11/02/12 4:40pm

“Move out concierges” are standing by to assist renters in the massive 4444 Westheimer apartment complex to deal with their impending evictions residence transitions. “Each resident has a specific member of our concierge team assigned to assist them to make their transition as smooth as possible,” a release sent to the Chronicle by property owner Oliver McMillan states. “In addition, we have developed a comprehensive move out package which includes a listing of neighboring communities, moving procedures and an incentive plan. The move-out plan includes incentive payments for up to a one-month rebate of rent plus return of full security deposits. Our concern for our residents is that we help them find a new home and that their move from 4444 Westheimer is done in a safe manner for everyone who lives there.”

No matter their function, the presence of actual concierges should help upgrade the overall feel of the property, which used to be known as the Westcreek Apartments. Oliver McMillan plans to move it, too: To River Oaks. After the apartments near the corner of Westcreek and Westheimer (just west of the Highland Village Shopping Center) are demolished (sparing units north of Bettis Ave.), the company plans to change the property’s name to the River Oaks District, and begin construction there of a $275 million mixed-use center.

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09/05/12 12:15pm

What’s going to replace the Willowick Court Townhomes (at right) at the corner of West Alabama and Las Palmas, west of Weslayan? Newer townhomes — at least for the strip along the west side of Las Palmas, on the western edge of the property. It’ll be covered with 38 3-story townhomes, about a dozen of them with rooftop patios. For the larger portion of the 11-acre site, Martin Fein Interests is planning 2 big blocks of apartments. The block pictured above from West Alabama will have 325 units in 6 stories on top of a 2-level parking garage, with a garden and pool in the courtyard and towers at the corners. Another 188-unit block lining West Main will have 7 stories on top of a single-level garage and feature an 8th-floor wine bar on the southeast corner (at left in the above image), a source tells Swamplot. The view below shows that building’s southeast corner, with the larger structure visible beyond it:

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08/23/12 10:16am

In Highland Village (the subdivision), this single-story 1950 home with single-slot garage is 2 sidewalk-free blocks south of Highland Village (the shopping center). A somewhat-reconfigured painted-brick home remodeled in 2000, the property listed 2 weeks ago at $429,000. Its interior has an open living-dining area overlooking a patio and pool, and the entry-with-bar shares that view. Beyond the back fence runs an easement for power lines and train tracks in a no-horn zone.

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07/24/12 12:19pm

The arches are gone, and new steel is up: Reader Ken Barnes sends in this shot of the rather extensive “renovations” taking place on the former Village Kids and Janie & Jack building across the street from Central Market at 3838 Westheimer, down the street from the Highland Village Shopping Center. It’ll be the Houston area’s third Pinkberry, the first inside the Loop.

Photo: Ken Barnes

06/07/12 11:26am

HOUSTON PINKBERRY NO. 3: ACROSS FROM CENTRAL MARKET On the occasion of the opening of the Houston area’s second Pinkberry (in the Woodlands Mall, tomorrow), the frozen-yogurt franchisor is announcing its first inside-the-loop location: next to Walgreens, across the street from Central Market in the retail building formerly occupied by Village Kids and Janie and Jack — at 3838 Westheimer. The first area Pinkberry (pictured at right) opened last year off the Gulf Fwy. in Webster. Photo: Tone N.

05/18/12 11:57am

Here’s a better look at the 35-story designed-in-Dallas residential tower PM Realty Group is putting on the northeast corner of Weslayan and West Alabama, where the State Grille and rebel predecessor Confederate House stood until a few years ago. Inside, at last report: 250-ish fancy apartments, a 3,000-sq.-ft. fitness center, a parking garage attached at the belly, and 12,500 sq. ft. of restaurant space on a bottom floor or two. The tower is being called either 2900, 2801, or 2800 Weslayan, depending on whether you follow that sign posted on the property earlier this year, a recent correction applied to it (below), or the project’s bid documents, which went out late last month and are due soon.

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05/16/12 10:41am

Sure, it’s a temporary fix, but it does make those shot-out glass panels on the brand-new Apple Store in Houston’s Highland Village Shopping Center look all clean and sleek again — if not a little gun-shy. The shattered panel above the Westheimer Rd. entrance has been smoothed over with a covering of adhesive black film. For symmetry’s sake, the film has been applied to the adjacent panel as well, to frame out a new large Apple logo decal in the center. The new decal stands in for the now obscured glowing Apple logo fixture that hangs in the same location just behind the window:

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05/03/12 11:00am

How well does a store built of structural glass hold up under gunfire? Probably better than your typical plate-glass storefront — though the repair costs are likely to be higher. A reader sends Swamplot this photo showing the smaller of 2 glass panels damaged by bullets earlier this week at the brand-new Apple Store in Houston’s Highland Village Shopping Center. Between the hours of 4:40 and 5:40 Monday morning someone in a vehicle speeding down Westheimer shot at 5 businesses, including 2 gas stations and the Cantoni furniture showroom past Gessner. No one was injured. Apple Store customers were routed to the building’s rear entrance after it opened for business, according to Click2Houston reporter Courtney Zavala.

Views of the damage from the outside, from Monday’s TV report:

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03/15/12 11:42pm

Live from the corner of Westheimer and Drexel, photographer Karen Dressel sends Swamplot this first view of the Highland Village Apple Store, which opens Friday at 8 am. The black paper covering the panels on the company’s first-ever glass-roofed, double-sided store was just removed this evening, in front of a dozen or so new-iPad camper-outers lined up in back.

Photo: Karen Dressel

03/14/12 2:09pm

The first-of-its-kind Apple Store scheduled to open to long lines of new iPad buyers 2 days from now in the Highland Village Shopping Center is much bigger than it appears from the outside. That’s because more than a third of the space in the 9,000-sq.-ft.-plus seemingly single story store is disguised from street view above 2 adjacent shops. A 3,510-sq.-ft. you-wouldn’t-know-it’s-there second floor extends above both the Sprinkles Cupcakes shop (shown at right) and the Paper Source to its west. Some of this secreted space may be open to customers at various times. Included in the hidden second story are a briefing room with a capacity of 46 people, as well as offices, work spaces, a break room, employee restrooms, and storage space.

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03/07/12 2:41pm

CONFIRMED: NEW IPAD WILL HIT NEW HOUSTON APPLE STORE ON OPENING DAY To guarantee there’ll be Apple addicts camping outside the new Highland Village store on its opening day next Friday, Apple announced today that March 16 will also be the day the new iPad — yes, that’s what it’s being called — goes on sale for the first time. The Highland Village Apple Store, the company’s first not-in-a-mall store in Houston, will also be the first glass-front, glass-back, and glass-roof location to have entrances at both front and rear. Does that mean there’ll be 2 separate lines too? [Mashable; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Vinson

03/01/12 12:55pm

HIGHLAND VILLAGE APPLE STORE TO DEBUT WITH THE IPAD 3 The Apple Store still under construction at the corner of Drexel and Westheimer in the Highland Village Shopping Center will open just in time for the debut of the iPad 3. If, that is, workers scramble quickly enough to get the glass-roofed, walk-through structure ready to open by March 16th — which a super-secret source tells Chron tech columnist Dwight Silverman is the official opening date. And, uh, if Apple actually goes ahead and introduces an iPad 3 on March 7th. Oh yeah, and also if the new iPad actually goes on sale on the 16th or later. Please form your line to the left, in front of Sprinkles Cupcakes. [TechBlog; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Vinson

02/24/12 9:51pm

The black curtains that shrouded the exterior scaffolding at the Apple Store construction site at the corner of Westheimer and Drexel in the Highland Village Shopping Center came down today, a reader reports. But a full reveal of Apple’s first-ever glass-roofed see-through-and-walk-through store — and (perhaps) whatever secrets lie below or next to it — will have to wait for a further strip-down: of the material still covering the all-glass front and back facades.

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02/23/12 3:49pm

Basements are relatively rare in low-lying Houston. But a Swamplot reader who’s been following the progress of construction at the first not-in-a-mall Apple store ever to be built in this city thinks Apple dug deep into its curtained Highland Village Shopping Center site:

Apple not only tore down the existing building they dug down far more than was necessary. . . . I saw big excavators, much larger than what would be expected and I saw an excavation that was far deeper than needed for a typical strip center foundation. If there was anything below grade that needed removal such tasks would have been done during the previous construction. . . . [The excavators] were at full extension which would suggest a foundation 15’ below grade. Sounds like a basement to me. The old saw about you couldn’t have basements in Houston is certainly not true. Many buildings downtown and in the medical center have multilevel basements.

So . . . what might Apple be hiding underground?

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02/22/12 10:14pm

COMMENT OF THE DAY: ABOUT THAT 35-STORY TOWER ABOUT TO GO UP DOWN THE STREET “I need some opinions. A friend of mine owns a patio home on W Alabama next to this site. Will this help or hurt her property value? There’s a one acre tract between this development and hers, and we don’t know what it’s going to be. I figure it might help her value because it will be near retail and probably a restaurant or two, but who knows?” [Bill, commenting on First Sign of the 35-Story Apartment Tower Coming to Weslayan and West Alabama]