Midtown

Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Proposed Developments, Public Buildings, Redevelopment

27 Comments

Planned for the Midtown block surrounded by Main, Travis, Francis, and Holman streets: a new 90,000-sq.-ft. multi-tenant performing arts center that might look something like this. And after a city-hall vote this week, it seems more likely to be built: Council approved the sale of the property at 3400 Main St., currently a surface parking lot for the soon-to-be-former city permit office one block to the north, for $2.5 million.

The buyer and developer of the new building is the Independent Arts Collaborative, a consortium of local arts organizations — including Fotofest, Diverseworks, the Houston Arts Alliance, Musiqa, Suchu Dance, Opera Vista, Catastrophic Theater, Nameless Sound, the River Oaks Chamber Orchestra, and Main St. Theater. Also part of the deal: Another one of those 380 revenue-sharing agreements: This one will allow the developer to receive up to $6 million in reimbursements from increases in tax revenue resulting from the project.

Details of the building — as well as plans for several projects proposed nearby — were included in a study produced last year for the Houston-Galveston Area Council:

77002, Buying and Selling, City Council, Institutional Buildings, Midtown, Proposed Developments, Public Buildings, Redevelopment

06/06/11 11:42am

A Short Houston History of President Obama, in 3 Photos

Graffiti, Midtown

52 Comments

Okay, well at least it’s a history of the mural version of the Shepard Fairey poster based on Mannie Garcia’s photo, painted back in February 2008 onto the West Alabama side of the former Obama campaign headquarters at 3710 Travis St. Candace Garcia’s photos show the mural as it appeared a few days after the 2008 election (top) and shortly after the President’s midterm shellacking — and the mural’s Midtown spattering — late last year (middle). The bottom photo shows the result of a little rehabilitation work completed late last week, clearly meant to cover up and gloss over all the wear and tear Obama’s image has suffered over the last several years, and put it in brighter shape for the 2012 election season.

Hope Mural [YouTube]
Obama Mural On Building Defaced [Click2Houston]
Houston, We Have a “Splasher” – Obama Mural Defaced [Art Attack]

Photos: Candace Garcia

77006, Art, Graffiti, Midtown, Murals, President Obama

Apartments

05/12/11 1:25pm

A Couple More Walkable Blocks: Post Properties Wants To Expand Midtown Streetlife

Fourth Ward, Midtown, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, Retail

Atlanta’s Post Properties has announced that it’s ready to get started with a third phase of its Midtown Square mixed use development, notes Houston’s InnerLooped blog. A rendering of the project on the front cover of a recent company financial report (above) may not be the latest, though — that looks like a 2005 date scribbled in the bottom right corner. The $21.8 million development will include 124 apartments and 10,864 sq. ft.Â of street-level retail and should begin opening mid-to-late next year, the company says. The apartment units should run a little smaller on average than those in the existing Post Midtown Square complex at 302 Gray St. Post Properties hasn’t responded to our request for details about the development’s exact location, but the rendering appears to show the view looking east from the narrow corner of West Gray and Webster in the Fourth Ward, a few blocks west of Post’s existing outpost of street activity.

Post Properties Announces First Quarter 2011 Earnings and Development of Post Midtown Square(R) – Phase III in Houston, Texas [Post Properties]
Post Midtown Phase III [InnerLooped]
Post Midtown Phase III [HAIF]

Rendering: Post Properties

77019, Apartments, Fourth Ward, Midtown, Mixed Use, Proposed Developments, REITs, Retail

Buying and Selling

05/11/11 10:35pm

Decoding the Code Building Sale

Midtown, Public Buildings, Quicklink

DECODING THE CODE BUILDING SALE City council today approved the sale of Houston’s code enforcement building at 3300 Main St. to the Midtown Redevelopment Authority, for $5 million. The 57,899 sq.-ft. structure and parking garage on a full Midtown block, which also houses the city’s Green Building Resource Center, received several sealed private-sector bids before the February 17th due date. Last week, Mayor Parker declared that the Midtown TIRZ had submitted the high bid, but 2 council members disputed that, claiming the group hadn’t submitted a bid for the property at all. (One of them, Anne Clutterbuck, was the lone dissenter in today’s vote.) Chronicle reporter Chris Moran hasn’t been able to get a straight answer yet, but interprets a staff report to mean that the TIRZ did not submit a formal bid — the city simply determined a purchase from the government entity would be “the most advantageous.” What’s all the fuss? “The city built the sale of 3300 Main into its FY 11 budget, and it is now depending on that sale to help it bridge a $21 million projected budget shortfall for the fiscal year that ends June 30. There is still no information on what the Authority might do with the property, which remains off the tax rolls as long as it is owned by a public entity.” [Houston Politics]

77002, Buying and Selling, City Council, Mayor Parker, Midtown, Public Buildings, TIRZs

Midtown

04/06/11 9:27am

The Great Houston Street Life Simulation

Streetscapes

24 Comments

Urban-design nerds, street-festival fans, and earnest neighborhood do-gooders will converge on a block of Holman St. near LaBranch this Saturday to play a little game of make-believe: They’ll be imagining what it might be like if Houston had some sort of street life. From 10 am to 10 pm, they’ll be hanging out on a ~~Third Ward~~ Midtown block quickly made up to look as if it did: with painted-in bike lanes, instant street trees in planters, a pop-up cafe in a portable building parked on the street, food trucks, and maybe even a farmers’ market. And they’ll be smiling pedestrian-friendly smiles.

77004, Midtown, Pedestrians, Street-Life, Streetscapes

Midtown

04/01/11 3:10pm

A Midtown Beer Bar Is Born

Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Quicklink

No Comments

A MIDTOWN BEER BAR IS BORN Who’s the mama? “A craft beer bar will be coming to Midtown in roughly the same time it takes to conceive and gestate a baby. Except this baby’s father is one of the most esteemed bar owners in town. And the baby will have a diet primarily composed of small-batch craft beers. It’ll be taking up residence next to another beloved bar, right along the light rail, making this small section of Midtown suddenly infinitely more intriguing.” [Eating Our Words]

77006, Bars and Clubs, Midtown, Nightlife, Openings and Closings

Interiors

03/18/11 1:09pm

A Bigger and Fancier Mai’s Restaurant Reopens April 16th

Midtown, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants

15 Comments

Sporting a new stick-on West Elm look outside but a more modern feel inside, the rebuilt Mai’s Restaurant will open next month, a year and 2 months after a fire gutted the Midtown Vietnamese pioneer. A Swamplot reader who lives nearby and says he’s been “waiting patiently” to eat there again sends in this photo from this morning of the building front at 3403 Milam, along with a few notes and questions. But first, a few sneak peeks at the restaurant’s not-quite-finished interior from earlier this week:

77006, Interiors, Midtown, Openings and Closings, Renovations, Restaurants

12/24/10 1:23pm

Among the Giant Bugs of Midtown, Up on the Roof

Buildings for Sale, Development Strategies, Midtown, Public Art

5 Comments

Swamplot photographer Candace Garcia, who’s been steadily documenting the transformation of the vacant former Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority building on Fannin between Tuam and Drew into a canvas for street artist Daniel Anguilu and a few friends, was able to tour the building’s roof earlier this week. Commissioned by commercial real-estate broker Adam Brackman — whose family owns the building — Anguilu has already wrapped critter-filled paintings around much of the building’s ground floor for his “Public Decor Project.” But up in the Midtown sky, the work he and a few collaborators are creating on a few stray surfaces comes across as something else entirely:

77006, Art, Buildings for Sale, Graffiti, Midtown, Public Art

Leasing

12/17/10 3:43pm

Will Late Nite Pie Rise Again?

Midtown, Nightlife, Openings and Closings

Update, 12/22: Late Nite Pie has reopened!

It looks like there’s been another shut-down at Late Nite Pie in Midtown. As first noted by the Houston Press late yesterday, the entrance to the pizza joint has been boarded up, with a stern-sounding note warning off trespassers and indicating the locks have been changed. The person listed as a contact on the note (presumably from the property’s landlord) would not comment on the situation. It may be a bit early to count Late Night out, though: Bell’s restaurant was able to start up again after a similar shuttering last year. The restaurant moved to its current location at 302 Tuam (on the corner of Baldwin) in 2008.

Previously on Swamplot: Late Night Pie Scheduled To Reopen Monday, The Late Late Night Pie, Latest on the Late Late Night Pie Location

Photo: Aaron Carpenter

77006, Bars and Clubs, Leasing, Midtown, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Restaurants

11/24/10 11:34pm

Thanksgiving in Midtown: A Bird Is Born

Midtown, Public Art

3 Comments

From Swamplot roving photographer Candace Garcia come these shots of Daniel Anguilu‘s latest avian creation (with woodwork by Lindsey George), appearing at the base of the former Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority building on Tuam looking toward Main. The happiest of holiday, shopping, and non-shopping experiences — newfangled, revisionist, and otherwise — to all of our readers!

Swamplot will be back on Monday.

77006, Art, Midtown, Public Art

Buying and Selling

11/03/10 2:35pm

Comment of the Day: Who’s Sitting on All Those Vacant Buildings in Midtown?

Comments, Development Strategies, Midtown, Quicklink

6 Comments

COMMENT OF THE DAY: WHO’S SITTING ON ALL THOSE VACANT BUILDINGS IN MIDTOWN? “I donâ€™t get why there are so many empty buildings in the area. With such high land values (and tax rates), why donâ€™t they sell them? It seems there are a lot of people that can afford the massive expense of sitting on a property (taxes, insurance, minimal upkeep to keep the city fines away, taxes, etc.) Iâ€™m sure a lot of instances itâ€™s someone asking too much for a property. But if itâ€™s still sitting after YEARS on the market (and YEARS of expense), something should tell you that you have it priced too high. I donâ€™t knowâ€¦ I guess Iâ€™d just start freaking out if only a few months passed and an empty property of mine was just sitting there. I have had multifamily properties on the market but theyâ€™re full and [bringing] in income while on the market so Iâ€™ve never been in a rush. But a vacant building? *shudder*” [Cody, commenting on How You Can Help Large-Scale Graffiti in Midtown Get Off the Ground]

77002, 77006, Buying and Selling, Comments, Development Strategies, Midtown, Vacant Buildings

11/02/10 2:18pm

How You Can Help Large-Scale Graffiti in Midtown Get Off the Ground

Buildlings for Sale, Graffiti, Land for Sale, Midtown, Public Art

22 Comments

Street artist Daniel Anguilu hopes to cover the entire surface of this 4-story Midtown building with his distinctive animal-friendly murals. Anguilu — also known by his nom-de-spray, weah — began painting the former Mental Health and Mental Retardation Authority building at 2850 Fannin St. in June. But it’s not exactly a stealth project: Anguilu was invited to take on what he’s calling the Public Decor Project by commercial real-estate broker Adam Brackman, whose family owns the building. And Brackman’s been providing him with mistinted no-VOC paint from New Living, the Rice Village green-home-supplies store where Brackman’s a partner.

77006, Art, Buildings for Sale, Crime, Graffiti, Land for Sale, Midtown, Public Art

Midtown

10/15/10 11:51pm

Midtown Retail Ensemble: The Continental Club Crew Expands North

Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail

13 Comments

The tiny urban island clustered around Midtown’s Ensemble/HCC Metro station has grown. Three new businesses on Main St. just north of Winbern will celebrate official grand openings this weekend, expanding the little block of happenin’ north of the Continental Club. Carved out of the rehabbed single-story building at 3622 Main St.: New retail outlets My Flaming Heart and Shop-o-Rama, plus Natachee’s Supper â€™n Punch, a food, bar, and concert venue that features a large vacant side yard currently occupied by the owner’s horse, Lacy, and a kiddie sandbox. (Eventual plans for the yard call for a patio and awning, picnic tables, an outdoor bar, and a small stage for live music.) Also moving into the Winbern side of the building, from the block to the south: music and tiki exotica outlet Sig’s Lagoon. (The old Sig’s Lagoon location is being converted to a “Mexican wares” store.) A coffee shop and a rockabilly-themed combo barber shop, beauty and tattoo parlor are planned for the 2 remaining spaces in the 100-ft.-by-100-ft. building, though currently they’re being used for construction storage. The mix is modeled after stores on South Congress around property owner Bob Schultz’s original Continental Club in Austin.

77002, Bars and Clubs, Midtown, Nightlife, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Retail

Construction Materials

09/17/10 1:20pm

What They’re Doing to Mai’s Restaurant in Midtown

Houston Architects, Midtown, Renovations, Restaurants, Retail

Mai, oh Mai: The folks at Dang La Architecture, perhaps best known for slathering Styrofoam, a tan stucco-like surface, and a low thin beard of fakish-looking stone over the facades of several formerly distinctive-looking Midtown restaurants, have done it again. This time the firm’s chicken-fried-steak-inspired vision has completely transformed the exterior of Mai’s Vietnamese restaurant on Milam St. at Francis. Mai’s was famously singed by a fire in February, which destroyed the building’s interior and collapsed the roof, leaving only a 2-story brick shell. That made the perfect canvas for Dang La’s Second Life-like design concept: sort of an urban palazzo — minus those superfluous middle floors.