Midtown

Leasing
08/09/12 1:09pm

The New DiverseWorks Cafeteria Plan

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Midtown
6 Comments

How long does DiverseWorks plan to stay in the new Midtown location it announced yesterday? A press release put out by the 30-year-old performing and visual arts organization doesn’t say, but DiverseWorks had been listed prominently as one of several groups meant to anchor the proposed Independent Arts Collaborative building planned for a now-vacant block at 3400 Main St. The new DiverseWorks spot in a 5,500-sq.-ft. portion of the former Cleburne Cafeteria building at the corner of Fannin and Cleburne is just 7 blocks south. It’ll open September 7th. With its move out of the warehouse district slot north of Downtown at 1117 East Fwy. it’s occupied for 20 years, the DiverseWorks Artspace will lose its built-in theater as well as its large parking lot and covered dock. It’ll gain a perch closer to the Museum District — and an address first-time visitors will be able to find. (4102 Fannin St.)

Photos: arch-ive.org and Cleburne Cafeteria

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Lawsuits
07/19/12 2:15pm

City Loses Skirmish in Battle To Repair Central Square

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Midtown, Office Buildings
17 Comments

Y’know this long-vacant 12- and 14-story office-building-and-parking-garage complex at 2100 Travis St. between Webster and Gray in Midtown — the one also known as “those Central Square Plaza buildings that somebody besides taggers ought to do something with”? Back in late 2009, the city ordered the owners to make a bunch of repairs within 60 days. What happened next? Owner Alfred J. Antonini filed suit to block the order; it’s been tied up in court ever since. Now 3 years later, Antonini has won the latest round in the ongoing tussle. An appeals court ruled this morning against the city’s claim that Antonini’s suit was invalid because he didn’t file it quickly enough. The case will go back to a lower court for more Midtown cleanup fun.

Photo: LoopNet

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Midtown
05/31/12 12:47pm

Midtown Alamo Drafthouse Cinema To Sit on Top of New Milam St. Parking Garage

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Mixed Use, Proposed Developments
9 Comments

Triple Tap Ventures officially announced 2 new Alamo Drafthouse Cinemas locations yesterday: One in the fake-Venetian Vintage Park Shopping Village off Tomball Parkway and Louetta (reported back in April), and another in Midtown. The company didn’t provide extensive detail about the planned Midtown location, though: It’ll be part of a new mixed-use development by Crosspoint Properties at 2901 Louisiana St. And it’ll sit on top of a 3-level parking garage. A lobby bar will be visible from Milam St. and feature views of Downtown; there’ll also be a ground-floor lobby entrance.

But a variance request submitted earlier this year for Crosspoint’s development adds to the picture. It included the “conceptual” rendering above — for the new parking structure facing Milam St., one block north of Van Loc Restaurant. A movie theater would sit on the top floor of the parking garage, the variance explained. The parking would serve the theater as well as new retail spaces (on the first floor) and offices (on the second floor) inserted into the 1957 building on the west half of the same block, which faces Louisiana St.:

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Art
05/16/12 11:55pm

Comment of the Day: Working in the East End, Attending Midtown

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Comments, East End, Midtown, Quicklink
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COMMENT OF THE DAY: WORKING IN THE EAST END, ATTENDING MIDTOWN “. . . In the East End, there is Talento Bilingue, Frenetic Theater, Box 13, El Rincon Social, Super Happy Fun Land, Barnevelder Movement/Arts Complex, Kalinen Contemporary, and probably some things that I’m missing. That’s a pretty good set of arts spaces, but it’s very spread out (from near 59 all the way out to Broadway). What is definitely going on in the East End is that a lot of artists have living and/or work spaces there (even though they have exhibits, both El Rincon Social and Box 13 are primarily studio spaces). But that’s not the same as being a destination for people to see art/performances. Whereas the Midtown/Museum District arts area is much more compact –– only 1.5 miles from the Midtown Arts Center to the MFAH — and in between you have the Continental Club, Inman Gallery, Bryan Miller Gallery, Art Palace, Devin Borden Gallery, War’House, the Houston Center For Contemporary Craft, Lawndale, the Ensemble Theatre, the MFAH — and that’s just on Main St. . . . If I was a scrappy young arts group looking for a physical home, I’d look out in the East End before Midtown. You just aren’t going to get things like Super Happy Fun Land, Frenetic Theater or Box 13 in Midtown.” [Robert Boyd, commenting on Midtown Arts Center Interim Design Review: How Do You Like It Now?]

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Art
05/15/12 2:30pm

Midtown Arts Center Interim Design Review: How Do You Like It Now?

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Attractions, Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Proposed Developments
42 Comments

San Antonio’s Lake Flato Architects and Houston’s Studio Red have completed what they’re calling a schematic design for the new 59,000-sq.-ft. Midtown arts center planned for the full city block at 3400 Main St., adjacent to the Ensemble/HCC light-rail stop. And that means: Yes, presentations to the board of the Independent Arts Collaborative, but also the follow-on posting of the design on the organization’s Facebook page — to see what further reactions come in. The latest plans elaborate on the design team’s concept of separate spaces connected by an open-air central breezeway (the tall structure at right in the above image, viewed from the corner of Main and Holman), but make clear that the theaters are the project’s focus.

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Midtown
04/25/12 11:47am

Austin Rejection Artist and Bar Partners Opening Midtown Nightclub

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Nightlife, Proposed Developments, Renovations
18 Comments

Two-time The Bachelor star Brad Womack is planning to open a nightclub with his business partners in Midtown Houston, right across the street from the Metro Midtown apartments, at the corner of Bagby and McIlhenny. Womack’s twin brother Chad, brother Wes, and partner Jason Carrier — they call their company Carmack Concepts — own Sixth St. bars Chuggin’ Monkey, Dizzy Rooster, Molotov, and Dogwood in Austin. Their Houston bar, which they’ll call Dogwood Houston, will be a transformation of a small 1956 commercial building at 2403 Bagby St.

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Crime
04/13/12 2:06pm

How Late Nite Pie Got Burned

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Fires, Midtown, Restaurants
5 Comments

Surveillance video from a car lot across the street showed 2 men removing a long object — later identified as a bench — from Late Nite Pie not long before the Midtown pizza joint at 302 Tuam St. went up in flames in the early morning hours of February 8th. 10 minutes later in the video footage, after the bench removers had driven off and as smoke rose from the west side and southwest corner of the building, a man is seen exiting through the front door, hesitating, then driving off in a Chevy Astro van. Police have now charged that man, identified as Raymond Pecher, the restaurant’s former day shift manager, with arson.

Photo: Candace Garcia

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Midtown
03/08/12 1:17pm

Where Gloria’s Is Going in Midtown

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Openings and Closings, Restaurants
4 Comments

A reader sends in this pic showing the construction going on at the former Knights of Columbus building at the corner of Dennis and Louisiana streets in Midtown. Moving into the space formerly occupied by Ruby Tequila’s Mexican Kitchen, next to Bar Munich: the first Houston location of Gloria’s, a chain of Salvadorian-style Tex Mex restaurants based in Dallas. Yes, Gloria’s is the same chain that announced last year it would be purchasing the Westheimer spot long held by Ruggles Grill. But that didn’t happen; instead, Ruggles owner Bruce Molzan sold the spot to someone else and eventually shut down his restaurant entirely.

Photo: Swamplot inbox

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Comments
02/27/12 11:45pm

Comment of the Day: Invasion of the Car Snatchers

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Midtown, Quicklink, Townhomes
2 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: INVASION OF THE CAR SNATCHERS “It’s a mystery to me who lives in these new construction [townhomes]. I make considerably more money than the average wage earner in Houston, and I sure don’t live in one. Look at The Fink and then look at the monstrocity next to it, with the huge a/c unit in front, constantly kicking on and off. I think pod people live in those things and they keep their pods there. Think about it . . . do you ever really see someone who lives in those kinds of townhomes? You may occasionally see the huge garage door open and shut, but never see the people.” [Darogr, commenting on Daily Demolition Report: Apartment Hunters]

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Apartments
02/23/12 1:14pm

Post Properties Says It’s Ready To Build Those Richmond Ave Apartments

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First Montrose Commons, Midtown, Proposed Developments
16 Comments

A mere four-and-a-half years after it first announced the project, Atlanta REIT Post Properties says it’s just about ready to begin construction on a somewhat revised 5-story, 242-unit apartment building on Richmond Ave, just west of the Downtown Spur. The latest First Montrose Commons Newsletter features these black-and-white images of the project, along with a few more details that were announced to the neighborhood organization last month. Unlike the Post Midtown, this building on the 5-sided block surrounded by Richmond, Jack, Colquitt, Garrott, and Milam won’t include any retail space. A parking garage tucked into the structure will have 1 1/2 spaces per bedroom and point driveways toward Richmond and Colquitt. The Wheeler light-rail station sits 3 blocks east of the construction site, on the other side of Spur 527.

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Apartments
02/15/12 9:08pm

Nixing Milhaus Retail: Why These New Midtown Apartments Won’t Have Shops on the Ground Floor

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Midtown, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Real Estate Investing
28 Comments

A real-estate firm out of Indianapolis with a keen interest in developing mixed-use projects plans to build a midrise apartment complex on 2 vacant blocks in Midtown, just south of the Pierce Elevated and 4 blocks east of the light rail line running down Main St. Like almost every other recent residential development in the area built before or after the Post Midtown Square about a dozen blocks to the west, though, the Milhaus Midtown won’t include any lease spaces for stores or restaurants. If you’re wondering why not, the company has a detailed explanation ready.

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Houston Architects
02/06/12 3:52pm

The Midtown Collaborative Arts Yurt That Got Away

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Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Proposed Developments
10 Comments

Here’s a scheme for the Independent Arts Collaborative building in Midtown that won’t get built. It’s one of at least 2 concepts developed for the block bounded by Main, Travis, Francis, and Holman streets by Morris Architects — the same firm that had earlier put together the first round of “initial concept drawings” for the IAC center, helping the fledgling arts organization sell the concept to city officials and local arts groups. What’s the big idea here? An inverted yurt. Filled with people and art. A garden and light on top. Like so:

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Art
02/03/12 5:53pm

A Second Round of Initial Concepts for Midtown’s Independent Arts Collaborative

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Attractions, Houston Architects, Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Proposed Developments
7 Comments

Wait — haven’t we already seen “initial concept drawings” for the Independent Arts Collaborative building planned for the corner of Main and Holman in Midtown? Well, yeah, but those initial concept drawings were prepared by Morris Architects as part of a study just to sell folks on the idea. Since then, the IAC bought the former city parking lot at 3400 Main St. and Morris lost out on the actual commission to a mix-in combo of San Antonio’s Lake Flato Architects (best known in town, strangely enough, for 2 inner-loop grocery stores they’ve designed for H-E-B) and Houston’s own Studio Red (fresh from its work on the renovation of an old Downtown warehouse into the new Houston Permitting Center). So we’ve got a whole new batch of initial concept drawings to look through, this time from the building’s actual architects.

Shunning the typical secrecy surrounding not-ready-yet designs, the new arts organization has decided to show them off on its Facebook page — even before floor plans are ready — with a simple “let us know what you think.” What a concept!

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Apartments
10/12/11 1:56pm

New Midtown Apartment Building Hopes To Extend the Calais’ “Headlights on the Street” Safety Formula

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Midtown, Parking, Proposed Developments
10 Comments

A new 6-story apartment building is being planned for the now-cleared Midtown block surrounded by Elgin, Smith, Rosalie, and Louisiana streets — one block north of the Calais at Courtland Square apartment complex and a block west of High Fashion Fabrics. A variance request for the 147-unit building doesn’t name the developer or show any renderings, but indicates that the bottom 2 stories of the building will consist of a parking garage, topped by 4 floors of apartments wrapped around an interior courtyard.

That’s similar to the configuration of some sections of the Calais — notably the dramatic arched streetfront along Smith St. (shown in the photo above), which contributes a dynamic tableau of headlights, bumpers, license plates, and the occasional hood ornament to passersby at street level. (The view changes daily.) The developers of this new apartment building are looking to recreate some of that Calais streetside magic, according to the variance:

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Demolitions
08/22/11 4:57pm

Isabella Courtiers Watch the Gallery Walls Topple Across the Street

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Fires, Midtown
2 Comments

Thanks to some fun-loving neighbors in the Isabella Court apartments just across the street, we have this brief video documenting the wild final moments of the former Simpson Galleries building at the corner of Main and Isabella in Midtown. The building burned Friday night; the Spanish Colonial storefront structure facing onto the light-rail line has been vacant since the Simpson Galleries moved to a new location near Fountainview and Westpark in 2007. Demolition crews knocked down the remaining structure the next morning.

Video: Eleanor Williams/Jeff Balke

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