- 1505 Dunlavy St. [HAR]
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Montrose
A reader sends this photo of the vacant building at 608 Westheimer between Katz’s Deli and Bombshell Tattoo and Piercing Studio that the owners of Vinoteca Poscól have bought and are planning to relocate to next year. Eater Houston reports that the new 6,300-sq.-ft. spot will provide quite a bit more room than the old one owners Marco and Gloria Wiles — who also run Da Marco and Dolce Vita — were renting in that strip center at 1609 Westheimer, across the street from Buffalo Exchange and Hugo’s. Observes Darla Guillen: “The increased square footage will allow them to seat more customers, and they will have a bigger bar with plenty of local brews on tap.”
- A Chef Marco Wiles Restaurant [Poscól Houston]
- Vinoteca Poscól is Moving to 608 Westheimer [Eater Houston]
Photo: Swamplot inbox
A resident at this 1970s apartment complex tells Swamplot that it has been sold and that notices to vacate by the end of September have been sent around: Demolition, the resident suspects, is nigh. The 21-unit, 13,750-sq.-ft. complex sits at 1407 Missouri, between Commonwealth and Waugh in Hyde Park just 2 blocks north of foodie row — Hay Merchant, Underbelly, Blacksmith, etc. — along Westheimer. County records show that the 18,625-sq.-ft. property was sold as recently as March to Legacy Community Health Endowment.
Photo: Swamplot inbox
It looks like the squat building on the corner of W. Gray and Montrose will be upgraded into something like this rendering, reports 29-95. Pizaro’s Pizza Napoletana, which also has a spot in Memorial, will be replacing long-time tenants Bobbitt Glass and Southwestern Paint here at 1020 W. Gray, converting the space into a 2,500-sq.-ft. restaurant with a 300-sq.-ft. patio — and 2 of those massive brick ovens, adds Alison Cook. They’re expected to open in about a year.
- An Authentic Italian Pizzeria [Pizaro’s Pizza]
- Pizaro’s Pizza announces new Montrose location [29-95]
Rendering: Pizaro’s Pizza
It is no more: A few weeks after the rest of this old strip center on Dunlavy at W. Alabama started coming down, the Montrose Fiesta was finally reduced to rubble, this reader’s photo, taken just before 1 p.m. today, shows. And what’s next for the site? Developer Marvy Finger says he will replacing the grocery store with apartments, telling the Houston Chronicle’s Nancy Sarnoff in early 2012 that the ensuing complex will be both “Mediterranean” and “really beautiful.”
- Previously on Swamplot: Excavators Finishing Off Neighbors, Moving In on the Montrose Fiesta, Here Comes the Heavy Machinery, There Goes the Dunlavy Fiesta, Scenes from the Dunlavy Fiesta Farewell Shopping Experience, Montrose Fiesta on Dunlavy Will Close Forever in Less Than a Month, Apartments Planned for Montrose Fiesta Site Will Go Tall Mediterranean, Montrose Fiesta Building Owners: That Variance Is for Future Generations, The Montrose Fiesta Is Over: Here Comes Lancaster Square, West Ave-Style Apartments and Retail Planned for Dunlavy Fiesta Site?
Photo: Thomas Stazer
It’s taken a bit longer than Patrick Renner initially expected — he told Glasstire back in January that the “Funnel Tunnel” would be installed in February — but at least the sinuous steel frame that will be covered in repainted salvaged lumber was set up today in Hyde Park. You can see the giant tomato cage on Montrose Blvd., right in front of Inversion and the Art League of Houston.
- The Public in Public Art: Houston Community Helps Create “Funnel Tunnel†[Glasstire]
- Previously on Swamplot: Montrose: Where the Weird Things Are
Photos: Allyn West
- 614 Marshall St. [HAR]
KEEPING ONE MONTROSE TREE IN RESERVE 
The developer of those spur-side homes planned for this Westmoreland lot between Marshall and W. Alabama St. says that the old live oak shown in the photo isn’t going anywhere. In fact, Arpan Gupta tells Swamplot that a 1,410-sq.-ft. reserve area — as one commenter notes on the site plan — is being established around the tree’s “drip line” to set aside a park that not just the homeowners will be allowed to use. Additionally, explains Gupta, architecture firm Knudson and tree service Arbor Care have both been employed to take protective measures — mulching, fertilizing, fencing, etc. — during the “stress of construction.” [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
Note: Read more about that tree here.
The sign shows that a variance is pending to reduce the setback here along Spur 527 — at left in the photo above — the better to fit 15 single-family lots on the less-than-an-acre property between W. Alabama and Marshall St. in the Westmoreland Historic District. A site plan included in the variance application for the subdivision Carnegie Oaks at Westmoreland shows that the 0.83-acre lot would be parceled out, with driveway access to the north from Marshall and to the south from W. Alabama. The lot’s right across the street from that fixed-up former Skylane complex the Spur. A city rep says that the planning commission will decide on the variance next week.
DUNKIN’ DONUTS WON’T OPEN MONTROSE LOCATION FOR ANOTHER WEEK 
You might have read here or here that the first one to open inside the Loop of those 24 new Dunkin’ Donuts locations would be ready tomorrow at the former Arby’s on the corner of Fairview and S. Shepherd. Well, it won’t be. A company rep writes in an email that the S. Shepherd team won’t be making (or selling) the donuts until next Monday, July 22. A grander opening will follow on July 30. (You can head to the new one in Westchase if you can’t wait.) [29-95; Eater Houston; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Swamplot inbox
“Soon!” You can almost hear this dormant excavator warning the Montrose Fiesta. The first one started sneaking up on the strip center at Dunlavy and W. Alabama back in March, but it wasn’t until late last week that the permits were granted and the real smashing began. The Fiesta closed for good almost exactly a year ago, not long after the H-E-B Montrose Market went up across the street where the Wilshire Village apartments once stood. Fittingly, developer Marvy Finger has said he plans to replace the soon-to-be-felled grocery store with apartments.
More shots of the carnage:
MONTROSE ART COLLECTIVE TO HAVE SEX CHANGE BEFORE REPLACING DOMY BOOKS 
Culturemap is reporting that Westheimer Rd. purveyors of fine comics and doodads Domy Books will be closing July 14. Apparently, building owner Dan Fergus (who also owns Brasil next door and the smaller building next to that that Space Montrose is trying to raise money to leave) has already secured a new tenant: Cody Ledvina, the painter of weiner dogs and poolside cats and co-founder of Montrose art and performance whatchamacallit the Joanna. And though it seems this relocating incarnation will be undergoing gender reassignment to become the Brandon, Ledvina says that that won’t alter the quality of what goes on there: “The programming, as far as the art goes, will be basically the exact same. Not any more refined or professional.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Larami Culbertson
RADICAL EATS REPLACING LOWER WESTHEIMER’S PULLED-OUT ROOTS 
The Near Northside vegan dive Radical Eats is closing and relocating across town to the recently closed Roots Bistro on Westheimer, reports Gastronaut Katherine Shilcutt. (Roots closed in early June after some bungling of its marquee.) Shilcutt adds that Radical Eats owner Staci Davis sees the move to this less “scruffy” space as a chance expand her menu to include dishes that use meat, cheese, and eggs, a culinary move not without consequence: “She admitted that some of her diehard vegan customers were furious with her decision, even calling in to a radio show she was appearing on as a guest and lambasting her on-air. ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked, with a rhetorical shoulder shrug.” [Culturemap; Gastronaut; previously on Swamplot] Photo of 507 Westheimer: Allyn West
GAINING IN HOUSTON’S GAYBORHOODS 
So home prices are rising in urban areas — no surprise there. But nowhere are those prices rising faster than in so-called “gayborhoods.” That’s according to Jed Kolko, crunching the numbers for Trulia: “Neighborhoods where same-sex male couples account for more than 1% of all households (that’s three times the national average) had price increases, on average, of 13.8%. In neighborhoods where same-sex female couples account for more than 1% of all households, prices increased by 16.5% –– more than one-and-a-half times the national increase.” Prime Property’s Nancy Sarnoff adds that in Houston in Rosedale prices are up 16 percent and 14 percent in Hyde Park, where the 1920s Jackson Blvd. bungalow shown here is for sale for $425,000. [Trulia Trends; Prime Property] Photo of 1223 Jackson: HAR
