East Downtown

East Downtown
01/21/15 5:00pm

The Most Explicit Photos You’ll See of Townhomes Taking Over East Downtown Industry

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Redevelopment, Townhomes
16 Comments

Demolition of International Mailing Systems, 815 Live Oak St., East Downtown

Sure, we all know the future of East Downtown is townhomes, and that the industrial structures that once dominated that landscape are on their way out. But have you seen a set of photos that better illustrates the transformation than this gallery of views taken by reader Jeff Peoples this morning? It shows the demolition of the former International Mailing Systems warehouse building at 815 Live Oak St. Not much more need for them to be close to downtown.

You can see the townhomes marching from the background of the above photo, smashing everything in their way.

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International Mailing Systems Gone
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East Downtown
01/09/15 12:30pm

A Row of Old Live Oaks Awaits the Arrival of 75 Townhomes in East Downtown

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Proposed Developments, Streetscapes, Townhomes, Trees
4 Comments

leeland-oaks-row

Behind this row of 9 live oak trees along Leeland St., one block north of the Gulf Fwy. (and the southern edge of East Downtown), Talia Homes is planning a development of 75 gated homes called Talia Village — on the site of what was, until last summer, the Spencer Company’s Florabunda wholesale nursery at 1609 Ennis St. South of the development is the Metro Auto Storage tow lot; to the east lies what a reader describes as “uh, a large pasture next to the bike trail which is used by somebody’s horses fairly often.”

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Talia Village Greenery
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Adaptive Reuse
11/10/14 1:45pm

Brown Metal Office Warehouse on Rusk Intended as New Home for Green Bone Dog Bakery and Hangout

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Critters, East Downtown, Retail
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2901 Rusk St., East Downtown, Houston

The proprietor of The Green Bone is hoping to turn this former office warehouse at the far eastern edge of East Downtown into a new home for the doggie daycare, hemp-treat outlet, and espresso stop. The Green Bone currently operates in this still-for-sale building at 2104 Leeland St., 1 mile to the southwest. Its envisioned future home in the warehouse at the corner of Rusk and Paige, which The Green Bone purchased at the beginning of this year, would encompass 3,429 sq. ft. at the corner of Rusk and Paige.

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Buildings for Sale
09/10/14 5:00pm

This Concrete Building from 1946 Is Still Hanging Around an East Downtown Corner

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Commercial Real Estate, East Downtown
16 Comments

2102-leeland-02

Were it nighttime and the glass a bit more seamless, this mod industrial storefront might work as a stand-in for the scene of Edward Hopper’s iconic Nighthawks. The contoured corner hugs the corner of Leeland and St. Emanuel St., a block past the Eastex Fwy. overpass and the eastern border of Downtown. The building’s 4,250 sq. ft. footprint sits on a 5,000-sq.-ft. corner lot in a warehouse-y district within eyeshot of the Toyota Center. It was listed on the MLS for $600K last summer, but has stayed on the market through various relistings since October 2013 for a bit more: $650K.

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Chinatown Printing
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Apartments
09/08/14 10:00am

Another Lot Across from Dynamo Stadium Gets the All Clear

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Demolitions, East Downtown
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Cleared Lot at St. Charles and Capitol Streets, East Downtown, Houston

A second block adjacent to BBVA Compass Stadium in East Downtown was cleared by giant yellow machines this past week; a reader has sent us the above photo to prove it. The metal shed once occupied by Tool Mart, which formerly stood on a portion of the site, is no more. (The company has decamped for Missouri City.) Space is being cleared for an apartment project on this block — surrounded by Dowling St., Texas Ave., Capitol St., and St. Charles St., and fronting a bit of the soon-to-open Southeast light-rail line just past where it combines with the also soon-to-open East End line — as well as the block immediately south, which was cleared late last month. Renderings of apartments on this same site were shown last year by Mill Creek Residential before that it backed out of the project; the company that took it over instead, JLB Partners, hasn’t released any drawings showing its plans.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

Tool Mart Is Gone
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Art
09/02/14 1:30pm

How That Old-Time Way-Out Houston Strip Center Spirit Might Yet Tame a Mild Row of East Downtown Townhomes

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East Downtown
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2600 Block of Capitol St. with Signs from Veterans Memorial Dr., Houston

If you were wondering how a street-facing block of neat-in-a-row East Downtown townhomes might appear after being taken over by the opportunistic spirit exemplified by a bunch of north Houston strip-center businesses, rest your aching brain: Artist Carrie Marie Schneider has already done some of that hard a-visualizing work for you. Her mashup above combines signs from independent businesses along Veterans Memorial Dr. (the stretch between I-45 and Richey Rd.) with a row of recent townhomes on the 2600 block of Capitol St., between Live Oak and Nagle. The image, a projection of which constitutes a small part of her recently opened exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Museum, is one way to imagine a “real free-enterprise” conquest of more corporate-seeming block-by-block townhome developments. Blocks like the one pictured under all that signage “once seemed uncanny in Houston for their enforced coherence,” she writes in OffCite. “Now they’re difficult not to encounter.”

Image: Carrie Marie Schneider

Mixed Use Mashup
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Apartments
08/28/14 11:45am

Land Is Being Cleared for New Apartments Next to the Soccer Stadium

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Demolitions, East Downtown
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Demolition of 2414 Capitol St., East Downtown, Houston

Demo crews are clearing away a metal warehouse building and chopping up the surface concrete on the block surrounded by Dowling, Rusk, Capitol and St. Charles streets, across Dowling St. from BBVA Compass Stadium in East Downtown. Last year, Mill Creek Residential announced and then canceled plans for a possibly mixed-use apartment development it was calling EADO Station on that block and the one immediately north, facing Texas Ave.

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JLB in East Downtown
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Buying and Selling
08/26/14 12:15pm

Ecclesia Church Trumps Treasures Strip Club, as First Ward Congregation Signs Contract To Buy Former Meridian Nightclub

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Churches, East Downtown
20 Comments

Former Meridian Nightclub, 1503 Chartres St., East Downtown, Houston

A little more than a year after settling into the new location it rehabbed from the former Phillips Paper Company warehouse at 1100 Elder St. in the First Ward, Ecclesia Church appears ready to begin another renovation project and move — this time to East Downtown. The church, which began its life 15 years ago as part of the Taft St. Coffee House complex in Montrose, signed a contract last Friday to purchase the 50,000-sq.-ft. former Meridian nightclub building at 1503 Chartres St. for $3.75 million, pastor and church founder Chris Seay announced during his sermon over the weekend.

The church plans to continue its serial-renovation, just-add-coffee-house growth strategy in the new space. (Taft St. Coffee House’s successor cafe in the First Ward is Paper Co., built into the church’s space there.) The Meridian building, where the nightclub closed in 2010, lies south of the George R. Brown Convention Center and the Toyota Center on the east side of the 59 overpass. The church had originally made several attempts to purchase the building back in 2009, Seay said. But a new chance arose recently, after a bankruptcy sale:

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Stripping Buildings in East Downtown
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Bars and Clubs
06/02/14 2:30pm

For East Downtown Video Game Bar, Kickstarter Fundraising Attempt Is Game Over

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East Downtown, Financing, Nightlife, Proposed Developments
9 Comments

With an entertaining, droll video (see above), a close-to-Downtown location already picked out, and a “first ever in Houston” concept, the fundraising effort for the Press Start Bar seemed to have a lot going for it. Alas, the Kickstarter game plan for the planned console-videogame-themed nightspot has failed to reach its high-score goal. After 30 days on the crowdfunding platform, the crew garnered $18,483 in pledges from 81 different backers. That’s impressive for a first try at the controls, but a bit shy of the stated $50,000 its founders said they needed to secure the proposed location — “off Rusk and St. Emanuel” (between the 59 overpass and BBVA Compass Stadium) — obtain building permits, and get started with TABC licensing, to be able to serve craft beers and Pokemon-themed cocktails, among other menu items.

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Press Restart
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East Downtown
05/15/14 11:15am

Private ‘Aspen Heights’ UH Dorms Planned for North of I-45

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Proposed Developments, University of Houston
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Proposed Aspen Heights Dorms, Cullen Blvd. at Coyle St., East Downtown, Houston

A company that’s been building a growing chain of private college dorms is seeking a 10-year tax abatement from the city to help it build a $56 million 305,076-sq.-ft. complex just north of the Gulf Fwy. from the University of Houston. Houston’s version of Aspen Heights (as the company and all its dorms are named) would sit on 7.7 acres just north of the Catholic Charismatic Center on Cullen Blvd., across the street from the former Finger Furniture warehouse recently purchased by developer Frank Liu. The dorms would sit in the far southeast corner of East Downtown, backing up to the railroad tracks that form the neighborhoods northern and eastern boundary:

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A Quarter Mile from Campus
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East Downtown
05/01/14 2:15pm

Can This Eastwood Duplex Make a Quick Flip?

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Eastwood, Homes for Sale, Interiors
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4402-pease-05

4402-pease-01

Over in Eastwood, a corner 1940 property that sold in the middle of last month has reappeared on the market. The fresh listing last week, pitched as a duplex or single-family home, has an asking price of $415,000. The seller bought it in April for $334,901.

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More Pease, Please
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East Downtown
12/27/13 12:45pm

The Aftermath of a Shocking Metro Development on the Southeast Line

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Public Transportation
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Repairs on Metro Southeast Line at McKinney, Houston

Why were crews yanking out and replacing a brand-new 240-ft.-long stretch of rail and concrete on the not-even-opened-yet Southeast Line at McKinney St. (above), next to the Columbia Tap trail in East Downtown, earlier this month? Because back on May 30th, a 7.2kV CenterPoint Energy electrical line fell onto the tracks and their overhead line three-quarters of a mile to the south, at Scott St. and Coyle St.

Zzzzzzap!

In addition to the McKinney St. burnout, 20-ft. sections of rail and track slab got zapped near crossings at Nagle St. and Elgin. At the incident site, 80 ft. of concrete and anti-vibration insulation had to be scrapped and replaced.

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Hot Rails
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Apartments
10/28/13 12:30pm

Stadium-Side Apartments in EaDo a No-Go

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Cancellations and Delays, East Downtown, Proposed Developments
23 Comments

Dallas developer Mill Creek Residential has “called off” plans to build a 5-story apartment block across Dowling St. from Dynamo Stadium in East Downtown. Set just south of the soon-to-open light rail stop at Texas Ave. and Dowling, the 315-unit complex was to have been called EaDo Station. The company recently announced a slightly smaller development near the Med Center: 265 apartments at 1755 Wyndale St. near Holcombe and South Braeswood.

Renderings of EaDo Station: Mill Creek Residential

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East Downtown
10/21/13 3:25pm

Scraping Along: East Downtown Pedestrian Path Underway

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New Construction, Streetscapes
13 Comments

And 4 more blocks to go: Site work began last week here in East Downtown to chunk up the pavement into such tidy piles and clear the way for that 5-block pedestrian path known as the EaDo Promenade. These photos show what the very north end of the path, at McKinney and Bastrop St. a block south of BBVA Compass Stadium, looks like, as of yesterday:

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East Downtown
10/21/13 10:10am

A Pack of Trackside Townhomes in East Downtown

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New Construction, Townhouses
25 Comments

Here are some pics of the rail-ridin’ townhouses Urban Living is developing in East Downtown. These gated 2-story, 2- and 3-bedroom homes crowd in on the lot bound by Lamar, Roberts, and the Southeast Line, which curves away here from the Columbia Tap bike trail and veers toward Scott St.

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