COMPLETING THOSE WEST U FINAL INSPECTIONS Covington Builders will get to keep its license to build in West University after all. Ten homes the homebuilder had constructed since 2000 had never received occupancy permits from the city, but they’ve got ’em now. At issue on 7 of those homes: tree inspections. “‘They went to them and were able to determine what trees were there, measured the inches. I gave him some credit for some of the growth inches that were there, over time,’ [Chief Building Official John] Brown said. ‘He paid the tree trust the balance of money that was owed, which closed out his cases.’ Covington paid about $8,250 to the tree fund for the 82.5 tree inches that were missing on the seven outstanding properties. Before completing all the inspections, the city had estimated that Covington owed $10,300 to the tree fund.” [Instant News West U; previously on Swamplot]
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THE COMING MIGRATION OF THE BUFFALO GRILLE? Is the Buffalo Grille, left as the lone strip-center survivor at the corner of Bissonnet and Buffalo Speedway after the recent invasion of the new H-E-B Buffalo Market, looking to shuffle off to a new location? An H-E-B representative did tell the West U city council the restaurant would stay where it’s been for the last 26 years — but that was last May. More recently, restaurant co-owner John McAleer says H-E-B managers have “expressed concerns” about there not being enough parking for the grocery store. So he’s looking into a possible new location for the West U breakfast joint — namely, a portion of the former JMH Market less than a mile to the southwest, at the corner of Edloe and Rice Blvd. “McAleer said the restaurant has not received official word from the grocery store about what will happen in April 2011 when its lease expires. There’s still the chance that The Buffalo Grille will stay put, but the family is exploring all its options . . . ‘They’re worried some of our customers are taking their spots, and their customers are going over to Kroger, which is obviously their biggest competitor,’ he said.” [Instant News West U; previously on Swamplot]
Things have slowed down a bit in the West University Place building department: Only 20 new homes were permitted in the city last year. What to do with all the free time? Chief building official John Brown used some of it to pore over city records . . . and make a small discovery: Out of a grand total of 938 new homes built in West U this decade, 39 of them never received certificates of occupancy.
Instant News West U‘s Angela Grant reports that’s not so much of a problem yet for 5 of those homes — they were built in 2008 and haven’t sold. But what about the others?
Of the 34 homes that should legally have certificates, 14 homes — 41 percent — were constructed in 2000. Twenty-seven homes, or 79 percent, were constructed before 2005, when the city says the building department began professionalizing operations with the addition of key staff members.
How’d all this come up?
RESTAURANT-GARAGE COMBO ON WESTPARK PUT ON HOLD Some unspecified “complications” in continuing negotiations have stalled plans for a brand new 2-story Molina’s Restaurant and parking garage on a West U-owned lot on Westpark, between Wakeforest and Dincans streets, a city council member tells reporter Angela Grant. “The building would have included a parking garage for Goode Company Seafood, which currently leases the land for its parking lot. Goode Company pays West U. about $4,300 per month for rent. The agreement expires in just over three years. The terms of the agreement with [developer Mike] Gallagher provided for a 15-year primary lease, with options for five more 5-[year] renewals. The Molina’s rent would gradually increase from $7,000 per month to $15,373 per month.” [Instant News West U]
GASLIGHT WON’T BE TURNED ON AGAIN The operator of Gaslight News & Video at 3519 Bellaire has achieved the distinction of being the first person to receive a criminal conviction as a result of Houston’s sexually oriented business ordinance, which was passed in 1997 but cleared court challenges only more recently. Eugene Etheridge has been prohibited from reopening the store. “The arcade, which consisted of individual pornographic video viewing booths, was closed last summer after the city obtained an injunction against his operation. Etheridge voluntarily closed his adult retail shop at the same location. Defense attorney Phllip Slaughter said Etheridge has been released on bond pending appeal. Etheridge, 60, continues to face civil and criminal cases stemming from his operation of a second sexually oriented business, the Big City News & Video at 10105 Gulf Freeway.” [Houston Chronicle, via Hair Balls]
Among the just-announced winners of this year’s Good Brick Awards given out by the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance is this not-so-recently renovated home on Nottingham St. in West University, which belongs to Carol Triebel and Rick Gist. And it does appear to have some good original bricks on the exterior. In a neighborhood where teardowns or the occasional awkward addition are the norm, Natalye Appel + Associates Architects designed an unusual renovation that kept the 1935 home’s outward cottage form, but twisted its innards around.
The design removed most of the home’s walls and doors, and smushed a core of closets, bath, and laundry into the center of the house along the driveway side. The new main living spaces are now arranged in a C shape around that core.
Then there’s the giant island, meant to do more than Kitchen duty:
“Welcome to the ideal property for train lovers, its located near a semi-active train tract,” begins the listing for this 5-bedroom, 4,164-sq.-ft. home backing up to the tracks on Community Dr. in College Court, the far western edge of West U. Writes the reader who sent it in:
I give them points for having the guts to address the issue head on (may be limiting the pool of buyers by focusing on such a niche though!)
Not mentioned in the $799K listing: the high-voltage power lines that run parallel to the tracks. Also, there’s the bad feng shui: The front door faces onto the end of Judson St.
- 5636 Community Dr. [HAR]
Decorating a new room for her college-bound daughter, West U design blogger Joni Webb recounts the last bedroom redo:
At 15 – she stated she wanted to redesign her room herself and I decided to let her. Not that I really had a choice – she’s a willful, independent child who knows her own mind and arguing with her is hopeless. From West Elm she chose the popular cut-out headboard and nightstands, along with the matching cut-out shelf unit. The large mirror she bought at IKEA. The paint colors were also her choice – the ceiling was deep purple and the walls were a silvery lilac. I helped her pick out the fabrics – silks and crushed velvets. She has always fashioned herself a glamour girl. My mother took one look and proclaimed it “The Bordello.†This vision lasted three years.
And the new look . . . ?
A quick roundup:
- Closing in January: NASA hangout the Outpost Tavern, an army barracks building turned spacesuit-and-bikini-festooned party site, down NASA Rd. 1 from the Johnson Space Center at 18113 Kings Lynn St. Memorialized in the appropriately named Clint Eastwood “one last time for the has-been astronauts” flick Space Cowboys, the bar and burger joint had to be partially rebuilt in early 2005 after a short in a neon sign caused a small fire. Second-generation owner Stephanie Foster reports the property has been sold to new owners who “plan to build something new on the site, perhaps a service station or shopping center.” Fans of the Outpost Tavern’s many good ol’ days will drown their sorrows on-site in a 3-day-long goodbye-party bash, January 8-10.
- Closed, Just a Month After Opening: The new 7,000-sq.-ft. prototype Bailey Banks & Biddle store in CityCentre. The new owners of the former Zales mall mainstay declared bankruptcy in August, but went ahead with the store’s planned move from its old location across the street at Town & Country Village anyway. Other local Triple Bs didn’t get the grand-opening treatment before going dark: “The Galleria and Willowbrook Mall locations are in liquidation, while The Woodlands Mall store and the new CityCentre location are expected to go dark on Dec. 24 following liquidation sales, according to store employees.”
- Open Only for One Last Big Sale: Brian Stringer Antiques, strung along West Alabama just east of Shepherd in a few separate buildings for the last 40 or so years. Stringer and his wife will retire to their turreted 14th century chateau — a former fortified hospital built by monks for victims of a mysterious skin disease — in the French countryside between Bordeaux and Gers. But lucky us, they’ll stick around Houston long enough to sell the majority of their stock of European antiques, reproductions, and fabrics at 40 percent off, Joni Webb reports: “The French house is so charming – you really feel like you’re in the South of France, except for Houston’s traffic out the front window!” When you’re done shopping there, Webb commands:
be sure to also stop in at Ginger Barber’s Sitting Room which is next door. Further up the street is Tara Shaw and Heather Bowen Antiques. Continue up W. Alabama to Antiques and Interiors on Dunlavy, Boxwood and The Country Gentleman, then hit up Foxglove and Alcon Lighting.
If you haven’t passed out from exhaustion yet, turn around and head back to Brian Stringer’s and go the other way on W. Alabama. Stop at Jane Moore’s, then at Ferndale, go to Brown, Bill Gardner, Made in France, and Objects Lost and Found. Back on W. Alabama, continue on to Thompson and Hansen, The Gray Door, Chateau Domingue, Indulge on Saint Street, and 2620 on Joanel.
More openings and closings:
SPEC’S DRIVE THRU What lurks beneath the new 24,000-sq.-ft. Spec’s Liquor going into the former Linens ’N Things in the Weslayan Plaza Shopping Center, at the corner of Weslayan and Bissonnet? “Sources on site said build-out of the space held a few surprises. For example, work on plumbing led to the discovery of an entire street running beneath the original building, complete with curbs.” [West University Examiner]
“I do always seem to be showing you houses that few of us can really afford,” Houston interior-design blogger Joni Webb admits to her readers:
But the secret truth is, nothing gets me more excited than seeing a house which is NOT expensive yet looks like it was designed by a professional! Nothing is better because it affirms what I fully believe, style is not about money.
So Webb sets out to find a few inside-the-Loop homes dressed to meet her style standards — and priced between $300K and $500K. How long does it take her? Two days, poring through “hundreds, if not thousands” of HAR listings.
What does she find?
WHAT H-E-B GOT THAT KROGER DON’T GOT: WORKING ALL THE ANGLES IN THE WEST U GROCERY SHOWDOWN Reporting live from the Battle of Buffalo Speedway, Allison Wollam scrutinizes the new Buffalo Market arsenal: “’We are based in Texas so we have certain items that we know Texans eat,’ [H-E-B Houston president] McClelland says. ‘We have an inherent advantage because we know how Texans think better than a grocer based …. anywhere else would know.’ For example, McClelland points out that H-E-B carries a brisket that can be fully cooked in 45 minutes that garnered more than $25 million in revenue for the chain last year. The grocer also offers crawfish sushi as well as Texas-shaped cheese and hamburgers.” Plus, why campus might seem a bit tighter this year: “Because parking is also limited, the grocer has reached an agreement with nearby Rice University to allow its employees and vendors to park on the campus parking lot and be shuttled to the store.” [Houston Business Journal; previously on Swamplot]
Fresh from a first visit to the new butterfly-roofed, design-pedigreed H-E-B Market on Buffalo Speedway at Bissonnet — which opened to the public bright and early at 6 o’clock this morning — a reader writes in with a report:
There were uniformed traffic directing cops with loud whistles herding eager shoppers into the parking lot. In the entry way, I was greeted by HEB Buddy, some kind of a brown bag cartoon character. The store was packed and had a carnival-like atmosphere. HEB was well-prepared with quadruple staff greeting and answering questions. The buffalo speedway side seems to be more of the Central Market stuff, like Cafe On the Run, bakery, fish market, etc. And the rest of the store feels more like an HEB with Central Market products integrated throughout. As a regular shopper at Central Market, I think having some cheaper alternatives nearby will save me money.
More photos, plus . . . the downside:
AND JULY IS MEAT CANDY MONTH Its first Houston store (at Main and Kirby) apparently a patty-smashing success, 3 new Smashburgers are now ready to open in a few other strip centers: “First up is a restaurant in the Westchase area at 10705 Westheimer, Suite C, opening on July 15. A second will open July 22 in the Energy Corridor at 1635 Eldridge (Eldridge and Briar Forest). And a third, located at 5520 Buffalo Speedway (Buffalo Speedway and Bissonnet) in the West University area, will open July 29.” [Eating Our Words; previously on Swamplot]
Two new buildings designed by regional architecture stars Lake/Flato Architects will open in Houston in the next couple of months: Rice University’s new swimming-pool and palm-tree festooned Wellness Center . . . and this sleek new H-E-B on Buffalo Speedway and Bissonnet.
Strangely, the San Antonio architecture firm didn’t get the late-nineties memo that specified an Alamo flavored Mission Revival strip and shopping center style for the inner Westpark corridor, and opted instead for a modern-looking hangar with a reflective butterfly roof, lots of glass, and a bunch of eco-features. Plus, fancy foods:
Buffalo Market will feature a Central Market Cafe on the Run, offering gourmet to-go items; a cheese shop with, for example, 54 varieties of bleu cheese; 2,000 varieties of wine; and a sushi and cooking demo station.
Half of the 68,000-square-foot H-E-B store will be devoted to perishables. Typically, supermarkets give perishables about one-third of the store space, [H-E-B and Central Market President Scott] McClelland said. There will be less general merchandise.
Buffalo Market will be similar to the H-E-B/Central Market hybrid in The Woodlands, only it will be an updated version, he said.
A few more photos sent in by a reader:
