North Montrose

12/18/18 10:30am

The Allen’s Latest Mixed-Use Map Nixes the Pedestrian Bridge Across Allen Pkwy.

Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Quicklink, Redevelopment

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THE ALLEN’S LATEST MIXED-USE MAP NIXES THE PEDESTRIAN BRIDGE ACROSS ALLEN PKWY. Remember that pedestrian bridge that previous maps and renderings for The Allen showed crossing Allen Pkwy. in order to link the planned development to Buffalo Bayou Park? Well, it appears to be gone now: New marketing materials put out by Transwestern include no indication of it whatsoever. (Earlier versions of the map above had shown it plugging into the building labeled 1, a lowrise retail structure.) All 6 acres of the site — between Allen Parkway Village and the Federal Reserve building — remain vacant right now, except for a tiny portion near the southwest corner where a newly-poured concrete foundation has given rise to a yet-unidentified wood-framed structure over the past couple of days. [Transwestern (PDF) via HAIF; previously on Swamplot] Map: Transwestern

77019, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Development, Quicklink, Redevelopment

Demolitions

10/15/18 10:15am

Montrose Greased Lightning Burger Zapped by New Owner

Montrose, North Montrose, Restaurants

5 Comments

The owner of the abandoned restaurant storefront on Taft St. south of W. Gray didn’t waste much time in trashing the place after acquiring it in June. A demo permit filed last month condemned both the street-fronting building shown above and its backyard bungalow. The photo at top shows the state of things on Friday afternoon.

The new owner also bought the neighboring brick house on Peden St. around the same time:

A Flash in the Pan

77019, Buying and Selling, Demolitions, Montrose, North Montrose, Restaurants

Buying and Selling

10/12/18 10:00am

Hines Picking Up Less Than an Acre Across from Montrose Whole Foods Parking Lot

Montrose, North Montrose, Quicklink

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HINES PICKING UP LESS THAN AN ACRE ACROSS FROM MONTROSE WHOLE FOODS PARKING LOT The developer entered into an agreement earlier this year to buy the property at the corner of Waugh Dr. and Dâ€™Amico St., reports the HBJâ€™s Olivia Pulsinelli in her round-up ofÂ recent North Montrose land sales. On-site that nearly three-quarter acre parcel right now: a parking lot, driveways, and 2-story dingbat office building that backs up to the adjacent strip housing Pimlico Irish Pub and others. To the east, BMW-focused auto shop Bavarian Machine Specialties buffers the tract from whatâ€™ll soon be Stages Repertory Theatreâ€™s new theater and green space on Rosine St. [HBJ] Photo: LoopNet

77019, Buying and Selling, Montrose, North Montrose, Office Buildings, Quicklink

Apartments

08/27/18 2:00pm

Khun Kay Thai Cafe’s Second-Gen Owner Now Tracing Out 20-Story Highrise in Its Place

Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment

18 Comments

The outline of a 20-story apartment building called Montrose Gardens made its first public appearance late Friday in the city’s planning commission agenda, where its footprint covers over that of the Khun Kay Thai Cafe on the corner of Montrose Blvd. and W. Clay St. Only 9 of those stories will be for living, so what’s going into the rest? According to the building’s engineer: “A variety of retail stores, restaurants, and coffee shops” — all 24,000 sq.-ft. of which would be buffered from the 150-or-so upstairs apartments by 9 stories of resident-only parking. Underground, a separate 2 floor garage will gobble up retail traffic from an opening on W. Clay.

Also present on the 19,900-sq.-ft. site where the apartment’s staking its claim: the restaurant’s 2 parking lots. The northern one ran over the duplex-turned-psychic-shop directly south of it after the structure — memorialized in the aerial below — was demolished in 2016:

Montrose Gardens

77019, Apartments, Mixed Use, Montrose, North Montrose, Proposed Developments, Redevelopment, Retail, Variance Requests

07/19/18 5:00pm

New Laundry Tag Could Soon Hang from Gibbs Boats’ Redone Building as a Sign of Its Pre-Nautical Past

Montrose, North Montrose, Redevelopment, Renovations, Retail, Signage

12 Comments

Next Saturday, Houston’s historic commission is set to consider a request that new old signage be installed on the former Gibbs Boats building at 1110 W. Gray as part of the renovation to turn it into a new shopping center dubbed RÃªve Montrose. The QUALITY LAUNDRY lettering is a nod to theÂ 1936 structure’s original tenant — pictured above — which turned the place over to Gibbs in 1958. According to the rendering above, the replica sign and accompanying pyramidal support structure are set to be installed in the same location as the originals.

Since the Oxberry Group announced its redo plan for the building in March, some of its W. Gray faÃ§ade has been scratched off, revealing traces of the original brick underneath where the G in Gibbs used to front the street:

W. Gray and Montrose

77019, Historic Preservation, Montrose, North Montrose, Redevelopment, Retail, Signage

Apartments

07/19/18 10:00am

Excavators Sink Their Teeth into River Oaks Shopping Center’s CafÃ© Ginger Leftovers as Part of the Buildup to 30-Story Highrise Replacement

Demolitions, Montrose, North Montrose, Retail

12 Comments

It’s crunch time at the vacated original CafÃ© Ginger in the northern portion of the River Oaks Shopping Center, where a new 30-story apartment tower dubbed The Driscoll is planned to rise up over W. Gray St. Views from beyond the blaze orange barricades scattered around the parking lot since site work began in March show the crushing scene.

Since yesterday, the building’s been spilling its guts out onto the pavement in this particular area:

The End of the Endcap

77019, Apartments, Demolitions, Proposed Development, Retail

Bayous and Waterways

07/05/18 4:00pm

What Johnny Steele Dog Park Looks Like Completely Submerged Again

Flooding, Montrose, North Montrose, Parks

15 Comments

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On-the-ground footage from KHOU reporter David Gonzalez shows just how much water the Johnny Steele Dog Park — redone and reopened 3 weeks ago following its last flood — took on yesterday. By the end of the downpour, floodwaters had risen up a few steps from where the park begins at the foot of the staircase leading to Allen Pkwy., as shown in the photo above.

That left these 2 out of luck:

Bayou Spillover

77019, Bayous and Waterways, Dog Parks, Flooding, Parks

06/21/18 1:00pm

Nail-Tique Flameout Leaves Salon, Steinway Piano Gallery Shuttered Next to River Oaks Theatre Building

Fires, Montrose, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail

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The east side of theÂ building that fronts McDuffie St. — next door to the River Oaks Theatre — has been quiet since an early Monday morning blaze torched Nail-Tique salon, doing some damage to the Steinway Piano Gallery in the process. It all started when an air conditioner on the roof overheated and caught fire, shorting the connection to an electrical box on the building that then ignited as well, reports the Chronicle.

No pianos caught fire — according to an employee at Epicure Cafe around the corner on W. Gray — but there was smoke damage in the music store, and firefighters busted out some of its windows to access the flaming salon next door. Nail-Tique is now closed indefinitely, while the adjacent piano store plans to reopen next month, as decreed by the sign now posted in its window. Unharmed by the blaze: the building’s movie theater anchor, reports one of its employees.

Fire damages River Oaks shopping center [Houston Chronicle]

Photos: Swamplox inbox

McDuffie St.

77019, Fires, Montrose, North Montrose, Openings and Closings, Retail

Demolitions

05/24/18 3:30pm

KHOU’s Abandoned Allen Pkwy. Studio Has Been Reduced to Rubble

Montrose, North Montrose

3 Comments

This just in: Photos from a Swamplot reader show the wreckage at KHOUâ€™s 58-year-old Buffalo Bayou–side headquarters, abandoned since staff fled it for Houston Public Media’s less flood-prone Elgin St. newsroom shortly after Harvey. Following a few days of demolition, theÂ building at 1945 Allen Pkwy has been almost entirely leveled.

The second photo above shows the Service Corporation International building looming over the dead news building. An entity connected to SCI — a national funeral home business — recently acquired KHOU’s former 3.2-acre spot.

KHOU’s antenna — stripped of its lettering since February — is now the only thing that fronts the neighboring tower’s west side:

Breaking News

77019, Demolition, Montrose, North Montrose

Buying and Selling

05/21/18 1:00pm

Greased Lightning Burger Building Now on the North Montrose Menu

Montrose, North Montrose, Restaurants

15 Comments

The owners of theÂ hamburger, Mexican food, barbecue, and fish restaurant on the northwest corner of Taft and Peden — dubbed “Greased Lightning Pit Stop” by the sign hanging on it for over a decade — have listed it for sale at $750,000. Also included in the offer: the storefront adjacent to it and a run-down bungalow diagonally behind the restaurant.

The bungalow sits on a separate, 5,000-sq.-ft. lot beyond the fence shown below:

Taft and Peden

77019, Buying and Selling, North Montrose, Restaurants

05/03/18 10:15am

Inside a Hollowed-Out River Oaks Shopping Center Corner Where Perry’s Steakhouse Is on the Way

Montrose, North Montrose, Renovations, Retail

14 Comments

A reader sends photos looking inside a gutted corner of the southern River Oaks Shopping Center building east of McDuffie St. Formerly home to California Pizza Kitchen, Evolve Fitness Studio, Birraporetti’s, and Sherlock’s Pub, it’s now slated for a 2-floor Perry’s Steakhouse & Grille. A TABC notice has been posted on the storefront since March:

W. Gray & McDuffie

77019, Montrose, North Montrose, Renovations, Retail

05/02/18 4:00pm

What’s Included in Johnny Steele Dog Park’s Flood-Induced Redo

North Montrose, Parks, Quicklink, Renovations

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WHAT’S INCLUDED IN JOHNNY STEELE DOG PARK’S FLOOD-INDUCED REDO The caretakers of that oft-flooded pet park near Buffalo Bayou now say that “After careful consideration, we are making changes to the Johnny Steele Dog Park to improve maintenance operations and the parkâ€™s functionality.” Among those changes: getting rid of the pond in the large dog play area, rerouting the pond in the small dog area so that it flows through both sections, adding a “new seating wall” at the edge of the water, expanding the lawns throughout the park, enlarging the entrance to the large dog area, and creating a new entrance to the small dog area — all of which is expected to be done by early summer. [Previously on Swamplot] Photo: Buffalo Bayou Partnership

Releasing the Hounds

77019, Buffalo Bayou Park, Flooding, Hurricane Harvey, New Construction, North Montrose, Renovation

04/17/18 10:15am

Wharton Elementary’s 3-Story Add-On Now Looming Large Behind Original Schoolhouse on W. Gray

Montrose, New Construction, North Montrose, Schools

3 Comments

Wharton Elementary School’s 3-story backyard addition has moved upÂ steadily from its previous grade level since 2016 and is now standing tall behind the existing single-story schoolhouse at 900 W. Gray. The least-finished portion of the new building shown in the photo at top is where the school’s new glassy main entrance will go in supplement of the current one at the front of the existing building. North of the 3-story entry atrium facing Columbus St., the new first floor will house mostly administrative officesÂ — with some added classrooms above them.

A shady but still grassless courtyard separates the new structure from the old:

Schooling North Montrose

HISD, Montrose, New Construction, North Montrose, Schools

04/05/18 12:30pm

What’s Going on Backstage at Waugh Dr.’s Former Video Central?

Montrose, North Montrose, Retail

6 Comments

A bunch of pipes arrived yesterday in the vacant field behind a pair of Montrose video stores, a Swamplot reader reports. Audio Video Plus shut down 6 years ago, next door to it on W. Clay is the warehouse home to the lesser known Astro Audio Video equipment rental store — also shuttered. The photo above shows the scene on Peveto St. behind the latter store.

Audio Video Plus neighbors another vacant storefront — Quintanilla Jewelers — in the strip mall on the corner of Waugh: