- 5234 Blossom St. [HAR]
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Rice Military
The sides of the 1965 Memorial Towers highrise apartment complex are currently getting the blues as part of a period remodel, a reader reports. Serial multifamily fixer-upper The Barvin Group bought the property in May. The side of the complex pictured above (also shown pre-paint for comparison) faces west down Memorial Dr. toward the recently flattened former roost of Pollo Bravo (occupied before that by Hartz Chicken Buffet).  A rendering of the complex’s planned new look (including a throwback cursive replacement of the signage currently pointed at east-bound drivers) is on display in the lobby:
Rice Military Remake
Here’s a view of the scene this morning at 611 Shepherd Dr., which until late last year was the home of Kicks Indoor Soccer. The metal structure that housed the indoor artificial-turf field and bar is being kicked to the curb in anticipation of a new apartment complex planned by Mill Creek Residential, which is now in control of the full block bounded by Shepherd, Floyd, Blossom, and Durham, lodged between Rice Military and Magnolia Grove.
Photo: Mosaic Clinic
Kicks Out
Here’s the last pieces of the former Pollo Bravo at 5440 Memorial Dr. still holding out against the excavator onslaught today. A reader sends the snapshot above from the Starbucks end of the strip center across the street. The demo permit for the structure came through on Thursday of last week, trailing in the wake of the property’s May 2015 sale and the restaurant’s subsequent December departure.
The owner of the Peruvian fusion chicken chain said at the time that she was seeking new locations; a few more Pollo Bravo spots seem to have opened up since then, including branches on Long Point Rd. east of Gessner, and on Mason Rd. south of Kingsland Blvd. Here’s one last look at the rapidly clearing site, between a Chase bank and the Memorial Towers apartments:
Fowl Flattening
Architect Paul Kweton sends his idea for a multi-deck observation tower for Buffalo Bayou Park, adding to the list of unsolicited but interesting projects dreamed up for the public space. The plans and drawings show stairs spiraling continuously upward around a central elevator shaft, enclosed only by a giant net-like facade (as well as a smaller actual net preventing visitors from exploring the exterior of the structure).
Kweton has 2 potential locations in mind — the rendering above shows the tower on the lawn in Eleanor Tinsley Park, across the bayou from the now open Cistern (the long-defunct 1920s subterranean city water reservoir turned found-art piece and potential exhibit space).  The alternative spot is a little further west across Allen Pkwy., near the 1920s Gillette St. waste-incinerator site sold last year year for redevelopment into the Broadstone Tinsley Park Apartments:
Dreamt Up Near Downtown
Something is stirring drinks these days inside former location of Beirut Fine Lebanese Cuisine, which reopened last fall as Fig + Wasp Test Kitchen and then quickly closed again. Up & Down on Washington will be officially opening at 4105 Washington Ave. this Friday after a few weeks of soft operation in the upstairs of the space; whether the fig-wasp name was a deliberate nod to the creepy symbiotic relationship between the 2 components is unclear. Photo of 4105 Washington Ave: Kuehn Inc.
Rice Military Buzz
- 6043 Rose St. [HAR]
- 135 Calle Catalina Pl. [HAR]
A reader reports some spicy action at the corner of Washington Ave and Leverkuhn St., where nightclub La Roux has opened its doors in the last 2 weeks for (separate) Rodeo-cookoff- and lingerie-themed events. The new building, which has risen into place behind and around the former Guadalajara bakery, is shown from the Leverkuhn side in the photo above.
The former bakery’s window still boasts an April TABC application notice for Black Orchid Gastro Lounge, which was anticipated to open last year. The new black box to the right of the 1930 brick structure is the other side of La Roux:
Blooming in Rice Military
The business wilted several years ago, but the location of the church-run St. Theresa The Little Flower Thrift Shop at 5334 Washington Ave is getting a new tenant: a branch of Dallas’s Clutch Bar will be moving into the space. An entity associated with the thrift shop bought the property back in 1991, and the store blossomed until the early ’10s, closing by mid-2013.
Clutch Bar’s website touts a Summer 2016 opening; as far as what will be served in the space, the site for the chain shows a large draft beer selection and mentions a weekly special on “adult milkshakes”.
Little Flower Going Wild
A big for-lease sign has been posted to the door of the building at 801 Durham Dr. in Rice Military. Longtime building tenant Camera Co-Op (see above photo) shut down here at the beginning of last month. The camera-lens mural that surrounded the camera store’s front door has been painted over.
Photos: Stephen J Alexander (door); Camera Co-Op (building)
Houston’s Retail Canon
How long can an old-timey Wabash Feed & Garden Store hold out on a totally transformed Washington Ave.? Until the 25,551-sq.-ft. site stretching between Birdsall and Malone gets snatched up. A new commercial listing for the property at 5701 Washington Ave. was posted recently by Boyd Commercial. (Wabash was the voted recipient of the Washington Ave. Award in the 2010 Swamplot Awards.)
- 5701 Washington Ave [Boyd Commercial]
Photo: Boyd Commercial
Feeding Time
CAFE JAPON, MISSING FROM KIRBY DR. SINCE LATE LAST YEAR, DISCOVERED IN FORMER ZUSHI SPOT AT MEMORIAL AND WESTCOTT 
A World of Beer is headed into 3915 Kirby Dr. spot just north of the Southwest Fwy. that Café Japon quietly left near the end of last year, after a $14K-a-month listing for its 4,000-sq.-ft. space went up over the summer. Meanwhile, the exiled sushi restaurant reopened late last week in the slightly larger space formerly occupied by Zushi Japanese Cuisine in the bottom of the small office building at 5900 Memorial Dr. [Eater Houston] Photo: Greenberg & Company
- 623 Knox St. [HAR]
The steel-framed doubled-up home at 115 Arnold St. in Rice Military (pictured above) owned by Houston restaurateur Ouisie Jones and her husband Harry Jones earned its demolition permit yesterday, a few months after the property was sold to a developer — for $2.2 million. (It was asking $2.65 million this past March, when Swamplot featured it.) The 24,915-sq.-ft. property is being joined with the slightly larger plot of land under the adjacent warehouse building at 5202 Chandler St. to make space for an F-shaped 22-townhome development.
Redevelopment on the Menu
