SPACE MONTROSE SELLING STUFF TO FUND NEW MONTROSE SPACE TO SELL STUFF 
The Examiner reports that Space Montrose’s 200-ft. relocation to that new retail center at the corner of Westheimer and Dunlavy where pastry chef Roy Shvartzapel is planning a café is requiring some serious dough: a $10,000 buildout, including installing from scratch plumbing, wiring, and HVAC systems in the 1,200-sq.-ft. “cold shell.” How’s a small-scale, husband-and-wife Montrose boutique that sells locally made arts and crafts supposed to pay for something like that? Why, selling locally made arts and crafts: “Owner Leila Peraza is starting an Indiegogo campaign,” reports Sarah Tucker. “[She’s] still in the process of setting up . . . ‘Our hands, united hearts,’ but plans to have different gifts for different levels of donors, such as T-shirts and artist-donated work. She also plans to incorporate the mural by artist Katharine Kearns at the front of the store into the fundraiser and new store space as a thank you.” [The Examiner; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Allyn West
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Montrose
KICKING OUT THE OLDIES ON WESTHEIMER 
Just a few weeks after a fire took out one resale shop in Montrose, Culturemap reporter Whitney Radley has noticed that another, BJ Oldies and Antiques just a few doors down, is for lease. Radley seems to suspect that this old watch-your-step reliquary is being booted out for yet another new Westheimer restaurant. Whether the foodies are coming won’t be determined until August, though, when antiquarian owner Becky Pieniadz ups and leaves for her new location just down the road at 1726 Westheimer, joining those like-minded retailers next to Empire Café. Still, Pieniadz doesn’t seem thrilled about having to vacate the 8,600-sq.-ft. building where she’s been since 2008 and box all that %&$# up: “The last thing I wanted was to move out of here.” [Culturemap; previously on Swamplot] Photo: Flickr user emilycovey
The Mirabeau B. condos apartments in Hyde Park take a lot from the city: The sales center, for example, comprised a pair of recycled shipping containers that were powered by the sun. And now atop the building at 2410 Waugh a photovoltaic canopy is hoarding juice for each of the 14 units; cisterns are stealing rainwater that’s then used on the landscaping and rooftop greenery. Even the development’s moniker has been plagiarized. And so it makes a lot of sense that one of the building’s interior features is inspired by something just as local: a transformer box and a snarl of wires. Houston artist Randy Twaddle, for whom power lines have become something of a muse, installed 65 of these gypsum cement tiles in a 7 ft. by 25 ft. wall at the building’s entrance inside its parking garage. Each 40-pound tile, fabricated by Dallas firm Topocast at a lab at UT Arlington, features a 3D reproduction of one of the particularly twisted scenes that Twaddle can’t seem to help noticing.
The Menil Collection has picked a landscape architecture firm, and the museum says that the long-awaited master-planned reshaping of its 30-acre Montrose spread will get going this September. The firm belongs to Michael Van Valkenburgh, who’s done some tinkering previously at Harvard Yard and Pennsylvania Avenue. Apparently, the first item of business he’ll tackle here is the parking lot off W. Alabama: “[It] really needs attention,” Menil director Josef Helfenstein tells the Houston Chronicle. “It’s the first thing you see.”
Now that it’s all said and done, and Feast is closing Friday, the restaurant seems to be taking its culinary whole-hog approach to a logical conclusion: It’s throwing a yard sale and silent auction this weekend to get rid of itself. Opening in 2008 at 219 Westheimer — despite John Nova Lomax adding that address to his list of cursed locations — Feast has been dishing up tongues and testicles and everything between ever since. And this Saturday it’ll keep right on going, selling off appliances, silverware, tables and chairs, paintings, and auctioning the real choice bits — like that old-timey black-and-white sign out front. (If you’re squeamish about witnessing this kind of butchering in person, Eater Houston reports that you can bid by email.)
- Everything Must Go! Get a Piece of Feast This Weekend [Eater Houston]
- Previously on Swamplot: Bad Places To Start a Restaurant in Houston: A List, Feast: Going Whole Hog on Lower Westheimer
Photo: Keith Plocek
- 2006 Stanford St. [HAR]
FIRE TAKES OUT WESTHEIMER RESALE SHOP 
Early this morning, a 1-alarm fire at Vintage Oasis in Montrose rendered much of the inventory destroyed and the 2-story cottage at 1512 Westheimer blackened. Culturemap reports that it’s not clear yet what caused the fire, and arson investigators have been called in. Sadly, writes Whitney Radley, the casualties include more than the boxes of used LPs and racks of other people’s trousers: “At least two tenants lived in an upstairs apartment, but no injuries were reported. However, two store cats, Puddin and Wolfie, and three cats belonging to the upstairs tenant reportedly perished in the fire.” [Culturemap] Photo: Flickr user leafy tenement
COMMENT OF THE DAY: NEIGHBORHOOD NAMES STICK “Alief didn’t start getting rebranded as the International District till about 3 years ago; as a matter of fact, no one that lived there knew anyone was calling it something other than Alief. It wasn’t until they put those idiotic balls in the medians that anyone local knew someone was calling it something other than Alief. The Super Neighborhood is still called Alief. Hong Kong City Mall was transformed from a pasture to a Mall over a decade ago, that huge strip center at Wilcrest and Bellaire is almost as old. Maybe in 40 or 50 years people may latch onto the name International District in favor of Alief, but then they’re going to wonder why the Library is still called Alief Regional Library, and the school district is still Alief Independent School District, or why the community center is called Alief Community Center. Or why there’s a animal hospital called Alief Animal Hospital. I have a strong suspicion Alief will always be called Alief, no matter how many weird balls they put in the medians. And I’d also rather just call it Montrose and have people ask me if I’m gay than call it Lower Westheimer and have the 15 minute discussion about where it is, and the end result being that I tell them it’s the new name for Montrose and I’ll still be asked if I’m gay.” [toasty, commenting on Headlines: Eating Steak at CityCentre; Watching SkyHouse Rise]
Dunkin’ Donuts announced yesterday where it’ll be sprinkling 4 new stores across Houston. This rendering shows the standalone planned for 18315 W. Lake Houston Pkwy. in Humble. There’ll also be a location inside IAH’s Terminal E, one at 4130 Fairmont Pkwy. in Pasadena, and another, as suspected, at the renovated former Arby’s at 2330 S. Shepherd and Fairview. Last month, the chain opened the first of a reported 24 stores planned for the Houston area at 10705 Westheimer in Westchase.
- Dunkin’ Donuts names next four Houston locations [Houston Business Journal]
- Previously on Swamplot: Dunkin’ Donuts Opening Next Month in Westchase Strip Center, The First Inside-the-Loop Dunkin’ Donuts?, Maybe the Westchase SmashBurger’s Successor Will Do Better, Dollars to Donuts, Dunkin’ Donuts’ Big Texas Push, Dunkin’ Donuts Coming Back to Bellaire
Rendering: Rogue Architects via Houston Business Journal
It doesn’t seem that this grassy, fenced-in lot along Montrose between W. Dallas and Allen Pkwy. is going to change very much: All that scraping and dragging a few weeks ago was to level the ground for a cricket field, according to a contractor at the firm responsible for doing the dirt work. The Aga Khan Youth and Sports Facility, the contractor says, will comprise that cricket field, a pair of soccer fields, and a concession stand. In 2006, the Aga Khan Foundation purchased and demolished the Robinson Warehouse on this frequently flooded 11-acre property and said it was planning to build an Ismaili Center here.
- Previously on Swamplot: What’s Going On at Montrose and Allen Pkwy.?, Hark, a Fence!, Zero Tolerance for the New Buffalo Bayou Bridge
Photo: Allyn West
The next tenant in the former Jeannine’s Bistro space will be Jus’ Mac, the restaurant announced on its Facebook page last week. It would appear that this new location will be open by July. Jeannine’s closed here at 106 Westheimer just west of Midtown at the beginning of May. Jus’ Mac has other locations on Yale St. in the Heights and at First Colony Mall in Sugar Land — and a comment posted beneath the original Facebook announcement indicates that a 4th Jus’ Mac is in the works: “We have inside track,” it says, “on a location in heart of memorial.”
- Locations [Jus’ Mac]
- Jus’ Mac [Facebook]
- Jus’ Mac to open its third cafe in Montrose [29-95]
- Previously on Swamplot: Updated: Jeannine’s Closing is Only, Umm, Permanent, Says Jeannine’s
Photo of Jeannine’s: Allyn West
- 1719 Michigan St. [HAR]
COMMENT OF THE DAY: NEIGHBORHOOD UPGRADES “. . . right now we have policies that are actively working to get rid of our affordable housing in Montrose (and other places as you point out). They’re just disguised as ‘registration’ and ‘certification’ to make sure places are ‘safe.’ That whole process should be scrapped. If someone has a run-down property people will either 1) not live in it, or 2) decide to live in it because the rent is conducive to the building quality. A ‘smart’ property owner might decide to upgrade the place to raise up the rents, whereas another owner may want to keep his place basic and get lower rents. Renters will decide where they want to go. It’s not the government’s right to force someone to pay more rent because they don’t feel something is at a given level. I’ve said it here before: Almost every building we’ve upgraded and raised the rent on gave us new tenants simply because the previous tenants couldn’t afford it. So who really benefited by our upgrades? Most of our upgrades were done by us outside of government interference (we don’t need to be told to fix things that are obviously not right about the property, our renters, banks, insurance company, etc. do a good job at that) but there have been plenty of times where we’ve done things per city demand that have raised rents and driven current tenants out. I’m sure they’re really stoked that our hand rails in Montrose are now 36″ high vs. 32″ while they now are living in 5th ward rather than the neighborhood they loved and were priced out of . . .” [Cody, commenting on Comment of the Day: Saving Houston for the Next Generation of Newcomers]
A reader sends this photo of the site prep going on at the fenced-in empty lot that made a recent cameo in that Montrose Dancing Rollerblader featurette. Owned since 2006 by the Aga Khan Foundation, which has said it planned to build an Ismaili Center here on the flood-prone makeshift dog park on Montrose between W. Dallas and Allen Pkwy., the property hasn’t seen much activity — other than the dancing, of course — for awhile.
Until this week, that is. And now the reader wants to know what the deal might be: “Looks like a lot of development is happening in this block. I read . . . about the development on the AIG side [of Montrose], but now the other side, next to those Amli apartments, seems to be breaking ground on something large. Any idea what’s gonna be placed there?”
- Previously on Swamplot: That Rollerblader Who Dances at Montrose and Allen Pkwy. Explains Why, The Apartments Behind the Finger Apartments Behind the Montrose Whole Foods, Hark, a Fence!, Zero Tolerance for the New Buffalo Bayou Bridge
Photo: Swamplot inbox
That there’s some pretty bad Feng Shui going down in this commercial for Honda, which was filmed in Vancouver and shown on teevee and the web beginning last October. The man behind the wheel of the CR-V sure is driving some bad chi into the gullet of the far-from-the-prairie home at the end of the T-intersection, to the encouraging narration of Garrison Keillor. But isn’t the house kinda asking for it anyway, what with all that glimmering vortex-popping and all?
And gee, doesn’t the hole stabbing through the house look a heck of a lot like . . . that temporary sculpture that stood on Montrose Blvd. in Houston a few years back? Portal to another dimension? Naah — from here it looks more like a shortcut to Grant St.
