We will be upgrading Angelika with an operator of the highest quality and we will be making the announcement shortly.” [MyFox Houston; previously on Swamplot]
Some managers at Downtown’s Angelika Film Center who showed up for work Sunday morning didn’t know any better than customers showing up for the Sunday morning matinees of Eat Pray Love and Farewell that the indie theater had been shuttered overnight. “After 13 years of continued service to the Houston community,” read a note posted on an empty ticket-booth window and papered-over front doors, “the Angelika’s lease has been terminated by the Angelika’s landlord, Bayou Place Limited Partnership, an affiliate of the Cordish Company.” But Cordish officials weren’t even returning phone calls from the Chronicle. Anyone want to tell us what really happened?
The construction fences surrounding Market Square Park for the last 6 months are now down, ahead of tomorrow’s grand reopening extravaganza starring Mayor Parker and local rockabilly revivalists the John Evans Band — and including, as well, many activities for dogs. The latest $3 million makeover is the Downtown park’s third revamp since the 1970s, and was designed by local landscape architects Lauren Griffith Associates and Ray + Hollington Architects. Among the features: a new food kiosk run by Montrose mainstay Niko Niko’s (and featuring their new breakfast pita), a dog run, a few artworks carried over from the park’s previous incarnation, and a 9/11 memorial.
SMALL JITNEYS GET RULED OUT 
Amid promises that a new “Green Vehicle” ordinance scheduled to come to a vote in September will eventually cover smaller no-emissions vehicles, Houston’s city council today approved revisions to the jitney ordinance. The new jitney rules require all new fixed-route shuttle services to have a carrying capacity of 9 to 15 passengers. Smaller vehicles already licensed under the existing ordinance can continue to operate, but Erik Ibarra — whose Rev Eco-Shuttle business operates two 5-passenger electric vehicles Downtown, in Midtown, and on Washington Ave — won’t be able to expand his service with additional vehicles of the same type. Unlike the jitney ordinance, the proposed rules for green vehicles will likely not restrict pedicabs and electric carts like Ibarra’s to a fixed route. [HTV; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Rev Eco-Shuttle
Got a question about something going on in your neighborhood you’d like Swamplot to answer? Sorry, we can’t help you. But if you ask real nice and include a photo or 2 with your request, maybe the Swamplot Street Sleuths can! Who are they? Other readers, just like you, ready to demonstrate their mad skillz in hunting down stuff like this:
We’ve got some answers to your questions:
- Downtown: The mystery of the missing Houston Pavilions signs (shown — or rather, not shown — above) is solved . . . in rather unexciting fashion. The development’s management office explains the lettering is being painted, and should be reinstalled in short order.
- Bellaire: Noting that other lots just west of Bellaire High School have a similar shape and size, subprimelandguy provides a matter-of-fact explanation for the triple-deep lots on the south side of Maple St.:
Mimosa (and the adjacent smaller lots on the south side of Maple) ends short of the Loop simply because that was the edge of the Bellaire Oaks subdivision when it was developed in the 50’s. The larger lots are in a different subdivision likely developed by a different developer, and of course at that time the Loop didn’t exist for Mimosa to extend out to.
None of you took the bait on the reader’s second question: Should a triple-size lot always command a triple-size price?
And what about that monument to eternal redevelopment at the corner of Washington and Jackson Hill?
Got an answer to any of these reader questions? Or just want to be a sleuth for Swamplot? Here’s your chance! Add your report in a comment, or send a note to our tipline.
- Downtown: A reader wants to know why the backlit signage that used to be attached to those fancy Houston Pavilions multi-story hole-in-the-middle bridges over Fannin and San Jacinto streets Downtown is — gone! “You can see the remains of little black studs that supported the letters. Probably not a big deal at all, just something I noticed the last couple of trips [and] thought I would share.”
- Bellaire: From just outside the Loop, we have interest in the “extremely long residential lots” on the south side of Maple St., just east of S. Rice Blvd. (Map here.) Each property, bounded by a storm drain to the south, is the equivalent of 3 lots deep, a curious reader notes. And asks: “1) Why does Mimosa end before W. Loop? 2) Is a triple lot property 3x the value of single lot? What shapes their value?”
One more puzzle for you to solve:
HELPING CEOS WITH THAT VISION THING 
The head of the giant monkey wrench is still under construction Downtown, but already Hines has lowered rents and begun looking for smaller-scale tenants at MainPlace, Nancy Sarnoff reports. And now . . . they’re staging it!
“Hines has built out mock offices on three floors so prospective tenants can get a better idea of what their offices may look like.
Depending on the audience, the models can make an impression.
‘If you bring over a CEO, it registers with them a little more,’ said Chrissy Wilson, vice president of leasing for Hines.” [Houston Chronicle; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Skyscraper Page user Johnme
