Neighborhood

Homes for Sale, Interiors

10 Comments

7818 Bellwood Dr., Bellewood, Houston, 77055

7818-bellwood-02

TheÂ resemblance of the front entryway of 7818 Bellewood Dr. to its angular 2001 visage might only be visible to those who knew the house in its earlier daysÂ — Â before the 15-year-old home was taken down to the studs, then expanded to just over twice its original square footage.Â The stripdown and buildout started after Boutros Construction bought the place and its roomy 0.7-acre lot,Â around the time it was listed for $1.15 million; the new, 6,041-sq.-ft. version is now listed at a smidgen under $2.5 million, and is decked out in slatey blues and greys (with most of the interior not yet committed to paint colors, if the listing shots are still a current indication).

Other than some rounding down of the turret on the right of the entrance, what else has changed? The porch stairs and main mass above the front doorÂ are a little more curvaceous, the widow’s walk has evidently been chopped off the top and sealed up during re-reroofing . . . oh, and there’s that brick chimney stabbed into the front of the new master suite off to the side. A more head-on view of the new lookÂ is provided byÂ a rendering of the house, though a few details have been tweaked since the drawing was done:

Hidden In Plan View

77055, Adaptive Reuse, Bellewood, Home Listings, Homes for Sale, Remodeling, Renovations

03/17/17 1:00pm

Piecemeal 59 Bridge Blackouts Just Part of the Post-Super Bowl Plan

Richwood Place

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Partial Outage of Lighting of Bridges over US-59

Lighting of Bridges over US-59 Just because the crossings over US-59 were broadcasting football team colors in time for the Super Bowl last month doesn’t mean they were totally finished, Sarah Gandy from GandyÂ² Lighting Design tells Swamplot this morning. A number of readers have written in since the game to note bits and pieces of the new lighting going dark (as seen in the top shot), blinking, or appearing to be stuck on mismatched colors on occasion;Â Gandy says that per pre-game plans, there is still some hardware being installed and tuning being done, and that the contractors on the project aren’t scheduled to be totally wrapped up for aÂ few more months.

The forecast for tonight’s display — minus at least 1 bridge which’ll be getting worked on for the evening — is St. Patrick’s Day green; the bridges also spent some of the leadup to Mardi Gras last month enthusiastically flashing passing drivers with traditional bead colors:

Minor Turnoffs

77006, Bridges, Freeways, Lighting, Montrose Management District, Public Art, Richwood Place, US 59

Restaurants, Vermont Commons

03/17/17 11:00am

Hot Bagel Shop Finally Scoots Over into Wiggly-Eyebrowed Strip Next Door

by Katie Schon

5 Comments

Hot Bagel Shop at 2015 S. Shepherd Dr., Vermont Commons, Houston, 77006

Former Hot Bagel Shop on S. Shepherd Dr., Vermont Commons, Houston, 77006 The long predicted southerly shift of The Hot Bagel Shop has come to pass: a banner above the endcap of the wavy new commercial strip at 2015 S. Shepherd Dr. proclaims the spotÂ now open,Â and the old location is all wrapped up in white paperÂ and cardboard. The farÂ corner on the first floor of the new shopping center — purportedly part 1 of 2 — is occupied by Zen Japanese Izakaya, but the other units in the 2-story structure appear to be, as yet, vacant:

Fresh Baked on S. Shepherd

77019, Moving, Openings and Closings, Restaurants, Shepherd Commons, Vermont Commons

Homes for Sale

03/16/17 5:30pm

Houston Home Lisiting Photo of the Day: The Flip

Interiors, Westador

2 Comments

1103 Manatee Ln., Westador, Houston, 77090

1103 Manatee Ln. [HAR]

77090, Foreclosures, Home Listings, Homes for Sale, Wallpaper, Westador

03/16/17 3:30pm

The Kroger on Airline Dr. Is Closing in 5 Weeks

Northline, Openings and Closings

21 Comments

6749 Airline Dr., Northline, Houston, 77076

6749 Airline Dr., Northline, Houston, 77076 The Kroger Market at the not-quite-intersection of Airline Dr., Parker Rd., and Fulton St. in Northline is shutting down next month, an employee at the store tells Swamplot this afternoon (confirming a rumor from a reader in the vicinity). The store’s last day is planned forÂ April 20th, after which it will cede the area to its nearest grocer competitors: the Food Town just over half a mile up Airline, at the intersection with Little York Rd.; the other Food Town a little over a mile further west down Little York; and the not-quite-an-H-E-BÂ Joe V’s Smart Shop on N. ShepherdÂ Dr., just across I-45.

Behind its cube-on-a-spindle signage, the store sits at the northern end of a classic array of strip mall companions (capped to the south by South Texas Dental, whose space and streetside signpost once belonged to a Blockbuster Video); standing alone at the southeast corner of the center sits El Muelle Seafood & Oysters, housed in a former Taco Bell.

Previously on Swamplot: Secretly Preserved Weingarten History Quickly Erased from Side of Weingarten-Owned Heights Kroger; Kroger on OST at Cambridge St. Closing Down For Real on January 24th; Kroger Says It Has â€˜No Plansâ€™ To Close Signature Store on OST; The Kroger on OST at Cambridge St. Is Closing

Photos: James T.

Northline Line Drawn

77076, Grocery Stores, Northline, Openings and Closings, Strip Malls

03/16/17 1:00pm

How Many Townhomes Can Squeeze In Behind La Familia Meat Market on Canal St.?

Second Ward

11 Comments

La Familia Meat Market, 2440 Canal St., Second Ward, Houston, 77003

Variance Request for townhomes at Commerce and Saint Charles, Second Ward, Houston, 77003 The plans submitted to the city along with a variance request being advertised lately along Canal St. show that the developer — an entity which traces back to Frank Liu — is asking for permission to drop below a required 3,500-sq.-ft. minimum lot size on its new property.Â That would allow the company stick about 29 houses on the L of land the documents refer to as Williams on Canal, which wraps around the brightly muraled La Familia Meat Market building and 2 pre-1950’s homes just south of it on St. Charles. The drawings in the request show 64Â townhomes altogether, including the company’s adjacent land on the same block (extending all the way to CommerceÂ St.):

Second Ward Stock

77003, Second Ward, Townhomes, Variance Requests

03/16/17 11:00am

All That’s Left of the Heights Trailer Park Behind Eight Row Flint

Houston Heights

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Former trailer park at W. 11th St. and Allston St.

Trash cans, cinder blocks, and other debris strewn around the southeast corner of W. 11th and Allston streets areÂ what remain of the huddle of 9-or-so trailersÂ that has occupied the lotÂ since at least the mid-1990’s. A set of permits on file with the city for Jozzie’s Mobile Home Park expired at the end of December, and the final exodusÂ looks to have occurred in the last few weeks.Â Have the homes been given a new space to hang out in? And what will take their place, here on the 13,200-sq.-ft lot backed up against Citgo-station-turned-whiskey-bar Eight Row Flint?

Sticks and Stones on Allston St.

77008, Houston Heights, Trailer Parks

Homes for Sale

03/15/17 5:45pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Bottoms Up

Interiors, Montrose

2 Comments

708 W. Gray St., Montrose, Houston, 77019

708 W. Clay St. [HAR]

77019, Bathrooms, Home Listings, Homes for Sale, Montrose, Tubs

Bayous and Waterways

03/15/17 1:45pm

Bayou-Sundered Mason Park Territories To Be United by Victory-Fingered Pedestrian Bridge

Lawndale/Wayside

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Rendering of pedestrian bridge over Brays Bayou at Mason Park

AÂ double-V’dÂ walkin’ and bikin’ bridge like the one shownÂ above will be spanning Brays Bayou before too long,Â the Houston Parks Board says, linking together the sections of Mason Park separated by the waterway. The agency is planning a short mid-morning partyÂ for the planned structure’s construction kickoff next Tuesday, on the southern side of the park (mostly located east of the 75th St. crossing). The whole complex is just downstream of the Gus Wortham Golf Course, for which renovations finally teed off a few weeks ago (trailing much adoÂ a few years back that culminated in the landÂ not getting turned into a botanical garden).

The board says the other, decidedly less suspenseful pedestrian bridge announced earlier this yearÂ should be done in the fall as well;Â that one will will run across Brays alongside the Martin Luther King Blvd. car bridge at the downstream edge ofÂ of MacGregor Park,Â and look kinda like this:

Double Crossing Brays

77023, Bayou Greenways 2020, Bayous and Waterways, Brays-Bayou, Bridges, Lawndale, Parks

Demolitions

03/15/17 11:15am

Mashing, Smashing Begin in Earnest at Buffalo Spdwy. Ex-Exxon Campus

Upper Kirby

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Former Exxon Upstream Facility, 3102-3120 Buffalo Spdwy., Greenway/Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098

Former Exxon Upstream Facility, 3102-3120 Buffalo Spdwy., Greenway/Upper Kirby, Houston, 77098 Permissions started to trickle inÂ earlier this monthÂ for theÂ Â knockoutÂ of various buildingsÂ on theÂ newly former Exxon Upstream research facilityÂ at the corner of Buffalo Spdwy. and W. Alabama St. California-based Spear Street Capital and Transwestern admitted to buying the property last week but stayed mum on plans for the site. A reader took a wandering tour around the edge of the 1950s lab complex yesterday afternoon, noting the parking garage teardown shown above, and the various signs of deliberately accelerated wear-and-tearÂ around the rest of the structures:

Upstream Going Down

77098, Demolitions, ExxonMobil, Upper Kirby

Apartments

03/14/17 5:15pm

Midrise Apartments Set To Sprout from the Rubble at W. Gray and Taft

New Construction, North Montrose

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construction at 299 W. Gray St., North Montrose, Houston, 77019

That empty lot at the southeast corner of Taft and W. Gray streets has been getting itsÂ concrete skin broken up and cleared out lately, a number of readers note, as earlyÂ work for the Alta at West Gray apartment midrise and itsÂ basement parkingÂ gets going. (The particularly dramatic shot above of the Downtown skyline peering overÂ the wreckage was captured during the Friday morning mist by reader MontroseResident, though a few other camerasÂ were on the scene before and after.) Until 2009 the siteÂ housed the Good Neighbor Healthcare Clinic (a conversion of another ex-Weingarten’s grocery, according to the business); Good Neighbor had plans to buildÂ aÂ midrise healthcare and community center on the site, but ended upÂ sellingÂ the land to serial Alta developers Wood Partners early last year. The new plan for the site may look something like this:

Alta Altitude

77019, Apartments, Midrises, New Construction, North Montrose

03/14/17 11:30am

Edge Realty Now Seeking To Fill Bright Orange Box with Neighbors for a Montrose Velvet Taco

Montrose, Restaurants

8 Comments

Shopping Center at Westheimer Rd. at Montrose Blvd., Montrose, Houston, 77006

Swamplot’s elevated tipster with an eye on the Westheimer Rd. scene — just east of the Montrose Blvd. Smoothie King — sends some update shots this morning of the ongoing construction of a planned Ruggles-replacing restaurant-retail combo, half of which looksÂ slated for fill-in byÂ a Velvet Taco branch. The Dallas chain will take over a 1-and-a-half story piece of the center, next to the areas highlighted in orange above; Edge Realty is currently leasing the rest of the space in the center, which will attempt to hide some of its parking from prying sidewalk eyes:

Grill Gone Gray

77006, Leasing, Montrose, New Construction, Proposed Developments, Restaurants, Retail

Homes for Sale

03/13/17 5:45pm

Houston Home Listing Photo of the Day: Secrets of the Powder Room

Interiors, Piney Point Estates

2 Comments

26A Shady Ln., Piney Point Estates, Houston, 77063

26A Shady Ln. [HAR]

77063, Bathrooms, Home Listings, Homes for Sale, Interiors, Mirrors, Piney Point Estates

03/13/17 5:15pm

Torchy’s Raises Taco Banner Over Empty Husk of Westchase Mall Black-Eyed Pea

Westchase

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Torchy's Tacos sign installation at 10953 Westheimer Rd., Westchase, Houston, 77042

Reader and aerialÂ logoÂ photographerÂ Henry Phillips sendsÂ theseÂ recent shots of work crews playing pin-the-signage-on-the-restaurant at the next local locale of Austin import Torchy’s Tacos (which will bring the Houston-area count up to 8, out of the chain’s 11 planned plantingsÂ so far). The latest tacoverÂ is happeningÂ in the Westchase Mall corner slot at the southeast corner of Westheimer Rd. and Wilcrest Dr.Â most recently occupied by another defunct branch of Black-Eyed Pea; the developing restaurant shares aÂ strip center sidewalk withÂ the Whole Foods that was transplanted across Wilcrest intoÂ the deadÂ former Randalls last year.